This Site Has Moved

New Wordpress Site

The Old/Non Updated Content...




The home of the haikulator

 

Links

Sentence Generators
My Stand-up & gigs
The Coding Craftsman
BurberryAndBroccoli
MarkInventions

The Musical!
Incredible Productions

apostrophell
backlash
incredible
haiku


Previous Posts

The House Is Bought
Well well well
Words Fail Me Again
Three Dimensional
Everyone's Quitting
Stupid Warnings
Another Year Older
More Freecycling Fun
A Break
Is It Worth It?

Blog Archives

October 2001
November 2001
December 2001
January 2002
February 2002
March 2002
April 2002
May 2002
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
August 2009
September 2009
January 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
October 2011
December 2011
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
March 2013
April 2013
May 2013
June 2013
July 2013
August 2013
September 2013
October 2013
December 2013
January 2014
February 2014
March 2014
May 2014
July 2014
January 2015
February 2015
March 2015
April 2015
May 2015
June 2015
July 2015
August 2015
January 2016
February 2016
March 2016
April 2016
May 2016
July 2016
August 2017
January 2018
August 2018
September 2018
July 2019
August 2019
May 2020
June 2020
July 2020
August 2020
September 2020
December 2020
January 2021
July 2021
September 2021
February 2022

Wednesday, January 17

Home Sweet Huh?

You don't notice the various things that become sub-standard in your own home. The small stain on the wall, the badly fixed thing here, the broken thing there, the shortcut that you took in the other place. You don't notice the odd behaviour around your property either - the parking, the noise the neighbours make, the position of the street lights... well, you do notice all of these things, but you become used to them and they fade into the background.

The thing about moving into a new house is that all of these details become incredibly vivid and apparent. When it's a house that needs a lot of work doing to it, all of the repairs that you have to undo to get down to the bare walls are very obvious and, where silly, very silly. So, the last day and half has been a wealth of irreverent detail. It's been quite an experience. Here are some details I've noticed:
  • The local Polish neighbours appear to use my drive as a shortcut to get their bikes into the back yard of their house - over the wall at the back of my drive
  • Other people appear to use my drive as a rubbish bin, leaving myriad of crap there - a TV, a box of clothes, a Christmas tree, for example
  • Tiling a room is not a good way to decorate it. It is a good way to accumulate years' worth of grease
  • Where tiling comes off, you can replace that section of wall with a special type of hardboard with a fake series of grout channels - this is crap
  • Rising damp can be ignored
  • So can wet ceilings
  • A gas certificate is no sign that the boiler is in any state to provide heating
  • An access hatch to the loft, no wider than a 6 year old girl, may be a sign of a previous age when electricians either exploited child labour, or comprised a bunch of talented children
  • Varnishing wood is lush
  • The best surface upon which to lay lino is lino
  • Small fridge like cupboards can be found under sinks
It's been an eventful time alright. The garage is accumulating the stuff that is due to be thrown out. Around a dozen rubble sacks have been bought and filled. There's more rubble where that came from. A man's (and indeed woman's) best friend may well be a utility bar - the short version of a crow bar, which responds well to a hammer and some tiles, plaster, floorboard... whatever, really.

With a head full of dust and a few scrapes of the hands, I returned to work today. I would have had a shower, but the only working one is downstairs and I was too cold to use it. The upstairs shower works off the hot water, which doesn't work. There is running water in the house, which is something I was afraid wouldn't be there, the supply having been turned off (allegedly in the street, though this didn't prove to be the case). The water won't heat because the heating header tank won't fill. This may be a blessing as it, apparently, leaks when it does fill. The heating, therefore, doesn't work either. So, the "heating must be replaced soon" has now become "replace the heating now".

I bought a small convection heater, which will keep my bedroom warm. The bedroom is very nice, with the bed being a surprisingly easy thing to move between houses, despite being a bit of a bugger to assemble in the first place in the first house. I've already slept in the house a couple of nights and it's a lot better sleeping there when there are curtains up. I put the curtains up yesterday, following a rather fun and hurried trip to a curtain shop where I basically showed the woman a picture of the windows with measurements on and then did what she told me I needed to do in order to get enough curtain to fill the space. Colour matching and style is not the deal here... but it looks pretty good... though I need to gather the curtains. I also need to work out what that means.

A whiteboard and a pin board have also been bought and they will be put up soon. Home's not home without a whiteboard!

So, there has been a lot of action both in and out of a van. There have been Subways eaten. The plumber's trip proved to be useful in terms of getting together the data for a full central heating system quote. The trip didn't even cost anything, which was nice, given that the chap did, at least, appear to be doing things around the house, even though the central heating header tank was too knackered to work and too inaccessible (through the gift the micro-crawl-hatch) to be fixed.

There are more questions about how the house will end up than there are answers. I need to get more data. I know that I need a roofer on the roof quite urgently, and I know that my damp-proofing people are coming in a week's time.

So what if I have no hot water (except through downstairs' electric shower), no heating (except through the one-room convection heater) and no fridge (unless you count the majority of the house)? I do have a small amount of remaining kitchen in which not to cook, a kettle with which to make hot water, a cooker, washing machine (though nothing will dry in the house, so that's useless) microwave and (assuming my delivery came today) new TV to play with. And a new mobile phone that I haven't even powered on yet... It's all... well, in a state of flux.

Roll on the weekend when I can get the hell out of Reading and away from it :)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

All content ©2001 - 2020 Ashley Frieze