DIY Job!

After work this morning (on my phase-return) I returned home and fell asleep on the sofa. Late afternoon I drove to Holme in an attempt to turn off the water supply. We are worried about burst pipes as we have found out that after a certain number of months, you are not insured for quite a number of things including accidental water damage, which is quite shocking really.

I spent a while cleaning all the bird ponds out and topping up the feeders – why I'm doing this I don't really know, after all what is the point?! I simply can not neglect all the things that mother used to do. The first issue was finding the stopcock, which I remembered was somewhere in the front garden. Finding it would be a problem, as mother had planted things and built up the soil over the years and I can't remember the last time I saw it! After destroying plants and loads of digging I lost heart and sat on the front step in despair. I didn't even want to come back to the house anymore, everything feels very sad here now. I phoned my dear old family friend Malcolm W. for advice, in fact I had to ring him several times!

I eventually found the stopcock and how to turn the water off. I ran all the taps off in the house and found that this didn't take long at all. BUT, the last tap, the outside tap would not stop running. I called Malcolm for advice again and he said to turn the outside tap off and then turn the cold kitchen tap on, which I did and water came out of that tap and again didn't stop. Malcolm thought there simply must be a fault with a valve or washer or something within the stopcock and this would be Anglian Water's responsibility. I rang AW and it was indeed – their next appointment slot is a two hour slot on Friday afternoon – good job I'm not at work at that time!

My DIY Tap Frost Cover!

Next job was to lag the outside tap. I watched a brilliant Youtube video last night, which mean't it only cost me £1.20 to make this piece of kit and that was for the gripper (like a giant peg). I didn't cut the slit in the side of the plant pot (as the video) as didn't have a hose pipe attached and instead of a plant pot I used a larger plastic tub that had contained fat balls. Found a bungee in my shed and bubble wrap in the house. I already had duck tape and bought the gripper tool from a DIY shop in Hunstanton! Father would have been very impressed I think. I left Holme far later than intended at 8.10pm and had a very late tea when I returned home.