We have to acknowledge your instructions for making good where dry rot has appeared, and will do our best to complete same before the end of next week, as requested.
Yours faithfully,
Grigblay has no intention of committing himself in any way, it will be noticed. Spinlove will realize how much support and guidance he has had in the past, now that he can get neither.
BLOGGS ON EXTRAS
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 30.8.26.
As promised you by Mr. Grigblay, we have referred to our foreman Bloggs for explanations of certain extras under “Various minor works” and other matters queried by you, and enclose sheets with his answers to same which we hope will give the information you want.
Yours faithfully,
(ENCLOSURE) GRIGBLAY TO MR. F. BLOGGS
C/O JOHN GRIGBLAY, BUILDER, BY PORTENWALSH MEAD, BAGGERFOSS, HUNTS
Dear Fred, 7.8.26.
The architect queries extras as attached sheets. The governor wants your answers in blank spaces. No doubt you have your diary along. Enclosed is copy of Statement lettered so you can pick up easy. The jim crow was put on passenger last night. The governor says if you can’t manage take along to Potters, Nottington, who will straighten while lorry waits. To be charged up against Ry.
Yours,
T. P.
Hear with OK. F. Bloggs, Aug. 28th.
This letter must have been sent to Spinlove pinned to the other papers, by an oversight. It shows Grigblay’s business to be conducted in the old-fashioned style that still lingers, with the best intentions of the building crafts, in the provinces, where son follows father to the bench or the scaffold, and the master calls his men by their Christian names, knows the domestic circumstances of each, and distributes joints and poultry among them at Christmas There may be somewhere in this world happier men than these, associated in more delightful work, but it is a hard thing to imagine. The tail of the letter indicates that Bloggs is in difficulties with a steel joist delivered bent from the railway.
Bloggs, it will be noted, is businesslike. He answers the letter concisely and dates his signature. The attached sheets proclaim a most studious devotion on his part, handicapped by a very gritty pencil and by India-rubber deeply involved with butter. The papers are greatly fatigued at the folds, and Bloggs has evidently lost the saucer of his teacup, but—with the help of stamp-edging—they survive, and Bloggs, as he might be trusted to do, has done the job, although it has taken him three weeks to finish it.
HONEYWOOD
The Architect queries the following. The letters in margin refer to Statement items.
A. EXTRA IN FOUNDATIONS, ETC.? ARCHITECT SAYS HE NEVER ORDERED ANY.
Sep. 20th. 24. Architect bring along drawings of terrace, put out acause she wants steps moved further up kitchen end. It were the day her little nurse dog made to bite him so he will know it. First I must lower bench of terrace he says; then after I peg out that wont suit, so then it was three steps he ordered 4ud that wont do neither, it got to be two he says, wich where 9 5/8 and brought bench down to 7’ or thereabouts above top, of footings, and no harm as I could see, but I must put foundation down four courses along front and jump up with extra stepping on return he says. I put Rumbler on it and after dinner found he ‘‘Add got mixt and rekoned four courses has 13 1/4 instead of 11 1/8 gauge we was on, but architect passed all on 13tht see dairy hearwith for measurs has per weekly return.
Bloggs’s identification of Lady Brash with “she,” after an interval of six months, is eloquent of the place the lady had won for herself in his regard.
Oct. 13tht. Archtect come on to pass trenches, dont like bit of slop down drawing room end IS). He drop his pipe and I send Joe Perks for a bit of waist I add in the window of MY office, so he will know all about it. He wont have me to scrape up but I must dig out 4” to satisfy, and I level up with concrete to save jumping footings has he agreed to measure I give (see dairy) and marked with the toe of my boot for architects approval the oner see me do it and can say.
Nov 11tht. Syd broke his hand, architect was there so will know he ordered me to lower excavation for cellar floor one course, reason acause headroom to thight at door under stairs reason of lowering ground floor 1 ½.”
