Getting in Hot Water
I had a rather cruisy morning, messed around at home and although I thought I had something else I should have been doing, I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was.
Do you know what I mean? It's like being restless, wandering around the house, can't put your finger on it kinda thing. Anyway, my godson's school was have a twilight gala tonight, and it started at 4pm. I decided that was as good a place as any to go, left the house around 3.15pm and collected Jaimee from daycare on the way. I figure she'd enjoy toffee apples, candyfloss, and the like...all that good stuff her Mum would go bananas at me about later (well possibly behind my back anyway haha)
Unfortunately, not long after arriving at the gala I had a phone call from my tenant's brother (he speaks the better english out of the whole family I believe). I listened in alarm as he went on to describe that there was water coming from the ceiling in their back bedroom. I rang Jason who rushed over (what else could he do really, I had his daughter)...my hot water cylinder was dead...well, it was leaking...ok, it was furiously emptying itself onto the floor, through the suspended ceiling downstairs and all over the newly laid carpet.
Yep, it was utterly pissing down. By the time I arrived there were buckets and containers all over the floor, their mattress and box spring, duvet etc were outside, drying in the sun (see?there's a positive, it could have been raining today, but no, glorious sunshine, yes!) The mother took me in and showed me the damage.
"Lisa...oh.God" she says in her adorable indian accent (you can all hear that right? too cute)
I spoke to my insurers, who sent along a charming young man to suck all the water out of the carpet and set up his loud blow-drying machines to help dry out the wall/floor/ceiling, you name it, it needed drying *sigh* There's now a large hole in the ceiling where he's ripped out a lot of the gib board (driwall? I think some of you call it) and insulation.
Anna was here before me and had helped the ladies downstairs carry out their mattress and bed. She kept saying "I can't believe you're so calm about this, I would be panicking and flapping about like crazy" I was upset but I felt ok. I figured insurance would sort this out, they'd get it done fairly quickly...I couldn't stop something that had already hapened, no point in getting all strung out about it.
Once I realised the actual hot water cylinder needed replacing and not just fixing, well that made the blood pressure rise a little. That's a costly exercise, one I can ill afford. So, I rang my sister hoping I could speak with my brother-in-law (you know, famous BIL of the orchard?)...he owns a plumbing business, he has contacts, maybe he'd allow me to pay off a replacement cylinder? It wasn't until Diane said she'd pass the phone to Steve and I could speak with him that my cool reserve slipped...in fact it kinda sat at the top of the slide and pushed off yelling "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" down the slope.
I couldn't talk to Steve, I ended up bawling and hiccuping down the phone at Diane, who had guests over for drinks/nibbles, and said to me "Now Lisa, don't you be making me cry in front of these people". I managed to get out that I'd ring in the morning, between sniffing and cry/laughing we agreed this was a better idea. Shit. 5 minutes later Diane rings back, she'd spoken to Steve who said not to worry about anything, they'd get it all sorted on Monday.
Cool. I can cope with that. No hot water this weekend, but that's ok...we can shower elsewhere, easy peasy. Unfortunately the dishwasher won't work now, so I'm gonna have to boil the kettle and do dishes the old fashioned way lol.
Oh, hey, I'm sitting in bed with my laptop on my new laptop tray thingy right now....not to mention my new USB wireless adaptor...that's because I couldn't be bothered sitting up at the PC in the lounge. This is kinda cool, I could get used to this.
Anyway, gotta go, I'm stuffed and I'm going to be up early tomorrow....I'll be downstairs washing the floor, not to mention, removing the skirting boards and um, what is that stuff called that goes around the edges of the carpet? you know, they hammer the carpet to it...shit....it'll come to me eventually. Whatever it is, I'm removing it, so it hardly seems worth talking about considering it's not going to be there tomorrow. (Christ it's so obvious I should be sleeping lol).
Here, something sweet to end the post with. The extra sunshine in my day, (the kind that has nothing to do with the weather). Young Jaimee who had her face painted with "boom hearts" this avo and rather quickly I might add, because the painter could overhear the conversation I was having on the phone re waterfall.
