Nineteen years of neglect, procrastination or good old "head in sand" mentality has come home to roost in the last couple of months. While we were furiously spinning the hamster wheel in our jobs in Taipei, we tended to give scant regard to our humble little apartment back in Merewether. After all, wasn't that why we'd bought it in the first place? Easy care, modern block of units, brand new: it will take care of itself, right? Right it was, but nearly two decades later, a few issues we haven't dealt with are needing our attention!
Hot water systems are supposed to last between 10 and 15 years. Afraid that ours would burst and cause flooding in our place and below (as happened when the system in the floor above gave way a few years back), plus a suspiciously leaking overflow pipe and gasping noises emanating from the tank (!) we decided to get it replaced. Cass did some research, contacted a likely looking firm and they dispatched someone without delay. The plumber was great and got to work. Win, win, win!
Only trouble was the spectre of dodgy builders past came back to haunt us yet again! The morons who originally installed the gigantic water system did so in a cupboard, then built the door frame around it, meaning it was never going to come out without obliterating the door frame! After hours of me and the plumber chiselling, sawing and hefting, we gave up and he tore the side of the door frame off with a flurry of chips and wood splinters jettisoning out before finally the HWS was free from its bondage! What a saga. To add insult to injury, we were billed an extra three hours of labour costs! Now of course, I'm desperately seeking a carpenter who can replace the ruined door frame...wish me luck!
The other ongoing dodgy building fault is the leak in our main bedroom that has been "fixed" dozens of times over about 7 years! Now that we're finally here, we're persisting with different groups of roofers and plumbers, and various fixes have been attempted in the last months. Yet another is planned for a date as yet to be determined. The quote is in, but our frustrations continue as the plumber has to quote, the strata committee has to approve, it goes back to the plumbers, they have to schedule, then they come and "fix", finally they have to come back later and "pressure test". All this takes endless days and weeks and still the water flows in every time we have a storm, sponges and dams built from towels having to be changed and replaced as long as the rain endures.
We have wardrobes and cupboards quoted and waiting for a confirmation date, but we can't proceed as the leak must be fixed first, then the carpet replaced, or at least, re-attached. As the delays continue, the time frame balloons: even if we committed now, the date for commencement is mid January. Even a screen door we ordered won't come for a month! All these delays and impediments are not encouraging us to go ahead with any major renovations to kitchen and bathrooms....we can hardly imagine the trauma that would induce!
Anyway, it's lucky we don't have to fit a job in as well. Merrily going about our "real lives" in Taipei was frantic, exhilarating, fulfilling and quite often exhausting, but on our visits here in June and July each year to recuperate and re-charge for another hectic year, perhaps we should have done a modicum of maintenance on our Newcastle abode....it might have alleviated some of the issues we're experiencing now. Suffice to say we're determined to get the backlog of jobs done and we feel we're slowly whittling away at the necessary tasks.
We continue to do our daily walk and little jobs interspersed with lots of interaction with Chris&Val and trips to the Bay where we're helping their gargantuan task of moving, packing, selling etc. etc. Busy times! I'm re-reading Stephen King's masterful "On Writing" and Cass is wading through a rising tide of violence, deceit and general skulduggery in Hilary Mantel's second weighty tome of the Wolf Hall trilogy.
Photos: shots from the walks, Chris the Fragile(!), destroyed door frame, and some beautiful new linen bought with gift vouchers from David Jones that were presented to us by our former colleagues when we left in June.