Does anyone else just hate having workmen in the house?

In the minority here, I love to have a chat with them! Generally have some interesting conversations and unless they are on the quiet side most of them love a bit of company 😊

silvercollie

Well, having looked through most of these posts all I can add is this.
Putting up with work people is not the end of the world! And are you not you all lucky to be able to afford all these additional THINGS!
In fact I find this whole Post altogether too materialistic.
Give me the natural countryside any day.

I agree. This is the most ‘Hyacinth Bucket’ set of comments I’ve read yet. Full of ‘insist’ and ‘loathe’ and so on. Why not consider your good fortune in being able to have work done? Like a couple of others above, I pity the workmen.

Until now we have always done our own decorating. However there comes a point when you no longer can and we have now reached that point. So that’s not particularly lucky, but of course we are lucky to be able to pay to have it done. Some people on here may have been saving for years to have work done - don’t just assume that everyone having work done has deep pockets.
The ‘natural countryside’ comment is a bit odd - should we all be living in tree houses?

silvercollie

Well, having looked through most of these posts all I can add is this.
Putting up with work people is not the end of the world! And are you not you all lucky to be able to afford all these additional THINGS!
In fact I find this whole Post altogether too materialistic.
Give me the natural countryside any day.

Gracious. Materialism is subjective.

Indeed we've worked hard to afford home revisions in our late 70s, we're really a bit old to do the high places any longer.

However, we do intend to do massive work on our country garden in preparation to our widow daughter's wedding. She's nearing 60, needs nothing. A wonderfully accomplished summer garden party it is.

How lovely, Norah.

I really dread it, find having my daughter around or a friend
Helps a lot otherwise I can’t relax and feel very relieved when it all over !!

Hate it. Even when they are quiet and unobtrusive. Think maybe we get more territorial as we age.

Can't you sit in a living room/kitchen with the door shut for some of the day. Utilities will probably off now and again, suggest you make a flask of whatever you drink or soup for a lunch. The workers will be occupied and hardly notice you. Some trips out will break monotony.

Yes. I hate them knowing what I’m doing all day, I can’t do much at the moment apart from watch daytime TV or read social media. And I loathe it when they have the radio on really loudly, and make the house cold by leaving the door open when they go in and out to get stuff from their van. I suppose I lijj K E my privacy, and I don’t like it being disrupted.

That should be ‘I suppose I like my privacy’. Dang spellcheck!

Someone I know who lives alone now that her ACs have fledged, she's forever having alterations to her house. I suspect she's lonely and enjoys having the men around.
And I have never minded workmen in the house - mind you it was rare as my late DH always did everything, with me as mate, even in this our retirement home.

silvercollie Virtue signalling is not an attractive personality trait.

Can we assume you never get your central heating serviced or plumbing repaired when it leaks? How very dangerous and environmentally damaging with all that wasted water.

I don’t mind, I usually go out for a short while and then when I come back go to a room where they are not working, shut the door and read a book. If it’s the sitting room they are in then I just go up to my bedroom and read there. Don’t find it a problem.

Unless it’s someone unfamiliar, I always leave them and go to work.
On the few occasions I’ve stayed home, I seem to have people who want to talk all day, my whole downstairs is pretty much open plan, and there’s no getting away.

Over the last few years between having an extension built and then all the necessary landscaping that, I reckon we have had one or more builders in and a round the house and garden for about 9 months off and on. Delightful people, every single one.

I chat with most of them for 5 minutes or so every day and I have had some really interesting conversations.

At the end of the day, they are people just like us, so that is how I respond to them. Mostly we sit in the study while they get on with whatever they are meant to be doing and they come and knock on the study door if anything needs to discussed or accessed that needs our presence.

If we have to go out, we go out and on occasion (like after DH's heart attack), I leave instructions how to lock up when they go, which they have always done unfailingly correctly.

Treat workmen as your equals, not people from outer space sent to frighten you and all should be well.

I hate having people int o do jobs. Like you I leave my OH to supervise and stay in a room out of the way with a book.

M0nica

silvercollie Virtue signalling is not an attractive personality trait.

Can we assume you never get your central heating serviced or plumbing repaired when it leaks? How very dangerous and environmentally damaging with all that wasted water.

And cut your own hair, and make your own clothes? Do you farm your own food, too? Or do you pay to have others do those things for you, silvercollie? Lucky you.

I don't think that people are showing off on this thread - not at all. It's about having other people in your space, not about your two story extension and fourth bathroom.

Things need doing, it’s not all about getting more ‘things’
Our home has been a bit neglected over the last few years, mainly because we’ve had young children living here, and there didn’t seem much point.
So now, just to bring things back, we’re going to face a lot of decorating
A building project which we put off will start in spring, it’s something that really needs doing, none of these are vanity projects.

Anyway, if you have the money, why shouldn't you spend it on improving your home.

If we didn't, we wouldn't have proper kitchens. indoor plumbing, central heating, electric lighting. insulation etc etc.