Do you know what I mean? It's like being restless, wandering around the house, can't put your finger on it kinda thing. Anyway, my godson's school was have a twilight gala tonight, and it started at 4pm. I decided that was as good a place as any to go, left the house around 3.15pm and collected Jaimee from daycare on the way. I figure she'd enjoy toffee apples, candyfloss, and the like...all that good stuff her Mum would go bananas at me about later (well possibly behind my back anyway haha)
Unfortunately, not long after arriving at the gala I had a phone call from my tenant's brother (he speaks the better english out of the whole family I believe). I listened in alarm as he went on to describe that there was water coming from the ceiling in their back bedroom. I rang Jason who rushed over (what else could he do really, I had his daughter)...my hot water cylinder was dead...well, it was leaking...ok, it was furiously emptying itself onto the floor, through the suspended ceiling downstairs and all over the newly laid carpet.
Yep, it was utterly pissing down. By the time I arrived there were buckets and containers all over the floor, their mattress and box spring, duvet etc were outside, drying in the sun (see?there's a positive, it could have been raining today, but no, glorious sunshine, yes!) The mother took me in and showed me the damage.
"Lisa...oh.God" she says in her adorable indian accent (you can all hear that right? too cute)
I spoke to my insurers, who sent along a charming young man to suck all the water out of the carpet and set up his loud blow-drying machines to help dry out the wall/floor/ceiling, you name it, it needed drying *sigh* There's now a large hole in the ceiling where he's ripped out a lot of the gib board (driwall? I think some of you call it) and insulation.
Anna was here before me and had helped the ladies downstairs carry out their mattress and bed. She kept saying "I can't believe you're so calm about this, I would be panicking and flapping about like crazy" I was upset but I felt ok. I figured insurance would sort this out, they'd get it done fairly quickly...I couldn't stop something that had already hapened, no point in getting all strung out about it.
Once I realised the actual hot water cylinder needed replacing and not just fixing, well that made the blood pressure rise a little. That's a costly exercise, one I can ill afford. So, I rang my sister hoping I could speak with my brother-in-law (you know, famous BIL of the orchard?)...he owns a plumbing business, he has contacts, maybe he'd allow me to pay off a replacement cylinder? It wasn't until Diane said she'd pass the phone to Steve and I could speak with him that my cool reserve slipped...in fact it kinda sat at the top of the slide and pushed off yelling "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" down the slope.
I couldn't talk to Steve, I ended up bawling and hiccuping down the phone at Diane, who had guests over for drinks/nibbles, and said to me "Now Lisa, don't you be making me cry in front of these people". I managed to get out that I'd ring in the morning, between sniffing and cry/laughing we agreed this was a better idea. Shit. 5 minutes later Diane rings back, she'd spoken to Steve who said not to worry about anything, they'd get it all sorted on Monday.
Cool. I can cope with that. No hot water this weekend, but that's ok...we can shower elsewhere, easy peasy. Unfortunately the dishwasher won't work now, so I'm gonna have to boil the kettle and do dishes the old fashioned way lol.
Oh, hey, I'm sitting in bed with my laptop on my new laptop tray thingy right now....not to mention my new USB wireless adaptor...that's because I couldn't be bothered sitting up at the PC in the lounge. This is kinda cool, I could get used to this.
Anyway, gotta go, I'm stuffed and I'm going to be up early tomorrow....I'll be downstairs washing the floor, not to mention, removing the skirting boards and um, what is that stuff called that goes around the edges of the carpet? you know, they hammer the carpet to it...shit....it'll come to me eventually. Whatever it is, I'm removing it, so it hardly seems worth talking about considering it's not going to be there tomorrow. (Christ it's so obvious I should be sleeping lol).
Here, something sweet to end the post with. The extra sunshine in my day, (the kind that has nothing to do with the weather). Young Jaimee who had her face painted with "boom hearts" this avo and rather quickly I might add, because the painter could overhear the conversation I was having on the phone re waterfall.
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