Nov. 23tht. I had bench pegs set for screed of cellar floor and he came on afternoon latish about Hoochkofs facings and left a letter on my table I sent after. He dont like top course of footings standing above screed acause of bottom being dug 3” lower, and I must knock off to level. I says suppose inspector see what were at dam Mr. Potch he says, but after he left he came back and I haerd him shouting wehn I was in my office and put my head out to see who was and he had come back to gate and called I was to put floor back as it was and headroom were good enough, so there was that bit extra digging and hard core to level up again after, as per my weekly and see dairy.
As the due offset of footings is defined in the bye-laws, the local surveyor would object if he found a course being cut away.
B. EAVES SPROCKETS AND TILT To RIDGE? ARCHITECT remembers GIVING DIRECTIONS BUT SAYS NO EXTRA.
June 6tht 1925. Architect come on roof an add me to fake a bit of eaves has per No. 41 but that dont suit, must be bigger projectn. and tilt. Well gage wehre 3 1/2” so he says better make it one course, so I botched it to get what he wanted but the rafter feet was all lined and cut and no tilts would carry over that far, and what finish would he have an so I says it mean cutting back feet and fix sprockets to make a job; and he says yes do it and make a job so I done it D.W. as per weekly and all stuff cut out in shop which proves it see dairy.
14 Juy tht. Tilers add left. Architect says must put more tilt to gable ends of ridges. It come on raining pretty-sharp and he tore is mac standing in the door of my office wehre staple was jagged after I had to burst the door along of the boy losing the key, so he will remember. I say all I can, but it got to be done to satisfy and a nice job pulling off the ridges and all that fancy filling on face and breaking of the verges with there double undercloaks an pointing and filleting in cement, it could not only be a botch but he would have it and pleased when it were done he told me Jan 3 tht.
As the verges of the roof, where the tiling ends at gables, are slightly tilted so as to throw the water back on to the roof and prevent its being blown to run down face of gables, it is natural that the end ridge tile at gables should be given a corresponding tilt. This tilt at the end of ridge is conspicuous, and is exaggerated in the designs of some architects apparently because an upward curve of the ridge to apex of gable—the result of settlement of the roof timbers—is often seen in old houses, and has the deadly sentiment of the “dear old.” The same exaggerated effect is given by artists who make drawings of houses for Christmas cards and kindred destinies. Spinlove had various fanciful notions for the roof at Honeywood, most of which were wrecked by the obstructive inertia of the British craftsman when asked to vary from accustomed usage; and one cannot help regretting that he was not similarly baulked of his extravagantly belled eaves and “old moated grange” gable ends. The devices of the building crafts, which have served the skilful and efficient use of humble material for centuries, are a pure delight to everyone who has studied them, and have come to be loved as a tradition of beautiful building; but it is the perfection with which they serve their purposes, and not the forms they present, which delight us; and to give those forms an emphasis beyond what their purpose demands, is fatuous. It is the thing that, in the main, makes the modern villa a monstrosity; and as it has no part in architecture, and as Spinlove is evidently a man of educated taste, we must suppose that his preoccupations with his ridges and eaves was to get them to look right, and did not result in making them look wrong. Strong associations are aroused when we view any building and, if the style or tradition of its design awakens a certain group of associations, it is important that every detail of the design shall accord with that tradition and strengthen the association. In a house with eaves, no feature is more ex
pressive than the degree of projection of them. As the rafter feet had been cut to agree with the drawing (No. 41) they could not properly be used to carry the increased stand-over of the tiles. They had to be cut back close up to the plate, and false rafter feet, set at a slightly flatter slope to give the required tilt, spiked to them. These are the “sprockets” spoken of.
C. TAKING DOWN AND REBUILDING RETURN DIES OF TERRACE WALL. ARCHITECT STATES IT WAS YOUR MISTAKE.
Feb. 23tht. Architect come on in white trousers he left his bat against flooring stacked in kitchen an a long job to find so he will know wehn it were. He says break back at side of dies had ought not to be battered same as face but plumbded, but I reckon his drawing No. 22 showed it other way same as I had it, and so I told him and charged D.W. has per weekly.
