Home Improvements Part 1

The bathroom got finished. Eventually. We had to wait until February for the plumbers to come and fit the heated towel rail, which meant coping with an unheated bathroom for most of the winter. Like marriage this is not something to be undertaken lightly, especially in Orkney,  although to be fair the winter was mostly more grey and damp than cold.

 

To fit the towel rail the 12 year old who came masquerading as a plumber drained the central heating system and assured us, as he left the house, that everything was put back properly and the heating would soon be on again and warming us up. Several hours later, not only had none of the radiators actually come back on, there was a suspiciously damp patch on the living room ceiling roughly in line with where the cold water tank lives in the loft. It was Friday - of course. It was after five o'clock - of course. And no-one was winning a Crackerjack pencil, least of all the plumbers since I left a string of messages of escalating annoyance all evening without response.

 

Well the OH went up into the loft and discovered a valve that hadn't been tightened up properly and was therefore dripping and he also fiddled about with stuff and we got heat into the radiators. But that wasn't really the point, as I made quite clear in the letter that accompanied my cheque to pay the plumbers invoice. When you get a new towel rail, you expect just that, a new towel rail. You don't expect to be left in the plumbers wake with a non-working heating system, a leaking valve that had not been leaking before the plumber touched it  and a spreading damp patch on the ceiling.

 

To be fair to the plumbers they offered to repaint the ceiling at their expense but since it had only been clean water that leaked it had dried without leaving a mark. And they were very apologetic. But it does make me reflect, as so often, about how people can be so lackadaisical about their work. Aren't they brought up to take pride in what they do anymore?

 

And yes, since you ask, I do have photos of the bathroom -  here they are

 

 

 

 

There are two annoying things about these photos. One is that neither of them actually show the trouble causing towel rail, although if you care, it's to the left of the storage cupboards in picture 2. And the second is the number of people who look at them and say "Love the sheep". It's not that, as novelty shaped soaps go, I don't find the sheep reasonably appealing. It's just that after all the expense I'd really rather people admired something other than  the sheep shaped soap which were a present to the OH last Christmas. There was a baby sheep soap as well - it got used. I don't think the OH has quite forgiven me for that yet.

 

Tomorrow, if I can face it, Home Improvements Part 2 and the on-going saga which is the bedroom.