Maintenance on one’s own house, at least when that house is an old one, never really stops. To quote Neil Hannon, it’s like “painting the Forth Bridge with a toothbrush”. By the time you get to the end, it’s time to start again from the other end.
Last week, a membrane was sealed into place on our bathroom balcony, hopefully eliminating the seepage responsible of the brown stains on the ceiling of the conservatory.
I do hope so, because today, the painters were in to paint the ceiling of most of the ground floor.
Back in October 2008 and while we were away in the US, we had a leak in the pipes by the boiler in the loft, which caused the boiler to cleverly empty itself via a very indirect route onto our dining-room ceiling.
The actual area that sustained damage was only a few square metres, but because our dining-room flows seamlessly into our kitchen in one direction and our living-room in the other, the entire surface area of the three rooms needed to be painted. Happily, the insurance is coughing up for this little job.
And so we had them do the ceiling of the conservatory, too. Everything’s looking pristine again and the smell of water-based paint fills the ground floor. As it pours with rain outside, I find myself hoping that the roofer did a good job and really did cure those conservatory leaks. The balcony is located directly above the conservatory, so if it’s not watertight, the conservatory gets it.
Even now, almost a year and a half after moving in here, this house is still yielding surprises. Take, for example, the last time the heating people were here to do their annual maintenance on the heating and air-conditioning systems.
They alerted us to the presence of an unused heat recovery ventilation unit (I must admit that I had to look up the English name for a warmteterugwinapparaat) in the crawlspace under the house. It had never been plugged in, because there was simply no socket in the crawlspace.
So, when the electrical people came to do their annual maintenance on our alarm system and security cameras this week, I had the electrician run electricity to this device. It’s now quietly humming away, hopefully providing us with better air than we’ve been hitherto breathing.
Can you believe that this machine was just sitting there, lurking in the inhospitable nether regions of our house, unused for all the years it had been in situ? No-one had had the gumption to run electricity to it. Presumably, the previous owner of the house had paid good money for it. Perhaps he didn’t even know it was there; or perhaps he didn’t care. We’ll never know.
I also had the electrician fit a fluorescent light in the cellar, so that we (and the heating people on future visits) can see around down there. All I can see now is piles of rubble, other debris and evidence of subsidence; not recent, I sincerely hope.
Speaking of casting light and banishing the darkness, I also had them fit a fluorescent light at the back of the loft, so that the boiler area is now also illuminated. Up until now, there was light only at the front of the loft, by the folding stairs. Again, this will primarily benefit the heating people, who have been a regular fixture at this place for one reason or another since we moved in. They’ve already made two visits to us this year alone, to fix yet another problem with the boiler, unrelated to any we’ve experienced before.
More outside maintenance on the house is planned for this coming Wednesday. I just keep ticking the boxes.