On Boxing Day last year pipes in the upstairs flat burst and torrents of water at full mains pressure poured into my bedroom.
I had dragged in wheelie bins to catch the water - they would fill in a few minutes
My insurance policy covered for alternative accommodation, and so my flatmate and I have lived in two different flats in Edinburgh.
Work couldn't start on my flat until the upstairs flat was finished, which was the end of July. My flat was dried out with dehumidifiers and then work started on it at the beginning of October.
Today, just over 10 months since the initial disaster, my flatmate and I finally moved back home.
Welcome back! What an ordeal.
Posted by: Bob | 01 November 2011 at 03:57 AM
Indeed. We once had to vacate our house for a month or two because of a fire caused by the spontaneous combustion of a linseed oil soaked rag - very stressful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linseed_oil#Spontaneous_combustion
Posted by: Sarah AB | 01 November 2011 at 07:48 PM
You managed to keep going after all that!
We like you all the more Rosie.
Posted by: Andrew Coates | 02 November 2011 at 01:12 PM
Thanks very much for your good wishes, but I wasn't living in a box powering my laptop with a bicycle. I was staying in two comfortable flats, so leading a fairly normal life.
However since my return the drains have collapsed, causing flooding in the bathroom, and another round of tussles with builders, insurance, plumbers etc.
Linseed oil soaked rag - someone had cleaned their cricket bat and left the rag lying around?
Posted by: Rosie | 03 November 2011 at 07:20 PM
My father was a maintenance engineer who began his apprenticeship in 1936 and completed his training servicing aero engines in the Western Desert. Towards the end of his life he would look at such workmanship as was being done by younger men and shake his head with 'It's jist no' a job..' I hope that you get better from your own builders/plumbers and are settled in well for Christmas after that lengthy absence from home.
Posted by: Allan | 08 November 2011 at 06:28 PM
@ Allan - your father would have had something to say about builders who drop grouting, bits of tile, plaster dust etc down the toilet. These form a cement in the drains, so that they back up and my upstairs neighbour's waste water pours into my bathroom.
It's been quite a saga and friends and colleagues have heard about nothing else for the last 3 weeks or so.
Posted by: Rosie | 09 November 2011 at 05:58 PM
I'm usually firmly against the death penality. But.
Posted by: Flesh | 13 November 2011 at 12:32 AM
Very interesting. As long as everyone is safe and the job got done.
Posted by: Sophia | 23 March 2012 at 01:23 AM