The one in which i-just-hide has had problems with her plumbing. Again.
Here begins yet another sad plumbing related story.
Work was closed on Friday as it was our annual Christmas privilege day. I was woken up at around 10.30am (I was tired!) by someone ringing the doorbell. Obviously I wasn't dressed so I didn't answer. The bell rang again that afternoon when I'd just got out of the shower. By the time I'd put enough clothes on to be decent whoever it was had gone away. A bit later on I went out and noticed a note stuck to my neighbour's front door. The note was urging the occupant to contact the person in the flat below as water was pouring into into his bathroom seemingly from her flat. I was slightly worried but reasoned that it was unlikely to be anything to do with me as all my pipes are on the other side of the flat and if they were leaking the water would most likely be ending up in the flat directly below mine.
I'm a born worrier so I there was still a niggling feeling of dread at the back of my mind. On Christmas Eve I went to Kingston to pick up some last bits of shopping, then went to my parents' house to collect some gifts that had been delivered there. When I got home the guy from downstairs rang the doorbell and asked whether I knew how to contact the girl next door. I didn't and told him I thought she was away as I hadn't heard her moving around for a while. After he'd gone I decided to investigate my pipework and found that water was dripping from the pipe leading in to the toilet cistern. I knew that area of the bathroom was a bit damp but had put it down to condensation from cold water coming in to warm bathroom. I put a towel round the pipe and thought I'd sort it out after Christmas. Unfortunately, I'd badly underestimated the amount of water dripping out. Within a couple of hours the towel was soaked. It was quite late by this stage so I wrapped another, larger towel around the pipe, put another towel on the bathroom floor and went to bed.
When I woke up on Christmas morning, both towels were soaked and half the bathroom floor was flooded. At this stage I did what any slightly useless lone female with a water leak on Christmas morning would do... I phoned my Dad. By 11am he'd turned off the water going in to the cistern and declared that a new washer was needed. Thank goodness my Dad is so good at fixing stuff. I dread to think how expensive and stressful it would have been trying to find an emergency plumber on Christmas Day.
This morning, my parents came to collect me at 10.30am and we went on an exciting trip to Homebase to buy a new part. The shop was practically empty. I think everyone else shopping there was trying to sort out some kind of household emergency. A lot of people seemed to be buying new kettles... Anyway, we got the new part and Dad had fitted it by lunchtime.
Hopefully, the crisis is over. The girl next door doesn't seem to be back yet and the guy from downstairs hasn't been up again. If it was my leak that damaged his flat we'll have to sort it out through the insurance. All in all a bit of Christmas drama I could have done without but which hopefully didn't have too much of any impact on anyone other than me and my family.
Christmas itself went OK. It was the same as usual really. My sister and brother in law spent Christmas Day with us and travelled to Shropshire this morning to spend Boxing Day with his family. I spent today with my parents and failed to win any board, card or work games.
I wasn't given many gifts as my main present was subscription for Time Out magazine which is great, but not the kind of thing you can wrap up and put under the tree. I got El Camino by The Black Keys (I'm really excited about seeing them at Alexandra Palace in February), the first volume of The Carrie Diaries (which I will be reading in secret in the flat), some silicone baking tins, the new Hummingbird Bakery cake book, a silver scarf and lots of chocolate and socks and things.
I'm off work for the rest of this week and will be trying to find some new furniture in the sale as I've outgrown some of the pieces I got when I first moved in. Then on Saturday I'll be seeing in the new year at a wedding in Central London. I'm so excited :)
Work was closed on Friday as it was our annual Christmas privilege day. I was woken up at around 10.30am (I was tired!) by someone ringing the doorbell. Obviously I wasn't dressed so I didn't answer. The bell rang again that afternoon when I'd just got out of the shower. By the time I'd put enough clothes on to be decent whoever it was had gone away. A bit later on I went out and noticed a note stuck to my neighbour's front door. The note was urging the occupant to contact the person in the flat below as water was pouring into into his bathroom seemingly from her flat. I was slightly worried but reasoned that it was unlikely to be anything to do with me as all my pipes are on the other side of the flat and if they were leaking the water would most likely be ending up in the flat directly below mine.
I'm a born worrier so I there was still a niggling feeling of dread at the back of my mind. On Christmas Eve I went to Kingston to pick up some last bits of shopping, then went to my parents' house to collect some gifts that had been delivered there. When I got home the guy from downstairs rang the doorbell and asked whether I knew how to contact the girl next door. I didn't and told him I thought she was away as I hadn't heard her moving around for a while. After he'd gone I decided to investigate my pipework and found that water was dripping from the pipe leading in to the toilet cistern. I knew that area of the bathroom was a bit damp but had put it down to condensation from cold water coming in to warm bathroom. I put a towel round the pipe and thought I'd sort it out after Christmas. Unfortunately, I'd badly underestimated the amount of water dripping out. Within a couple of hours the towel was soaked. It was quite late by this stage so I wrapped another, larger towel around the pipe, put another towel on the bathroom floor and went to bed.
When I woke up on Christmas morning, both towels were soaked and half the bathroom floor was flooded. At this stage I did what any slightly useless lone female with a water leak on Christmas morning would do... I phoned my Dad. By 11am he'd turned off the water going in to the cistern and declared that a new washer was needed. Thank goodness my Dad is so good at fixing stuff. I dread to think how expensive and stressful it would have been trying to find an emergency plumber on Christmas Day.
This morning, my parents came to collect me at 10.30am and we went on an exciting trip to Homebase to buy a new part. The shop was practically empty. I think everyone else shopping there was trying to sort out some kind of household emergency. A lot of people seemed to be buying new kettles... Anyway, we got the new part and Dad had fitted it by lunchtime.
Hopefully, the crisis is over. The girl next door doesn't seem to be back yet and the guy from downstairs hasn't been up again. If it was my leak that damaged his flat we'll have to sort it out through the insurance. All in all a bit of Christmas drama I could have done without but which hopefully didn't have too much of any impact on anyone other than me and my family.
Christmas itself went OK. It was the same as usual really. My sister and brother in law spent Christmas Day with us and travelled to Shropshire this morning to spend Boxing Day with his family. I spent today with my parents and failed to win any board, card or work games.
I wasn't given many gifts as my main present was subscription for Time Out magazine which is great, but not the kind of thing you can wrap up and put under the tree. I got El Camino by The Black Keys (I'm really excited about seeing them at Alexandra Palace in February), the first volume of The Carrie Diaries (which I will be reading in secret in the flat), some silicone baking tins, the new Hummingbird Bakery cake book, a silver scarf and lots of chocolate and socks and things.
I'm off work for the rest of this week and will be trying to find some new furniture in the sale as I've outgrown some of the pieces I got when I first moved in. Then on Saturday I'll be seeing in the new year at a wedding in Central London. I'm so excited :)