A mammoth undertaking

The toilet in what was Christopher’s bathroom has had a persistent leak for months. I’ve had a plumber take a look at it three times now, but it was apparently unfixable. To be fair, it was a very old toilet, and I’m not particularly surprised the innards had corroded solid.

When we bought this cottage it needed refurbishing from top to bottom – new wiring, new plumbing, and redecorating throughout, not to mention taming the wilderness that was the garden. The only way we could afford something significantly bigger than our previous flat was to take on a “project” and do it up. But of course we didn’t have enough money to do as thorough a job as we wanted, so the bathroom got a lick of paint, the rusty iron pipes replaced with plastic, new taps, and nothing more. It’s been well overdue a revamp. In fact, the problem with gradually doing the rest of the house up, is that the bathroom has been looking more and more dated.

I’m not going to replace the bath or basin, as they’re perfectly acceptable. But I can see why Chinese water torture works – the persistently dripping cistern was winding me up to the point that I resolved to Get Something Done. So today I had my pleasant and surprisingly affordable plumber around to replace the toilet with a new model. Last time he was here, he took a photo of the old one, and got as close a match as he could. The cistern is a different size and shape, but the footprint is the same, so I won’t need to get new flooring. I have however asked Rob, my trusty decorator, to quote for retiling and repainting the walls, and he’ll be back in the autumn to do that. Together with the fancy towel rail and the extractor fan I’ve already had fitted, I’ll get a “facelift” for the fraction of the price of a whole new bathroom.

It’s harder work, both financially and emotionally, doing up the cottage on my own now that Christopher isn’t here to discuss and plan the improvements with. I do sometimes think that life would be much easier if I lived in a modern box with a ten-year house-builder’s guarantee! However, I am gradually making progress, and that is quite a satisfying feeling.