Plumbing Pandemonium

As ever, the never-ending DIY train is hurtling on at full speed, stopping this week at Bathroom Central. Yes, I’ve had the plumbers in all week and no, that’s not a euphemism for that time of the month (you know, ‘I’ve got the painters in’, as your Nan might say). Nowadays John and I are posh, fancy types, and have two bathrooms (main and en-suite) so that’s double the effort and double the expense, oh yay. You’ve heard of John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott? Well I’m Flissy ‘Two Bogs’ 666! There was nothing wrong with the old bathrooms – they were white, clean and quite new. But there was nothing right about them either – just complete B&Q cheapy nonsense. Oh, and they were painted blue. Yeuch – I hate that colour on walls sooooo much. If I were the PM, I’d make blue bathrooms illegal. Sorry – I realise that the majority of the world adores blue bathrooms but I DON’T. So there Oh, and there would be a series of by-laws which banned the sale of the attendant nautical-themed accessories. Punishable by death. I have a half-demolished photo to show you, but avert your gaze quickly if your aesthetic sensibilities are easily offended. BTW – those wavy lines on the wall are where some hideously naff wavy Ikea mirrors had been stuck up with no-nails. I told you it was bad.Progress has been okay this week. In the en-suite, the shower cubicle has been fitted and tiled out and the new lav is in. In the main bathroom it is all fitted, and the chrome towel rail has been installed. There have been a few problems – the shower cubicle needed to be re-built because the walls were out, the en-suite sink had been cast poorly so needs replacing and the pipework to the heated towel rails had to be re-routed. Oh, and the house flooded. I kid ye not. It’s Friday night and I’m plonked in the new bath, and suddenly I notice a ‘tap, tap, tap’ sound. Then I realised it was a ‘drip, drip, drip’ sound. John runs down the stairs and water is rushing out of the ceiling into my lovely new kitchen! He shot outside to turn of the water; and I jumped straight out of the bath to start bailing out the water using the bathroom bin into the basin, as I knew that didn’t leak. Fortunately the plumber came back in 5 minutes and the problem was easily fixed (dodgy plug seal). Nonetheless, it was a scarring experience. It could have been a lot worse though and at least I remembered to put my clothes back on admist the chaos!In non-house related news, I’m still plugging away at Mum’s Christmas present. I can’t understand why it’s taking me so long! Curse those 3mm needles! Is there some secret knitting skill that no-one’s told me about? I look at the sites of such talented people as Julie and Jenny and wonder how the hell they do it! Perhaps they have special prosthetic limbs that they wear for knitting to speed the whole process up. Anyhow, I’m so slow that the Christmas WIP list is going to have to be reviewed.Also had a little spend on some fabric. I’m getting a sewing machine for Christmas, so am gathering supplies akin to a squirrel gathers nuts. The spotty cord is going to be used to line Mum’s bag.Right – off to crack on with that bag. We’ve an extra hour today because the clocks went back, so I may get at least an extra centimetre done. If anyone would like to share the knitting secret, please do!