Snowing on my parade

It's been an interesting week, with some of the old emotional highs and lows I remember from our party wall dispute last year. I didn't put any of that down on the blog at the time in case it was used against us in court or something, but believe me, it caused me sleepless nights in our eyrie propped up on scaffolding when one of our (remaining strictly nameless) neighbours threatened to get the work stopped.

Anyway I got back from dropping my son off at school last Thursday and innocently picked the post off the mat to find a horrible snooty letter from our builder's liquidators demanding we pay them £3k plus vat within 21 days or they would be taking legal action. They wrote to us in similar terms last year but I thought our architect had seen them off, pointing out that as the builder had gone bust our contract ( and therefore the £3k defects retention) no longer applied. I wouldn't mind, but we still have a massive crack in the glass roof and a number of other minor but irritating faults that need fixing.

I think it's OK now. A few panicked emails later and our trusty architect stepped in again and very efficiently re-sent them her original letter with a politely coded but pretty firm message to xxxx off. I could do without receiving any more of that sort of letter when I get back from the school run - I am 38 in March and getting a bit elderly for that sort of shock. Also I'm just not very good at dealing with property-related strife. I very unsuccessfully rented out a flat for a year back in the 90s ( I couldn't sell at the time and really needed to move) and my heart used to plummet to my boots every time the phone rang with more tales of complaining neighbours, defaulting tenants, flooded bathrooms and broken boilers. Aggh. Even hearing the ringtone I had at the time brings me out in a rash....!

And calm..

On the other hand, the kids have loved the snow. I'd love to say Anna made her snowman all by herself but I have to confess the parental hand was heavily involved - no wonder she looks so surprised!

Hope you've all been enjoying it too ( although after 2 days of mine and several neighbours' kids careering through the house I was mighty relieved when the schools went back today!)