01 August 2007

Not thrice but five times unlucky

The landlord must despair of us. Within the first month of us moving into the house we have:

  • lost one set of keys and had to call him out to let us in, just as a thunderstorm arrived
  • locked ourselves out a few days later when the frontdoor was pushed closed with the keys still in it, unfortunately on the inside (the door locks automatically). We had to call a locksmith to come and jimmy the door open
  • had to call out an electrician when we noticed the shaving plug in the bathroom nextdoor to the FB's bedroom was buzzing and getting rather warm.
  • had to have the landlord and two of his workers, come round to sort out the patio not once but twice. First time before the floods and then yesterday they were back taking up the stones and refilling and levelling the ground that was devastated by the waterfall.
  • And now we need a plumber to take a look at the dishwasher which isn't behaving itself.

This is getting ridiculous!

But, the patio is finished, the washingline is back up (just in time as the Count is now in cloth nappies) and the sun is shining (said as the dark clouds begin to roll in....)

(and thank you to all of you who left your commiserations on Monday's news.)

9 comments:

Aunty Evil said...

Sorry you are having such a bad run. Look at the bright side, when things start to go well, you will appreciate them more!

Stomper Girl said...

People sometimes think the best thing about being a renter is not having to fix (and pay for) this stuff, but I dunno. Every time we call I fear a rent increase will follow AND our landlord is the king of dodgy DIY on the cheap with stuff he's scavenged from other people's throw-outs.

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. She sounds like she was gorgeous.

velcro said...

We had mould AND mushrooms growing in the bathroom in our first flat in London because the seal around the shower had gone so water had leaked out and gone under the flooring. The estate agents ignored our requests for something to be done about it for several years (we used to pick and bin the mushrooms when they got too big) then one month after they came round to look at the problem we were chucked out! So we moved to a much nicer flat.

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

We've moved a lot in the past 17 years or so, and have discovered there is definitely a law that states, "Everything that is going to go wrong with the new place does so in the first three months". Get through that and you're cruising!

Very sorry to read about your friend. Sounds like you have some great memories.

Pam said...

I think you just need to concentrate on that nice view from your window and wait for the evil spirits of mechanical devices to move on.

Cloth nappies - well done, you. I had my children before disposables were invented (well, not quite; but people didn't use them much) and all those landfill sites full of soggy, poo-clumped nappies worry me. On the other hand, it would be very hard for working mums to cope with carrying soggy, poo-clumped cloth ones around. Different times.

I would just be too mean, though, to pay all that money for disposables. It's the close-fisted Scot in me.

velcro said...

thankyou Fairlie. I dream of owning my own home so I don't have to deal with landlords and their weird design ideas ie our fridge/freezer is so tall I can't reach the top shelf but the bathroom basins are at the perfect height for 4 year olds.

me too Isabelle. I found out how much it cost to use disposables v cloth and decided to use cloth. We are now experimenting with using washable wipes. MrV thinks I am mad

meggie said...

This happens even if you own a house. It is as if the hobgoblins of the house -for want of a better name- decide they will just test you out. And the bit about landlords using scavenged appliances- daughter knows all about that one.

So sorry about your friend's passing.

Anonymous said...

We were using cloth nappies (Bambino Mio) on Little Miss T up to a couple of days ago. They worked fine with no 1's but no 2's just makes a horrible mess of the edging and no amount of squirty stain remover gets the poo stain out and it's getting unhygienic. So she's temporarily on the disposables until her tiny little legs fatten up a bit.

I miss the cloth nappies, they make her bum look big and soooooo cute, well cuter than normal!

velcro said...

Meggie our old landlord used second or thirdhand appliances too which I would be ok with if they came with manuals.

MrsT we use Tots Bots which gives the Count a certain "fairy washingup liquid baby" look. They contain no2s very well but then both the FB (when he was a baby) and the Count have chubby baby thighs. I've read on the baby forums that the best way to get stains out is to dry them in the sun. Don't know if that works as well we've only had a few days of sun so far but worth trying. And now I must be off to hang some nappies out to dry!