Does anyone else just hate having workmen in the house?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 !!

How lovely, Norah.

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.

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.

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.

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 😊

I absolutely dread it .

I'm hoping to find a suitable guy to do a growing list of jobs which need to be done .

If they aren't complaining about the last person , who installed something it's their illnesses and marital problems !

over the years have of course coped with a variety of situations including living abroad and having to be able to translate what I want doing etc and coping with the endless promises of arrival times that were not met, both here and abroad. My best occasions have been when in my last house I had a little place in the garden. So I was able to do both. Be there to see what is happening and making sure that they were doing what I wanted. Available for queries, I treat everyone I hope with courtesy and how I would like to be treated, so my way is to usually make some gingerbread, leave out coffee, tea, milk sugar and biscuits, and invite them to help themselves whenever it suits them , on the condition that they please wash up after themselves and leave it tidy. Before they arrive I will have taken emergency rations to my garden hut, so the radio, china mugs, magazines writing stuff secateurs etc etc. I get them started and then disappear down the garden to regain my composure and the secateurs are great to use when you feel angry about stuff you can do little about. I make sorties to see how they are getting on every so often and return to radio 3 and the secateurs . I count the days until they will finish. Once they have gone I award myself a day off and go out and see a garden or whatever . Then the following day I reclaim my home and get it back to how I want it to be. Of course I am pleased about whatever work has been done but of course swear that is the last time - until the next time!! Of course it saves a lot of money!!!! Whenever you think there is something else that needs doing you remember the last hassle and only go ahead if it vital. I will always be divided by the wish to be in control and the wish to go away until it is all done. My day out sort of allows me to make that break and allow me to calm down and then become queen of all I survey again. You may be sure I have absolutely no interest in all these buying and redoing houses programmes, cant imagine anything worse. It could be added to the levels of hell in Dante's Inferno left to me. One more thing that I try to do. If a friend is undergoing this horror, I try to arrive with something to cheer, so maybe a cake or arrive with a chinese or fish and chips to be a picnic lunch. sometimes to be eaten in her garden or whatever or capture her for an hour away from the chaos and have all the picnic things in the car and we can go somewhere nearby with a calming view. Her telephone is allowed so that she feels that if there is some emergency they can ring her. that allows her to relax as much as she is able to . It is good to feel that we are in the same boat! If I won the lottery I still would not like people sorting it out without me doing the choosing and ordering, so no way out for me - dont see that happening soon- good luck to us all in surviving. We must raise a glass to ourselves (once the wretched job is over)

My husband is a tradesman, often has clients ‘hovering/helping’, tongue has to be bitten sometimes.

My late partner was the same he used to talk to them all the time and even used to help them out if they needed it. I would keep out of the way as it made the job twice as long

We’re having an extension built so know how you feel ! We’ve set our builders up their own tea station with biscuits etc so they can help themselves …

I loathe workmen in my home no matter how clean or organised they are! I cannot wait for them to finish a job as I find them intrusive even if I know them from previous jobs! My other half tends to leave it all to me as he is fairly deaf so abdicates responsibility ! Drives me mad!!!