Bad luck
Managed to get a flier from work and turned up at the house at a relatively early 5pm.
I was happy to find that the heating fitters were still on site and I was amazed at all the work that had been done.
Andrew was pleased to see me too as he found a couple of problems that needed my agreement on, but on a whole it was all going to plan, albeit the house was an absolute building site.
The outside tank had yet to be installed in the cupboard but that was about the only thing that hadn’t been started.
On the ground floor the kitchen had been the site of a small explosion. The oil boiler had been moved from the chimney breast to the wall under the little kitchen window. I’d decided to do this as it looked very strange in its custom cupboard in the chimney and it would no longer vent onto the gable of the building but vent into the yard in its new position. This meant that the boiler was now in skeletal format, the position where it had been was now a stony void with a large circular hole which you could spy out of (or into) so that was interesting. What had been the sink and sink unit had been demolished – it was a good job that I’d done my washing up yesterday.
The kitchen diner was now the site of a rather aggressive burglary, the chimney breast that had been carefully manicured with a fine plaster coat was now a bit cracky with a big hole routed down one side to hide the pipework that would meander out of the back of the stove.
The problem Andrew pointed out was that although the pipework had appeared to be 22mm with the visible pipes all 22mm, it turned out that the pipes under the floors were all 15mm, 15mm was not good enough. The choice was to replace all the upstairs pipework with 22mm or plumb in a couple of new rad’s with 22mm as radiators and heat dumps for the main fire. The plan then would be for me to go around and with a manifold based radiator system plumb in new radiators for the rest of the house. The latter option seemed the best idea so we stumped on that.
Heading upstairs and the upstairs cupboard was now full of thermal store.
I’d spend the previous couple of days sorting out this cupboard. The walls were orange and pitted like the surface of the moon, it took far longer than I thought but I’d done it. The problems were with bad bodging by whomever had done the previous bodge and the orange had a habit of seeping through the emulsion. A bit of sanding and the orange would reveal a green and this was just as difficult to cover. The end result wasn’t as good as I’d wanted but it wasn’t bad and it was good enough for a cupboard. The floor was a bit of a worry though as it still had the lean in it due to the problem with the roof. The roof had been resolved but to square up the floor would have meant lifting the full bathroom floor, I’d decided to leave this till I work on the bathroom, it wasn’t a problem for the store.
Anyway my lovely whitewashed cupboard was now full of thermal store and it looked cracking. The back end of the store cupboard was still undecorated but that was not an omission it was planned as I’d be knocking through into this space behind the thermal store from the bathroom. The thermal store was level as it had a bit of propping underneath and the half of the pipework was in place, it looked fantastic.
Wandering around the rest of the upstairs and the bombsite theme had been extended further into the house with lots of floorboards up to reveal shiny pipework. Don’t get me wrong though, it was marvellous the amount of work that had been done. I was so pleased to see the work that had been done. I did get the feeling that they were surprised to find I was staying the night, they were happy too as they could leave their gear in overnight but the fact that they had to find a way of switching the water on demonstrated that they didn’t expect I was going to find a spot to camp down for the night.
I was tasked with moving a lot of my gear in the spare box room for the electrician to gain access tomorrow, with that they left and I did a bit of filming and photography.
The kitchen was now a bit of a food free zone. Drawers were piled on top of drawers and piping and stones and holes abounded. I settled on the idea of a filling pot noodle, a glass of orange washed down with a cup of tea and a yoghurt bar. Not the greatest of meals but one that I could manage to make in the hostile food environment that had once been my kitchen. I teetered into the living room, the only remaining habitable room in the house, set the tray on the floor and out fell my camera from my coat pocket and did for the OJ, the PN and the tea. It also did for the camera as I found later. I cursed silently, mopped up and made another batch of noodles, tea, OJ and middling happiness.
This was bad luck moment no. 2 as yesterday I’d been searching for a bank where I could withdraw my daily £500. I had Izzi in the back so I needed a bank that would allow me to keep an eye on her while I was at the till. The Asda one was out as it was around a corner so the one on York Road seemed the best idea. As I pulled up I found that I couldn’t park on the usually empty taxi rank as it was full of taxis, the only alternative was the corner but that was littered with bollards. Going around the corner I remarked to myself “hey, would you look at that no bollards” and turned sharp left into the bollards that had been hidden under the sightline of my side windows. A millisecond before I hit the bollards I realised what I’d done, of course they were still there I’d done it before ignoring the fact that bollards were mysteriously designed to not be visible from a car. A loud crunch and Izzi learned a few more words she’d not heard before.
Anyway it’s now 9:30ish, the boxes in the spare room have been moved, the fire is on in a still rather cold front room, the pot noodles have not done their job and I’m wondering where the third bit of bad luck is going to come from.
Wonder if my camera is going to ever work again, it’s now in my lunchbox wrapped in tissue on a bed of sugar – hey I couldn’t find and rice or silicone packs.
Oh and just as I was going to bed I managed to kill my optical cable for my subwoofer, not a good day, strike three.