P.S.—There were a line on that drawing you could not tell waht was meant for and he dont know neither so that makes sure for if he cant say how were it my fault not to.
Privet. He says I don’t know a good drawing when I see one, an I says may be has I dont but I knows a bad one when I sees hit I says. Privit.
Spinlove seems to have had words with Bloggs on this matter and not to have got the best of the exchange.
Bloggs’s microscopic memory is clearly an immovable barrier to all argument or question, and indicates resources of a kind that will infallibly repulse any attempts at cross-examination. His acumen in forestalling a denial of the circumstances he adduces can only be the result of tried experience in similar contests. What foothold can Spinlove find for protesting “I remember nothing about it,” when he is told the event occurred on the day he dropped his pipe in the trench, or mislaid his tennis racquet? Demonstrably, Bloggs knows exactly all that happened, and Spinlove, who can remember nothing—even of the muddied pipe and the bit of cotton waste fietched from the foreman’s office to cleanse it-clearly has not a leg to stand on.
This proof of the evidence of Frederick Bloggs covers five and & half laborious foolscap sheets, and I will make no further excerpts. Pinned up with these sheets are certain pages from his “dairy”; and the ungrudging liberality with which he has gutted it In the good cause is almost touching. “Leaves from a Diary” has a new meaning for me since I have seen Bloggs’s. The entries are hieroglyphic and also cryptic; and if I describe the pages at having been “torn” from the book, I only do so because no more destructive-sounding word occurs to me. “Captured in Battle” best describes their appearance.
SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY
Dear Sir, 1.9.26.
I am obliged for your letter covering your foreman’s replies to questions. I have, however to point out that in no case is the fact substantiated that work, stated to have been authorized by me, was ordered as an extra. As you are aware, unless work is definitely authorized as an extra at the time it is done, the fact is that there was no understanding that it was to be an extra. I should be glad if Mr. Grigblay would make an appointment here to go with me into the various points raised.
I saw Mr. Tinge two days ago, who called my attention to the fact that you have charged for repointing work damaged by frost; but under the terms of the contract the responsibility, for making good damage by frost is yours. I overlooked this, “or I should have objected to the item before. I have told Mr. Tinge that it must be struck out.
Will you ring up to-morrow and let me know whether the work in making good dry rot has been completed as promised?
Yours faithfully,
Spinlove is right on the point of authorization of extras, but, actually, the terms of the contract are more rigid, for they require that, in order to rank as an extra, work must be authorized as an extra in writing.
Tinge is right, too, in the matter of damage by frost. Grigblay contracted to “protect from damage by frost,” and is therefore responsible for making good damage due to failure to protect.
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 3.9.26.
Mr. Grigblay will call to settle account on the 7th at 2 o’clock, as arranged over phone.
We will ask you to note that we have on many occasions carried out work, charged as extra in Statement and accepted by you, on your verbal order alone; and have always accepted your word and put in hand as desired without delaying for written order or where should we be with all the variations there have been ever since the work was begun, waiting for written orders and not getting same. There are not above half a dozen written orders from first to last, and in general the only orders we have had have been verbal, which we have acted on at your request and to your approval. Now that this does not appear to please you, we shall be glad to have written authority for extra making good dry rot as per your instructions and oblige. The men cleared up yesterday.
If you will look at the Interim Statement we sent you, you will find we have charged only difference in value between plain struck joint and special pointing to your instructions and approval.
Yours faithfully,
Grigblay, in his own way, presents his view of the authorization of extras with clearness—if for “verbal” we read oral—and the position he takes is just. The contract stipulation that all work that is to rank as extra shall be authorized as an extra in writing at the time the work is done, is a good one; but like many excellent rules it can, in practice, not be always exactly followed; and in cases such as Honeywood—which are the rule rather than the exception—where there are a large number of small variations, its strict enforcement would entail delays and consequent losses which no builder could be expected to tolerate. We know that Spinlove was lax in enforcing the rule and, in the circumstances, it is hard to see how it could have been enforced; but as he has accepted as extras a number of items in the account which were not formally authorized, he cannot object to other claims on the grounds that they were not formally authorized, and accordingly each case will have to be settled by wranglings to decide what the facts giving rise to the work actually were. In that wrangle Grigblay will have the advantage of holding records which he can use as may best serve his ends; while Spinlove will have little but his memory with which to oppose them.
