Okna narescie! - The windows at last!
The windows arrived at last....or at least some of them! It never ceases to amaze me how patient Polish people are! It is ingrained into society that you have to be patient and wait for everything. I'm just beginning to learn this, as I have never had to complete so many forms, get them stamped, take them from one place to another, stand in queues and in general spend so much time over paperwork! This, I know, is a relic from the past...and there are others which I'll not mention at this point in time.
In this instance I made a contract with a firm to supply my windows by a given date. By doing this, I could arrange the other tradesmen so that the work would be ongoing.....or so I thought! To help myself, I thought, I'll pay for the windows in advance and get a discount. BAD IDEA! As I've now learnt, you don't pay for anything here until you get it!
I got a telephone call saying that they would have difficulty in getting the windows to me on time as they were BUSY! I pointed out that it was NOT my problem that they were busy...but theirs and that I had other professions waiting to get in to start their work. The result was that I obtained all my downstairs windows in a few days. The big BUT however, were the windows upstairs....they were difficult to make, something went wrong when they were making the rounded part of the window and they would be two weeks later. Not really good enough!!
When the fitters arrived they made a super job of fitting the downstairs windows.They also had the patience of angels as the windows delivered in the first place were for the wrong house and they had to wait two and a half hours before the correct windows arrived. Not fair on them as they were paid by the job and not the hours they had to spend...and it was a SATURDAY!
The upstairs windows were eventually delivered as promised after a four hour wait and fitted to the same high standard.
Here I would like to make a comment about the labour force I have experienced to date....it is super, A1, of the highest order....so far!! I have been blessed in having, honest, hard-working tradesmen who have done a job to the best of their ability. I know it is still early days...but believe me this is not the case in Great Britain in many cases, in my experience, and Polish workers have a great reputation mainly.
I'm happy with the triple glazing at the moment..the way it looks and how it has been fitted..I'll see how well it performs in years to come.