A recommendation that's probably of no use to you.

Ah, builders. You ask them to do something very simple, such as turn up or do some work, and they do something else, such as go to the pub or have a cup of tea, and then they charge you extra because the work is taking so much longer than it would if they were actually doing it. Usually.

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, we've had the builders in of late, and they've not been like that at all. I called them two weeks ago tonight, they turned up the following afternoon, and they have removed a wall, put in a beam (because it was a supporting wall), bricked up a doorway, removed and bricked up a fireplace, fitted a door, replaced a large ceiling, insulated the roof, put in an access hatch to the attic, removed some disgusting old built-in cupboards and repaired the wall where they were attached, patched up a hole in the outside wall, and — get this — hoovered up quite a bit of the dust they created. They pretty much finished on Friday, just coming back yesterday to make good a couple of little things that weren't quite right. They stuck to the quote, and charged very little for the various extra bits I kept thinking of. They were quick. And their plasterer may well be the greatest plasterer in the world. We keep stroking the walls just to check that something really can be that smooth.

They're called BWP Contracts. So, if you've googled their name as you ponder whether to hire them, now you know. And if you're looking for a builder in the Belfast area, look them up.

On the other hand, if you live in London or Chicago, this blog is really going downhill.