LADY B.’S CONVERTED ATTIC
SPINLOVE TO LADY BRASH
Dear Lady Brash,6.9.26.
As I understand you are now home again, I think I ought to write and just let you know about the new “converted attic” your daughter showed me—in fact, we all had tea up there. It is delightful, I know; so snug and cottagy with the low sloped ceiling and dingy light and the warming pans and the jolly little boxed-out chimney comer-all most ingenious, I have never seen anything at all like it before; but perhaps you do not know that it is not a habitable room as defined by the Regulations of the Local Government Board and required by the byelaws. tile roof space arrangement, you see, was only allowed by the District Council on my undertaking that it was to be used as a boxroom or store, only, so that you are violating the local building regulations-breaking the law, in fact-by using the place as a habitable room. If I had not promised that the place would not be used as a habitable room, the District Council would have refused to allow the house to be built. You see, in order to comply with the minimum requirements of the Model Bye-laws, the ceiling would have to be much higher, the roof-tops much less, the window much larger and the walls, all the way down to the ground, thicker. Of course, if it were an old house built before the bye-laws were adopted, you could do as you liked; but, unfortunately, Honeywood is a new house, and if the District Council gets to hear of what has been done I am afraid there will be serious trouble. I feel I ought to write and let you know this, so that you may be prepared.
I hope you enjoyed your visits, but I’m afraid you had wretched weather during the last week.
Yours sincerely,
As Spinlove is evidently afraid of Lady Brash, and is tremulous with anxiety lest he should be misunderstood, it is clear that he only wrote in the belief that it was his duty to give the warning. What poor Lady Brash will make of the Local Government Board, the Local Building Regulat
ions, the Requirements of the Model Bye-laws, the thundercloud imminence of the District Council and the awful admonition “Prepare for Trouble,” it is hard to imagine, but the whole thing is a mare’s nest—a figment of Spinlove’s imperfect knowledge. If it appears that spaces allocated in the plans to boxrooms, stores, and so forth, are usable as habitable rooms, the Local Authority can require them to comply with the dimensions, lighting and ventilation ordained for habitable rooms; but it cannot prevent owners from screwing UP and shuttering windows, or blocking the vent flues. The plans of Honeywood were duly approved, and the house completed and certified as conforming to the. building regulations; and if Lady Brash prefers to entertain her friends in the boxroom, or to dine in the bath, or to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, it is no business of Spinlove’s, nor of the District Council’s, nor of anyone—except possibly of a commissioner in lunacy.
If people are found living in conditions inimical to public health and sanitation, the Health Officer can intervene, but that is another matter.
LADY BRASH TO SPINLOVE
Dear Mr. Spinlove, 7.9.26.
I knew you would admire my Ideal Homes converted attic. I meant it to be a great surprise, but Phyllis has told you so now it will not be. You cannot think what a comfort it is to get away from the servants! I just slip upstairs and know nothing of anything that is going on. Leslie prefers the lounge or the den so we do not sit there in the evenings, I think it is because of all the stairs! ! Would it be very expensive to put in & lift for the coals as well because there will have to be coals in the winter although it is a delightfully warm room, in fact in hot weather it is too warm and I cannot sit there so it win be delightfully cozy in the winter. Can anything be done about the noise the water makes; and is it quite safe when it whistles all the time and roars and rashes as though it was going to run over the side, particularly when Leslie comes home and is having his bath; and then noises like a man hammering to get in and people choking and dreadful sighs and groans and sometimes cries for help, so alarming if anyone was able to get up there without being noticed, but I am sure you would not allow such a thing for one moment.
Honeywood Settlement Page 13