Kitchen floor is a mess

We had a builder in this morning to screed parts of the kitchen floor to level it out because we're having new linoleum laid on Monday.

The floor looked a lot like this when we removed the carpet that the previous owners had installed. As soon as we took it up we could see why they laid it, but we couldn't keep that carpet; it was filthy. The blue and white tiles you see on the edges are what we put on the floor to cover up the mess. Further back in the kitchen you can just make out where the old linoleum disappears under a layer of concrete. This is how the kitchen's extension was done, and the floor was never properly finished. The bumps and kinks have only been smoothed over this morning, and the extension was built (we're told) in the early 1990s. This house's kitchen was butchered by a cowboy builder, that is for sure. The kitchen has cost the most; in addition to the floor, we've had to replaster the ceiling and the walls. Altogether, just the floor, ceiling, and walls have cost over 1,000 pounds to put right. That's not counting other plastering work elsewhere in the house, refinishing a large wooden floor, laying new carpeting in almost every room, and replacing an entire bathroom suite, not to mention painting every room at least once.

If someone had left my kitchen in this state, I'd have sued them. When we bought the house we were naive about construction and DIY; if we knew then what we know now, we would have knocked a considerable sum off the price of the house or we would have simply not purchased it. This house has needed thousands of pounds of repairs and upgrades, mostly due to the previous owners' ignorance and neglect. At least we're leaving it in a better state than we found it.

The areas where the lino has broken off and there's nothing but bare concrete underneath have to be screeded over so they're smooth when the new lino goes down. This stuff takes hours to dry and since English builders never work on weekends, we have to wait until Monday for the actual flooring. It is costing almost 500 pounds for the labor, the linoleum, and the fitting. We bought cheap lino. At least it'll be better than what's there now.

Next house we buy is going to be BRAND-SPANKING NEW and will not need any work doing to it. I'm so sick of this shit I could SCREAM.