Here we are, zooming towards the solstice. I love it when we're on the other side of that and heading back towards longer nights and the end of summer. Plenty of yuck to go, but at least over the hump. This could also prove to be a big weekend in another way--it's possible that we'll get a shower! Happy days!
When we moved in here, we knew the shower was not yet installed and we knew that our friend was stressed about this. She worked hard to try to find someone to do the job, but she tried in vain. To give you a short bit of the context here, we live in a 150-year-old building of terraced cottages. Of course, when the building was constructed, indoor plumbing wasn't a thing so there was none. Later, when it became available, each cottage, though identical in layout, was different in how the plumbing was added. These are small cottages so space is limited. We used to live a couple cottages down and in that one, a separate bathroom was added. It was small, but even so it cut into the back bedroom. It had a sink and a tiny shower and then a small space over the stairs for the toilet. In this cottage, there is no bathroom containing all three. Rather, they're scattered around. Decades ago, when our friend (I'll call her F), bought this cottage, she had an antique cast iron tub that she refurbished and had installed in the front bedroom, which is over the kitchen, so handy for the plumbing, I guess. There would have been no other place to put it. But there was already a shower in the small space above the stairs, which in this cottage was off the back bedroom. A few years ago, F decided to have a toilet installed in that little space so there would be one upstairs as well as downstairs. She had an electric shower fitted above the cast iron tub. When she asked us if we'd consider living here and we said yes, she decided that a walk-in shower would be better than getting in and out of the old tub, so she had the tub removed and got a shower. Before she ordered the shower, she talked to plumbers. The usual plumber wouldn't install a shower because the first step will be to install a PVC covering for the walls in the corner where the shower will go and he doesn't do PVC. This is apparently a common thing. In general, it's difficult to get tradespeople to do jobs or even call back, but she kept trying and was eager to have this all done before we moved in. She found a local plumber who came to look at the situation, told her what to buy, and said he'd be back with a guy who does PVC the last weekend in May. The shower components arrived, but the plumber did not. She tried to contact him several times and finally met with success, whereupon he told her that he was going away on holiday for a week. She told him that people were moving in and asked if he could come when he returned. He said he would. We knew all this when we got here and the plan was to shower in a different friend's house (the same house we stayed in when caring for Finn). A few days after we moved in, having washed my hair in the kitchen sink and taking sponge baths for a few days, we went over to take a shower. You know how, when you first turn on the water, it runs cold for a short time? Well, I was at that stage, holding the shower head in my hand so it was pointed away from me, and waiting for the water to get hot. It was just getting warm when the water pressure dropped quite a lot. So I skipped the hair wash, since I was not confident that I could rinse the shampoo out, and did a quick wash of everything else. So that shower now needs attention. The replacement part is there, but the plumber who is supposed to come fix that has not arrived either. As a result, we continue to use the kitchen sink as our bathing spot. F continues to be stressed about this and I've told her not to worry. We know that she tried her best to get this sorted before we arrived and that there was nothing else she could do. We lived without running water for a couple of years. Hot water comes right out of the tap here--we don't have to haul it ourselves or heat it up on the stove to wash. It will be nice to have a shower, but it's not anything to be stressed over.
So all that is to say that with the shower and a couple other plumbing jobs that need to be done here, we haven't yet been able to get everything put away. Since the shower will be going into one of the bedrooms, I can't put stuff away in there. And the macerating toilet that is off the back bedroom needs to be reinstalled so we're not doing anything in that room yet. When my friend M and I brought the first load of stuff here, there was other work still going on so we had to have everything out of the way of that. It was mostly books and some yarn, which all went under the bed. We have yet to remove all that because we can't put in anywhere until the plumbing work is done. I did get the downstairs sorted the first few days we were here--kitchen first--so that's all done and we're comfortable and just waiting for the plumbers to come. Both have said that they're coming tomorrow (Saturday) so we'll see if that happens. We're all keeping our fingers crossed!
2 comments:
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, and hopefully since you're 5 hours ahead of me, they have already come. Moving is always such a lot for work, isn't it? But tougher when you can't get to a lot of it while waiting. Good luck!
Thanks, Erika! We can use all the finger crossing we can get 🙂 The plumber and the PVC guy are supposed to be here at 10 tomorrow. I don't expect them to be on time but hopefully in the ballpark!
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