Thursday 5 January 2012

Water water everywhere...........

2:30am this morning and I realised there was an empty space in the bed next to me.  Where was my feet warmer?  Oh No!  I thought, there must be a problem with the sump again.  On went my cosy dressing gown and my cosy slippers and off I trotted down to the basement to be greeted by a grumpy tired Huffle lugging mop buckets of water up and down the stairs.

There was a trail of water across the kitchen and pools of water in the basement.  I took over carrying the buckets to give Huffle a break.  We both have blisters on our fingers.  We cleared the mess in the kitchen.  We put boxes on the floor to soak up the wetness.

At one point there was so much water coming out of the pipe that we couldn't carry the buckets quick enough.  The water was flowing out of the pipe and onto the floor like an out of control fountain.  We panicked and called an emergency plumber.  He said he would ring as soon as he had finished the job he was on.

A strange photo I know but this was the water gushing out at its worst!  Very fast and very gushy!?

Once the water calmed down, we sat on the sofa in the finished bit of the basement and emailed, texted and played on the phone and IPad.  My lovely friend Yahoo emailed me throughout the morning and kept our spirits up.  At one point she thanked me for selling her our bird table "every time I see a bird on it, I think of you, especially if it is an ugly old crow" she said - the cheek!!  But we were laughing and that was very much needed.

At 5am the plumber rang and said he would be 2 hours and the call out would cost us $199 which would be used against any work done.  As we didn't really have a choice, we agreed and we decided to go back to bed.  

At 7:30 we were woken by the boys jumping and shouting downstairs.  By 8am the plumber arrived.
Moo mopping at 8ish - what a star - look at those Wellies!
He looked at the problem.  Scratched his head in a way only a tradesman can, sucked the air through his lips and said "that'll cost you $450".  Huffle did not want to pay it but what choice did we have?  We had to pay the $199 for their call out and if we turned them down now we would pay it for them doing nothing.  AArrrggggghhhh.  So we agreed to pay.  They sent a 'snake' down the pipe - there was a big lump of ice and some leaves said one, oh no said the other, no leaves, just ice - Badger and Bodger, Huffle called them!  To actually fix the problem it would cost us another $599.  No way!  We let them go and called around till we found a reputable local plumber who was recommend by KP.

Unfortunately we weren't very happy and we were tired by the time they left and it was time for Huffle to go to work.  We composed an email to our Realtor which said things we probably shouldn't have said in the heat of the moment.  We basically said that the people we purchased from were dishonest in not telling us about the pipes and sump etc.

To cut a long story short (I guess it's not really short by now)!, another plumber arrived and said he could temporarily sort the problem till Summer when he could make the pipes work better then.  Our realtor arrived in a less than happy mood.  She had forwarded our email to the sellers and they we're unhappy we called them dishonest.  ARRRRhgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

All is well now (hopefully).  The plumber has gone leaving us new pipes.  We will be invoiced but not too much.  The realtor has gone to the sellers to smooth things over.  We will visit them at some point to make things good!


Apart from that we took the Christmas tree down and put away the decorations.
They boys were happy to take the decorations off because they were promised a chocolate off the tree as soon as they finished.

smallest taking off the reindeer mask Small made

Once the tree was bare, Moo and I carried it across the room, bent it through the lounge doors,
Then bent it through the front door.
What you can't see here is that Moo is trapped the other side of the tree and can't get to the door - he he he (do you like that Grandad?)

Moo giving Fraser a last hug before she leaves him to the cold


The tree is now standing on our verandah.  He looks lovely - I hope he won't be too cold out there.  I wonder if Moo will pop out in the night and put a blanket around him.  He he he.


ahh there he is through the window.

The games marathon continued today although we only managed one game by the time we rearranged the room after the huge tree had been moved.  That game was Disney monopoly (again!).  I won, but half way through, when small had lost all his money, he took over from me.  When I won the game he decided he had actually won instead of me.  I got 1 point and I let Small have half a point.  (I am so generous!).

I'm afraid Moo and I had a glass of wine this evening (well 5:45 is evening isn't it).  We don't drink really, well not often and not great amounts but today it was needed.

The kids have gone to bed.  I am starting an omelette for tea and then we are all going to flop on front of the tv and watch anything until bed time, when we will sleep like kings all through the night.  Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.


Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz




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