Date: 15 February 2010 09:13:42
Our house is 100 years old this year. Much like a person of that age, it has some beautiful original features and amazing stories to tell (I met one of my mum’s friends who remembers visiting her great-aunt in this house over 60 years ago), but it has suffered from too much partying (particularly since it was rented to uni students for many years) and has damp problems.
So, rather than throw a big birthday party, we’re spending all our savings on sorting out the damp. Two weeks ago a man (Mike) came in, ripped out our kitchen and hacked off all the plaster from the back wall. Our dining room is doubling up as a kitchen. The microwave and toaster are our only means of cooking, and we’re washing up in the bath. The cats have gone down the garden to eat worms (literally).
Within 2 days Mike had determined the main sources of damp, and I had determined that we needed works to our upstairs bathroom as well as the garden boundary wall if the damp was to be properly fixed. Mike agreed to add the wall work to his schedule. I debated adding the bathroom to mine but then thought better of it. We can borrow money. Time is a little harder to create. I called on another trusted builder, Mal. He came, quoted, and said he could start immediately. Husband didn’t like the idea of total chaos of 2 builders in house at same time. I didn’t like the idea of prolonged chaos. So we consulted our lodgers.
Long-term lodger likened the situation to the when the Israelites disobeyed God and he gave them the choice of punishment or 7 more years wandering in the desert (not sure of exact reference). He voted not to keep wandering. We’re certainly enduring punishment now.
Last Monday Mal arrived and started sorting out the pumbing. In doing so he allowed a water leak to wash off some of the render Mike’s guys had just applied to the wall below. Tuesday Mal dropped ‘a tile’ through the bathroom floor/ newly plastered kitchen ceiling. By Wednesday it wasn’t just the cats that were hiding down the garden. Oh, and Thursday I got home from work to find that the new stud wall they'd put up wasn't vertical. So friday Mal spent the day swearing at his carpenter and straightening the wall.
But I remain positive. The building work will all be over by middle of this week and we’ll have 2 lovely new rooms. Maybe we will think about throwing a party to celebrate after all.