Damn it

I hate tilers. I know, I know, hate is an awfully strong word to use, but it begins to sum up the mixture of fury and disappointment I'm feeling right now.

After delaying by two weeks, the tiler finally made it to my flat today. I know this because I got a call from him telling me that he'd turned up at my flat today. The brief moment of joy I derived from this was almost immediately tempered, however, when he followed up the news of his arrival by telling me that my tiles are completely unsuitable. Just to recap a little, these are the tiles I showed the tiler before ordering. Unfortunately it seems we got our wires crossed. My recollection is that he told me the tiles were too large for the floor. That was fine - I ordered smaller tiles for the floor to compensate. Unfortunately, the tiler now says that the tiles were so unsuitable for the wall that it never occurred to him to mention that small, salient fact to me. He just assumed I knew. I rather desperately wish he had thought to bring it up, because these beautiful, expensive tiles of which I'm so fond are also non-returnable. Did I mention that they were expensive?

Not the first time since this all began, I could weep.

I'm still trying to arrange a second opinion, though the fact that the tiler was adamant about their unsuitability to the point that he said he'd rather walk away than try to apply them doesn't give me much hope. I've also launched an appeal with the tile shop, saying that I'd be perfectly will to pay a restocking fee, as well as buying any replacement tiles from them as well. I'm not expecting this to yield any results in my favour either (such would actually require good fortune, a quality in which I've been notably lacking of late), though I should find out on Monday when the store manager, who's the only person able to make such a decision, returns.

I'd actually been entertaining thoughts of moving into my flat next weekend. How foolish was that? Goodness only knows when it will be ready by now. I don't even know whether I'll be able to afford new tiles, let alone when I'll be able to get a tiler to fit them.

I'm really not very happy right now.