My sister attempted to post me a Christmas present a couple of days ago from Corbridge in Northumberland. She received notification yesterday that it was due to be deliver to me but it never turned up. When she checked this morning, it was at the Hexham delivery office and it turned up at her house a bit later. Someone had crossed out the From ( Read more... )

I haven't posted for nearly a year here!

For those that don't know, I had a major health scare in January, what's called an aortic dissection, meaning the lining coming away in the aorta. I had a fairly major operation, which caused a stroke. I was in hospital for nearly three weeks. Still have an impressive scar on my chest. Since then I've ( Read more... )

So finally, someone has come and replaced my water heater.

The first guy who looked at it back in October could only plumb in a new heater, not do the carpentry and electrics. So I tried kitchen fitters on Checkatrade and one came out and reckoned he could do it. But first he had to source a new water cylinder. That seems to have taken the time ( Read more... )

Many of the houses in my cul-de-sac seem to be student shares.

Yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and I could hear a rhythmic thumping sound through the wall. There has been a lot of maintenance work going on in that house - a student house - so I thought at first it was that. But I could hear voices apparently chanting ( Read more... )

Well, a plumber finally came out to look at the old water heater. It looks like he's going to replace it, but there are options.

It's likely the sink unit will have to be dissembled to get to the old heater. It's a fitted kitchen, which means getting a carpenter to cut it off from the worktop and then putting it back.

Getting a water heater that ( Read more... )

So, by lunchtime today, no call back about the leak in my kitchen so I phoned the company who had come out to look at it. They said that the job had been referred back to my plumbing insurance service, Home Serve. Home Serve has a very long wait time on their phone line and when I finally got through I found my policy does not cover water heater ( Read more... )

So last week I noticed a water seepage coming out from under my kitchen sink. At first I though it might be that the outlet from my washing machine had become blocked - I've had that happen before - but it has got worse this week, long after I last ran the washing machine.

So I called out the plumber and he's just been here.

There's a water heater ( Read more... )

I sometimes get questions passed to me by Amazon about a product I've bought, often clarifying a problem a customer, or prospective customer has. One item I bought recently has caused several questions so I was not surprised to see another one this morning.

Until I read the question:

"Anyone know how to get the diy setting on the remote to work? it ( Read more... )

After allowing a sandwich toaster to heat up, if you then want to move it, use the handle. Do not try pushing it on the side with the flat of your hand. Also posted to Dreamwidth. There are
( Read more... )

So, all my neighbours seem to be building extensions. I live in a cul-de-sac and my back garden abuts onto a house in the main part of the street. The owner has built an extension that extends towards my back garden.

A couple of weeks ago my satellite receiver stopped working. No satellite signal. I called out the engineer (I have repair ( Read more... )