The final day of the advent calendar reveals a festive sight indeed - a pair of Darren's shoes and one of his suits I've just rescued from his wardrobe, which abutts the outside wall. I'm not sure what the future holds for the shoes, perhaps a good clean and a blast with the hairdryer, but the suit is going to the dry cleaners this afternoon.
It hasn't rained for 24 hours now and the forecast for the next few days is drier and warmer, which is a good job because my joints are really starting to creak in the damp. Even our letter box is copping it because it faces south and it's taken a real battering when the rain has been coming from that direction. We had a credit card bill that was so wet I had to peel it out of the envelope with a knife and dry it out flat on the worksurfaces overnight last week. I don't know why they put up with it, why don't they get some heating?
I phoned the estate agent, who was reluctant to speak to me because I only ever phone when there's a problem. I got through in the end, with some persistence.
"I think the owner of our flat ought to know we've got a huge problem with rising damp"
"How high up the wall?"
"It's risen about five feet in the past week. If this was my property, I'd need to know"
"Okay, I'll ring him"
"Is this normal in Sydney"
"Oh yes, if it rains. You should see all the terraced houses in Paddington, they're soaked through"
"Why don't you have heating?"
"We don't need it most of the time, just a couple of months a year"
I'd say a couple of months a year more than justifies some effective heating.
Anyway, to add to our woes, Ella has broken the zip on her winter sleeping bag so I'm off out to locate a new one before tonight.
Tomorrow we're off to a big hotel in the Blue Mountains, one that has radiators and roaring fireplaces. We're meeting up with Steve and Scott, my ex-stepbrother and his partner, for a five course Christmas dinner, carols, bagpipers and a visit from Santa. And a radiator. Steve flew back from Warrington last night so I'm expecting there will be some proper cadbury's chocolate in his bag. If he forgets it, he's toast.
3 comments:
I thought I had the perfect home,
I had my cavity walls filled with foam,
the central heating's on full,
the roof's full of wool,
but I've still got dampness in my walls, walls, walls, walls.
My ledges were starting to curl,
I had dampness in my world,
the kids were crying,
the coats weren't drying,
and the shelves were covered in spores, spores, spores, spores.
We need cool cool conditioned air,
feel it flowing though your hair, under your chair and everywhere,
cool, cool air, cool, cool air, cool, cool air.
Sorry, but this was the first thing I thought of when I saw those photos and the word 'spores' sprung to mind!
~Lou xx
(Puts building surveyor hat back on and rejoins the human race briefly while Little Miss T is asleep).
You'll be happy to know it's not rising damp as rising damp only rises 1 m max, so unless you've got a particularly gullible landlord you won't have people coming round injecting stinky stuff into the brickwork. Looking at the pics it's more likely condensation which always happens when it's cold. Get landlord to install better heating and extractor fans and wash black stuff down with bleach.
Mrs T
There's absolutely nil chance of the landlord doing anything. The australians don't do heating at all - I mean, there's no heating at all in this flat so we'd be asking the earth for him to install it. Glad it's not rising damp though was looking forward to Don Warrington mincing past with that sarky look on hs face.
Lou - that made me cry laughing. Can't believe I didn't think of it. BTW am teaching Ella to do the ow ow ow my wife's gonna kill me - she looks and sounds like a seal but we'll perfect it by January xx
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