Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Do you hate workmen in your home or is it just me?

35 replies

Jojo23456 · 09/12/2017 09:12

So I have the Hilary's blind man in today fitting some blinds in my house.
I feel so self conscious ..I know I will feel this way till he's gone.
Does anyone else get this way?
Or am I just weird?

OP posts:

Derekmorganwasinmybed · 09/12/2017 09:13

Me I hate it,nobody can understand why

goldenclaire · 09/12/2017 09:13

Yeah I find it uncomfortable too. Get help but feel they are also prying and judging your home. They are probably not, but i can't help but feel it.

MrsZB · 09/12/2017 09:15

I don't love it but I think I am more used to it now. I offer them coffee etc and have a little chat and then just leave them to it.

flowery · 09/12/2017 09:15

You are not alone. I’ve had workmen in every day since the beginning of September and I love weekends when they’re not here!

As workmen go they are lovely- polite, tidy, no problems. But they’re just there all the time, in my house!

Original poster

Jojo23456 · 09/12/2017 09:15

I'm sat in the living room dreading when he has to come in here.
I never know if I should watch or just sit..turn tv on or not cause any noise.
So I'm sat with my snowman mug drinking a cuppa praying he's gone by 11

OP posts:

GreyMorning · 09/12/2017 09:18

Yes! What's worse is that I know them all through work, happy to chat to them if they pop in for a cup of tea. No idea how to behave when they're working here!

goldenclaire · 09/12/2017 09:20

Can you hide in the bedroom and ask him to call up to you before he leaves? If so, leave a cup of tea for him and some biscuits and let him get on with it.

Fiona1984 · 09/12/2017 09:21

I do feel a bit awkward, not like I'm being judged (house is like a building site anyway).
We had someone round yesterday but he just has a key and lets himself in while we're at work and we leave him cash out. Friend of a friend so we trust him, and he's done a brilliant job again :)
Would the ladies on here feel more comfortable with a work-woman? A friend's daughter is very hands on, and I wondered if this could be a good selling point?

Flumplet · 09/12/2017 09:21

Yes hate it!! We have a plasterer here and I’m holed up in the sitting room letting DH deal with it!! I feel like a prisoner in my own home!!

MiniTheMinx · 09/12/2017 09:21

It's never bothered me, I just carry on with whatever I'm doing. Avoid getting in the way, offer coffee and chat if it's not preventing them from working. I'm usually glad to close the door on them, but glad the jobs jobbed and it's not something I've had to do.

abitoflight · 09/12/2017 09:32

Had 3 most of this week - 2 on the roof and one decorator in kitchen
I loathe it
When I’m in, I like to whizz round house in pyjamas, hair not brushed etc and sort washing, strip beds, pile up stuff to put away, charity piles, filing and so on so house usually in a total mess during clearing up process so don’t feel I can do this with workmen there - also it’s not safe to have little piles of stuff they could trip on near stairs on landings etc
I may get dressed and go shopping/walking dog in middle of this then carry on when I’m back
Feel the need to make myself presentable to open door
Couldn’t properly cook all week
Erghh

araiwa · 09/12/2017 10:05

i dont give a toss

theyre there to do their job, that i asked them to do

Frustrationqueen · 09/12/2017 10:10

At one point i had loads of workmen in doing a massive job. I felt invaded and exposed. It was safer for me to leave them to it and ever since then i have hated workmen being in my home.
I am on edge from the moment it is arranged until it is over

Mustang27 · 09/12/2017 10:11

I find it exhausting but I'm socially inept

Original poster

Jojo23456 · 09/12/2017 10:21

I'm very socially awkward ...which doesn't help.
He finished the blinds and I said ..wow do you always finish so fast?

OP posts:

Frustrationqueen · 09/12/2017 10:22

Thats something i would do. Then id probably laugh because my dirty mind would kick in

Dont worry about it. Its over now

BulletFox · 09/12/2017 10:27

Haha that reminded me of my best friend. He HATES having anyone round.

He sent me a grumpy text once about workmen and I knew instantly it was meant for his wife and not me as he never moans to me, I think he thinks his duty is to tolerate my nonsense.

Yeah it is a nightmare, I have to move in half hour, 3 people arriving to sort out chaos, BEAT THAT

SukiTheDog · 09/12/2017 10:33

I hate it too! In the summer, we had the whole place decorated. It was a father and son team and they were like the Chuckle Brothers. It took forever. DH though I was being unreasonable but it’s not a big house and we were falling over each other the whole time. I look after my disabled DS who was totally freaked out by strangers in his home. Me too!

I think the worst bit was, ever time we passed each other, it was like someone had to say something. They were here two weeks, 8am TIL 4pm. Arrgghh!

thecatsthecats · 09/12/2017 10:35

Same here. Just arranged for the first workman on our new home, and tbh I chose the guy who made me feel comfortable and was nice to my cats more than anything. The other guy kept criticising work done by previous owners in a really annoying way - I know it's stupid not to have an extractor fan in the bathroom FFS, you're here to look at the bloody plastering, stick to the point!

StaplesCorner · 09/12/2017 10:37

I've had builders here for month they are over a week behind schedule. They have been working in 3 areas including both bathrooms, so we've been going 2 or 3 days a week without showers, and they took all the handles off all the doors, glossed all the doors, several times, so we can't shut the doors. Despite this they wander round the house whenever they feel like it (they are working in all areas so have an "excuse) although I have teenage girls and one was ill in bed for a week, they still worked outside her open door, she ended up having to wedge a chair up against it so she had some privacy inside. DH has to stand outside the door whilst anyone goes to the toilet but at one point they were working on both at once so we could only use them before 8am and in the evening (we both work from home).

They never finished one room before moving on to the next. Every surface is covered in dust, floors are covered in grit where we are walking brick dust in from one bedroom to the next, we can't put the decorations up, I have a bad cold, the dog has diahorrea (been eating filler which they leave everywhere) I could go on.

Yes I FUCKING HATE workmen in the house!!!

SleepFreeZone · 09/12/2017 10:39

It's been three weeks now of constant work on the kitchen. People coming and going, asking questions, trapping through the house to use the toilet. I am totally sick of it now and want them all to fuck off.

Mustang27 · 09/12/2017 10:43

@Jojo23456 haha that's exactly something I would have said then I would have wanted to die.

My neighbour has 2 kids both born in the same month a couple of years apart and I said "oh is it an anniversary or something 9 months before" the wife's look would have killed, the hubby couldn't stop laughing iv yet to be able to look them in the eye again since

SukiTheDog · 09/12/2017 10:56

Sleep 😁. Last year we had out garage made into a kitchen. Walls knocked down, old kitchen became a utility. There were days I wanted to throw myself into their cement mixer and end it all. They were lovely chaps but two or three at the same time, all mooching about (working hard, I mean!) and it was a nightmare. Dont talk to me about the five electronics trooping through, scratching their heads and wondering why the ceiling lights kept going off 😡

SukiTheDog · 09/12/2017 10:58

WTF is wrong with my autocorrect this morning? Apologies to you all.

DenPerry · 09/12/2017 11:02

We had new cladding once on a tiny flat and I felt I couldn't escape, there were 4 there at a time. The mess was hard to deal with too. But I really don't mind people coming to do smaller jobs for no more than a few hours, I like chatting to them if they're chatty people!

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread