I was rudely awakened at seven thirty on Monday morning by Maia. We came downstaallirs and had a leisurely breakfast while planning our day. We decided to play with her dolls for a bit, do some painting, have lunch and then head off to the swimming pool in the afternoon. HA. I ended up considerably damper than I generally like, and a lot more stressed!
Harriet had phoned as Maia had started her painting to say that the cavity wall insulation and loft insulation people had just let her know that they would be coming in a couple of hours to do the installation. We have been waiting for this, and mucked around with for months now! It did mean that we couldn't go swimming, but there is always Wednesday.
It all started to kick off when I went with Maia to wash all of the paint off her arms. I noticed a suspicious puddle of water on the floor of the hall. On further investigation, I discovered that water was dripping through from upstairs. The majority of it was hidden by a cupboard, the contents of which was soaking. This cupboard is underneath the boiler (which is in the airing cupboard). I went to have a poke about and see what was going on, and discovered that the contents of the airing cupboard was completely soaking.
I phoned H, who came home from work to see what was going on!! While she investigated, I hung up the wet stuff from the airing cupboard, meaning that we couldn't move for bed linen! Harriet tried (and failed) to get in touch with her plumber, just as the cavity wall insulation people arrived. While sorting them out and letting them get started, we discovered another leak. The kitchen ceiling was soaking. The house was packed, it was complete chaos... And then another couple of guys turned up, here to do the loft insulation. They looked a little bemused.
H got in touch with the plumber, who said he'd be straight here after finishing the job he was on so she went back to work. At this point, the loft insulation guys came to me and said that there is broken asbestos in the attic and so they couldn't do the work. They left. Meanwhile, the circuit breakers had tripped. I battled my way to the switches to get the power back on so that I could put on a film to keep Maia happy and out of the way, then made lunch in the square metre of the kitchen not occupied by ladders, tools and men.
The cavity wall insulation guys then decided that the air vents in the walls might not be big enough, so they had to call their boss and get him to come in. I was going to tell H this, but she had texted me saying that she was having to get an ambulance for her boss, so I left out that little gem until he came and said it was fine.
The cavity wall insulation guys finished up, and were just leaving as the plumber arrived. On having a look around, he said that it looked as if it were coming from the attic. Sigh. Texting H about it, we came to the conclusion that it was a good thing that the loft insulation hadn't been done after all. Never thought I'd be saying "Thank goodness for asbestos!"
The plumber found that not only was there a leaky pipe in the attic, which he has fixed, but there is a leak in the roof as well!! The plumber fixed what he could and told us to get a roofer!
H had cancelled the solar panel people who were supposed to be coming (the only people we were actually expecting to have around), but the message hadn't got through from head office so as the plumber left, the solar panels guy turned up and I had to tell him to go away, in between reassuring a concerned neighbour that all was well (even though it actually wasn't).
Harriet got home soon after this, and I made my escape up to Cheshire. That was all a bit hectic!
Also, it had been raining cats and dogs all day. Humph.
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