A long period of nothing, yet again. Well, almost nothing. Vasko sparks briefly into action on Wed 12 June when a machine arrives for the plastering of the internal walls. There follows about 10 days of a team of 3 Bosnians firing plaster at the walls, after covering up the windows and doors with polythene sheets. Their efforts are completely spoilt as far as I am concerned by their gross stupidity in removing the air-tightness tape carefully installed by the window suppliers. I had ordered this especially to enhance air-tightness which is a critical factor in Passive House construction. They had done so seemingly because the plaster doesn’t stick to it!. No thought of consultation or discussion, simply rip it out! Vasko is equally dismayed as he had told them not to remove it, and promises to reinstate the tape at his cost – we will have to keep him to this.
The Bosnians maintain their reputation by carefully building the wall for the window on the first floor (kept open to give access for the plaster machine) 4 bricks high not the three actually needed for the window to fit. Again Vasko’s problem, as he failed to supervise them adequately.
I am increasingly frustrated by Vasko’s refusal to give me prices for the work needed to complete the house to the stage where we can actually move in. I had originally asked him in early April, and despite some promises, have still received nothing to date. There is also the on-going matter of extra costs which Vasko invoiced in April not having told us about beforehand. We have been in protracted negotiations about extra funding, which we started before Vasko’s extra invoice threw a considerable spanner into my calculations. Funding talks continue seemingly without any defined end-date, then in the last part of August things move more rapidly.
There can be no external building work in the holiday season anyway – Kotor has a moratorium from mid July to mid-September. This is so that holiday makers are not disturbed by building traffic or noise. That discos and weddings make far more disruptive noise than builders is apparently not an issue for legislation.