It's really annoying how much time and effort we have wasted over the past few days responding to that stupid letter.
It's creeping into my head at every opportunity and upsetting the whole mood of not only the project but of days in general at the moment.
The best antidote of course is being with the kids who care not for such trivia.
That's what it is of course, in the greater scheme of things.

Trx psychology training has helped.
Mr M jnr didn't come round here shouting the odds.
He stuck a letter thru the door overnight. The typical cowardly behaviour of a school bully. He has demanded that we do things on his say so immediately. He also demands that we don't mention this to his father, who may therefore not even know that he has written to us.
A similar thing happened four years ago when he had the loft built.
He got upset because the fence panels we took down (with his dad's permission) were not replaced with a whole shiny new fence. Rather, the old ones were put back in almost as badly as they were in the first place.
He wrote a shitty letter to our builder. Nothing further happened.
Looking through the deeds tonight, we discovered that he claimed a right of way down the side of our garden out into our street way back in 1992 but there is a note in the file that "no further reference was made" when the deeds were handed to us in 96.

But I have been really crap about it today.
Scared, if I'm honest.
My non-confrontational personality is in turmoil over this.
Get a grip

I lift my eyes up
To the mountain
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from you
Maker of Heaven
Creator of the earth

Easy to say of course.
We have to deal with this, and Trx is a lot stronger than me. Tonight we have drafted a third letter in response to the complaint. My attempts have been too aggressive or too verbose.
We've come up with an approach that will hopefully be effective.

We are defending the building line of the wall. The inside of it at least follows the line of our patio which previiously extended abut a foot into the neighbours garden. He probably didn't know this, so overgrown is the border. The outside garden to about 6 feet in from any fencing that exists is brambles, ivy and shit.
The northern external wall of our house should not be the defining edge of his garden. The damp in our hallway and need to have the wall repointed a year or three ago is because this rampant vegetation grows up the outside wall of our house. There should be a fence to seperate 'us' from 'them'.
We also mention that the house owner, his dad, is a personal friend and we've done loads of work for him in the past. Mentioned security, aesthetics and hinted at the financial benefit (re future property value) on having a walled garden.
Also went for the Power of Attorney bit not being relevant when the old man has already decided and is perfectly happy to chat to us about it.
And we have invited him round to talk to us about it!

Trx added this clever touch.
It suggests that we are together on this, and that we are so confident and comfortable in our position that we can discuss it personally.

Past history suggests that he won't follow it up and is really just posturing.
No-one round here likes the man. But that isn't the point.

It's all very uncomfortable and disappointing.
I'm so NOT into playing these games.
We've kept a lot of cards back should we need them.

A financial contribution to the wall?
Access to our garage should be cleared.
The claim about a right of way he made in 92
The state of the rest of the fencing.
Why is the line of the wall actaully a problem.
Cos its on my fathers property
Yes, but why is that a problem?

We suspect the same line will be repeated louder and over.
Suggesting a very shallow argument.
The whole picture is so much bigger...

Be bold
Be strong
For the Lord your God is with you