Life restarts on the house!! On the 2nd, our HVAC firm, Ening, arrive to install the duct work for the ventilation part. This goes in the ceiling, and we will have a false ceiling to hide it. They also install the exhaust duct for the extractor fan in the kitchen island hood. This means drilling through the ceiling above the place where the hood will be and fitting the frame for the duct. While this is still in preparation, James finds that the inner part of the duct is rusty – clearly the galvanization has been faulty. He goes back to the store and swaps it for a non-rusty one. It’s the only Gorenje item of kitchen equipment, everything else is Bosch.
We have a major problem. It seems the designated place for the (large) recuperation unit for the ventilation is in the little room at the front door which we have as a garderobe, the usual place to keep outdoor coats, boots &c. We were never sent drawings showing that this unit will take up about half the space! After long discussion, we have to accept that this is the only place the unit can go. James’ temper is not helped by the engineer commenting that we have a large house and can put the garderobe somewhere else. He just manages to keep his temper!
As the plasterers had bricked up the upper floor rear window to the wrong height for the window – another lack of adequate supervision by Vasko – James spends a couple of hours removing one course of bricks. VH Montenegro’s people also arrive to look at the air-tightness tape problem so that they can recommend a solution.
In the middle of the month, we have a long-overdue meeting with Vasko. The air is cleared and we agree to go ahead on the items needed to make the house habitable. With luck we should be in by Christmas (hopefully Western, not Eastern!). James tries asking for a proper revised Bill of Quantities but do not get it, just a summary of costs against each main area. He finds he has to send Vasko information about what Vasko’s charges, which Vasko then puts comments on. At a meeting at the end of the month, we agree on the costs, which James assumes are based on the original Bill of Quantities.
At the end of the month, we get a surveyor to do an exact set of measurements of the house, garage &c, so that the Cadastre (official register of property) can be updated.