Tony came round again this morning, for the fourth time in three weeks, and brought with him another spare part for my pressurised hot water system. He says that should now have fixed the original leak – the one into the overflow pipe outside the kitchen. I went outside to check, and it does seem […]
I’d arranged to work at home on Tuesday so that Tony could fix my dripping hot water tank. But when I was still having my breakfast that morning, I got a phone call to say that the supplier had delivered the wrong part, again. So we rearranged for Wednesday. I’d run out of sensible things […]
I arranged to work from home this morning so that Tony, the boiler service man, could come back and fit a new valve to my hot water tank, to stop the drip which he discovered on Tuesday. However, I got a phone call at 8:30 this morning to say that, unfortunately, he had ordered the […]
One of the rather spooky Google Calendar Reminders I’ve received recently has been to tell me to get the boiler serviced. It’s oil-fired, and it’s good practice to get it serviced every year before the weather turns and I start to need my central heating. So I arranged to work from home this afternoon, and […]
The plumber came out yesterday morning, only 20 minutes later than he said he would, which is almost early for a plumber! He confirmed my diagnosis – the isolation valve leading to the dishwasher was leaking, and needed to be replaced. That was a pretty quick job, only around 15 minutes or so. He charged […]
Although I’m very pleased with the work the builders have done, it was such a good feeling when they had finished. I was looking forward to having the house (and garden) to myself without tripping over builders. But my life at the moment really does seem to be a case of two steps forward and […]
Next door’s cat has been spending a lot of time over the past few afternoons and evenings sitting on the path between the lower and upper terraces, looking at the steel I-beams, membrane and sleepers with what looks like a puzzled expression on its face. I think it’s bothered about where all the mice have […]
I admit that I’m struggling somewhat at the moment. It’s really hard to motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning, even though work is so busy right now. I am just so tired that all I want to do is curl up in bed and stay there. But that’s not an acceptable […]
I’ve got Rob the painter here yet again all week, painting yet more of the outside of the house. This time he is concentrating on the woodwork at the back of the house, where I had a new utility-room window installed, the large stretch of replacement barge-boards and soffits where I had work done on […]
This house is too far out into the middle of nowhere to have mains gas or mains drainage. It’s also too far from the nearest telephone exchange to stand any chance of having superfast (or even adequately fast) broadband – a fact that really used to upset Christopher. I’ve become resigned to the fact that […]
