Quote: billwill @ 1st October 2014, 12:34 AM BST

Self employed people often take AGES to get around to sending you an invoice. By their very nature, most hate paperwork. So they will sometimes wait until they have a whole bunch to do, then do them all in one go.

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Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 7:18 AM BST

Like he said - the bill will come.

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Thank you for the advice. It is wanting to get the right balance between assuring them that they will be paid and not making them feel like they are being ordered around. I will now probably give it two or three more days before, if necessary, leaving a gentle reminder on their voice mail. Hopefully it will arrive sooner.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 7:18 AM BST

Like he said - the billwill come.

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Quote: A Horseradish @ 1st October 2014, 12:09 PM BST

Thank you for the advice. It is wanting to get the right balance between assuring them that they will be paid and not making them feel like they are being ordered around. I will now probably give it two or three more days before, if necessary, leaving a gentle reminder on their voice mail. Hopefully it will arrive sooner.

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Clearly too subtle I did think about leaving them linked or making them bold.................

So now done both.

I wish I could click my fingers and have my house sorted already. I seem to be in this building site environment forever. I've yet to start painting because of one thing or another.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 12:36 PM BST

Clearly too subtle I did think about leaving them linked or making them bold.................

So now done both.

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It was very good.

Sorry to have been slow but it's the first half of the day and I've already done Morrisons. They played "Walk Like an Egyptian", "Have I Told You Lately" and "Penny Lane". In fact, I've got the full list here and I'm going through it now with a fine tooth comb. I guess sooner or later, I'll have to go back there to buy something.

Quote: Lee @ 1st October 2014, 12:38 PM BST

I wish I could click my fingers and have my house sorted already. I seem to be in this building site environment forever. I've yet to start painting because of one thing or another.

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Tell me about it. I've got things stacked up everywhere. It's like living in a permanent boot sale.

Both of you! (Lee - Horse) Do one job or one room at a time - don't, as I have seen on'telly, have loads of unfinished jobs 'cos then nothing gets done because it depresses you and you cannot be bothered to restart.

I know - I have been there.........

And remember banjo.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 1:50 PM BST

ban jo.

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That wouldn't suit me at all.

I'd end up comatose.

Rang the electrician to say I hadn't received his invoice. When would it be permissible to pay him? He said he was quite busy but would try to deliver it in the next few days. Hopefully that would be helpful to me.

Don't panic! Dear oh dear - do you want to pay me? Would that make you feel better?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 6th October 2014, 5:20 PM BST

Don't panic! Dear oh dear - do you want to pay me? Would that make you feel better?

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That would mean going into my bit on the side.

75% of that is to be allocated to family, friends and charitable causes.

25% is to be thrown down a drain outside Parliament on my final day.

I am hoping the latter will be televised.

Quote: A Horseradish @ 6th October 2014, 5:18 PM BST

Rang the electrician to say I hadn't received his invoice. When would it be permissible to pay him? He said he was quite busy but would try to deliver it in the next few days. Hopefully that would be helpful to me.

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'told ya !

Self employed hate the paperwork.

Married self employed people usually get The Wife to do the paperwork.

Quote: billwill @ 6th October 2014, 6:33 PM BST

'told ya !

Self employed hate the paperwork.

Married self employed people usually get The Wife to do the paperwork.

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You were spot on. He sounded a bit awkward about it but then he's from a generation which might see such concerns as rather weird. In contrast, those from the one before mine would probably pay early on principle even if their house had been set on fire. I like to feel I am from the era where what we do is precisely right.

"My" one man biz jobbing builder/plumber/gas engineer who I have dealt with for over 10 years now (I don't tackle gas, as I said before) has taken literally months to send me a bill, which didn't help me when my wife and I used him for jobs on our guest house, as I too had accounts to get up to date. I had to push and push him for bills - crazy!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 6th October 2014, 6:52 PM BST

"My" one man biz jobbing builder/plumber/gas engineer who I have dealt with for over 10 years now (I don't tackle gas, as I said before) has taken literally months to send me a bill, which didn't help me when my wife and I used him for jobs on our guest house, as I too had accounts to get up to date. I had to push and push him for bills - crazy!

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You have a guest house?

Wow.

I am leaving East Anglia until when I am older. The walks are flatter there and I have a lot more hills to tick. My aim, though, is to do a sort of Beowulf trail even though I've never read Beowulf. I like the idea of it.

Anyhow, I've had a leaflet delivered by an all-rounder. It is light on detail and the biggest words by far on it as a selling point are "Polish Builder". Without getting too much into the Polish aspects of it, should I be considering it for decorating or be wary? I'm thinking it might be cheap. That's why it is a possible option.

I should have said did have a guest house - we got out of it three years ago now. Big one though - 11 bedrooms with living acc. for my wife and I and two grown up children. A late Victorian pile in "millionaires row" - now sold to a very rich dentist as a private dwelling.

Polish builders etc. - seen good reports of them, but you are going to get cowboys no matter what nationality. Sorry cannot be of more help there, what you need is a recommendation - anyone local you can ask?

If not - have a go, it's only painting!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 7th October 2014, 7:17 AM BST

I should have said did have a guest house - we got out of it three years ago now. Big one though - 11 bedrooms with living acc. for my wife and I and two grown up children. A late Victorian pile in "millionaires row" - now sold to a very rich dentist as a private dwelling.

Polish builders etc. - seen good reports of them, but you are going to get cowboys no matter what nationality. Sorry cannot be of more help there, what you need is a recommendation - anyone local you can ask?

If not - have a go, it's only painting!

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Well, it isn't an "only", no. It's decorating dyslexia. I would find the challenge of reciting a monologue in Swahili by the end of the month much easier. Or even writing some sort of question for Only Connect.

I don't know if you do the ceiling, walls or skirting board first. I don't know if the sandpaper is supposed to bring the latter down to bare wood. I don't know how to remove the paper so that bits aren't permanently stuck there. I don't know what to do with any chips in the walls, what to use for filler or how long to leave the filler to set. I don't know how to spread out the new anaglypta or whatever in limited space so that it doesn't end up creased and crumpled. I don't know how anyone, frankly, hangs it neatly on any wall. And I don't know if it needs to be painted in the unlikely event that there is any success at it sticking to the wall.

Ours was never a posh family. Both my grandfathers couldn't boil an egg for themselves, let alone stand on a ladder. They left all the heavy lifting to the older women. If anything, I am the most practical male in that food chain but that doesn't mean I'm ever likely to evolve into a 21st Century Laurence Llewelyn Bowen.