Sleepless Night

It is 4am and I am having a sleepless night.
Garages
Yesterday was fruitful up to a point and then went off at a tangent.
After sorting out the new transport arrangements for moving machines next week I spoke to the builders working a few doors down about bollarding or blocking the corner into Edgeware Road to ensure the truck can get to me without any hitches.

Then cycled a very pleasant 10 miles to Portishead under the suspension bridge, following the River Avon to Alliance Homes HQ, a North Somerset housing trust, who I am renting two garages from in Long Ashton - good to clear the mind!  New offices, very nice people, efficient and friendly - felt I wanted to work there, especially when the girl arrived for lunch time keep-fit.  All the fit girls went to work-out and the larger ladies went to lunch!  Checked and completed contracts and made arrangements for payment.






Decided to visit a new bar/restaurant in the Portishead Marina for a quick coffee and fuel my return to Bristol.  Pretty successful integration of shipping containers but painfully trendy inside, shabby collections of random junk as little nostalgic stage sets all over the place, obligatory leather sofas on shabby carpets, photos of bygone era brewery business, all set in an industrial aesthetic exposed galvanised trunking and pretty expensive external cast aluminium light fittings.  The small cup of coffee must be the most expensive in Portishead at £2.65, but integrating containers aint cheap and you get get a nice little piece of fudge to take the taste of the copper away.  If I could achieve the standard of concrete floor finish in my ground floor I would be well pleased.


Cycled directly to Long Ashton across the hill to checkout the garages.   Floors a bit oily but otherwise sound and dry, outside secluded, secure and tidy.  GREAT RESULT - I must thank a neighbour who I met collecting freecycle stuff.
I plan to use one for workshop related materials and tools and the other for bulky domestic items, matresses, chairs, tables etc.  At least with this amount of room I can organise access to things and not have to decide between Bristol and Cornwall.  May consolidate later to reduce cost of £11 each per week which is pretty good and flexible for now.

 

Escrow
Got back to base early afternoon, cycled down to Selco builders merchants to check price of polythene and battens for party wall.  Polythene DPM on special offer this month so will load up tomorrow.
Received a draft contract for the Escrow account that the Contractor requires me to pay into as a sort of bond that will offer some security if I decide not to pay an Architects certificate.
I skim through it and find there is no mention of how interest on the account is calculated or paid, and in the event of my insolvency the contents of the account goes to the Contractor! ( we are talking serious money here).  Also if the contract is in conflict with the main JCT construction contract then the Escrow Contract will prevail.  This all sounds very one sided and breaks the accepted principle not to mess or meddle with contracts because of the almost certain effect of unintended consequences arising.
David the Architect is not happy and suggests that we would need a specialist legal adviser to review the Contract Clauses - this all seems to be mushrooming out of control.

I had understood that an Escrow account is held  by a third party, usually a solicitor, while goods pass between two parties.  After the transfer is completed the money is transferred to the Vendor, simple!  I had imagined a very similar arrangement where the Architect's Certificate would trigger payment once certain criteria are met, but the Contractors proposal has a life of its own.  I am beginning to wonder if this has ever been done before or am I the guinea pig, and who briefed the solicitor and was the draft contract checked before it was given to me.

I hope this can be resolved in the morning, I could really do without this hassle at the moment.

Moving
I am flat out on moving plans, last night I dismantled the crosscut saw and reassembled the table saw ready for reducing reclaimed timbers to battens for protecting the party wall. Andy the Construction manager has suggested that they can work off tower scaffolding at 2nd floor to secure the polythene 'flap' above the roof line when exposed during demolition.  This will keep the joints to a minimum and be much cheaper than the originally priced cherry picker.

I have worked out that I will be short of battens for the party wall so need to reclaim some ceiling timbers or buy in battens.

Plan to set up shelving in the garages tomorrow ready to receive boxes during the van hire on Monday/Tuesday, so big push over the weekend to move all large and heavy items down to the loading area ready for loading.

Day Off
As a slight diversion from 'the Project' I will be taking a day off on Thursday/Friday to meet godson from Reading where he has been residing at her majesty's pleasure and drive him to his mothers and her husband near Bedford.  This is a last minute and welcome release for him and a bit of a diversion for me, he is my mentoring project for the forseeable future, something I feel really committed about.
I have been doing a lot of ground work with parents etc. and I hope we can work something out together.

Ouch
I do not plan to post anything much on personal finances and am not complaining here but....... I have been selling some investments and watched the price of a lot of LloydsTSB shares that I no longer own rise by about 30%!!!!!! since Co-op pulled out of the deal to buy branches about 6 weeks ago -  I am glad I am too busy to give it too much thought.  All highlights the fact that timing is impossible to control and I need the money at a specific point in time.  Hey ho.