Tuesday 17 June 2014

17/06: CHRISTINE STRIKES AGAIN

Sorry for the very long gap between posts.   I've had pictures on exhibition in Birmingham, Patchings Art Festival website and now in Ilminster (many thanks to Pauline/Bev Lewis for storing/delivering the 4 pictures to Ilminster)

We've also been on holiday but had to cut our trip short as we had a problem at home.   The toilet cistern in the master bedroom ensuite developed a crack and water leaked through the ceiling into our lounge.   A friend was watching the house for us and phoned us to break the bad news.   She turned the water and electricity off and we got an early flight home.

We have oak flooring throughout 90% of the downstairs and the water has slowly caused the boards to rise/buckle which makes for an interesting experience to walk on - like a bouncy castle in places.

Insurers have agreed to cover replacement of all the wooden floor areas, lounger/diner, hallway and 2 downstairs bedrooms (his & her workrooms/studios) but we're still waiting for a visit from the 'contents' assessor to find out what will happen about our damaged furniture.    So the last few days we've been packing up the contents of all the wooden display units/sideboards/dressers etc to make furniture moving easier.     I'm not sure yet whether we have to clear everything out of the ground floor rooms or if the flooring guys will work room by room - I hope its the latter as we don't have much storage space to put all the furniture.

Regular followers of my Blog may recall that we have a travel computer which gets taken everywhere when we're away from home.     She is bright red and we call her Christine after the 'killer car' in Stephen King's book (also a film).    Our Christine hates me ... she once threw herself off a table when I walked past and the screen was totally scrambled.     Next day she'd regenerated herself (just like the car) and was more evil than ever.     This last trip, we left her at home and took a newer, more powerful computer with us - we thought we'd got away with it and never mentioned our trip in her presence..... but she obviously knew and this was her revenge .... will we ever be free of her?   LOL

Hole in ceiling - dangling wires where we had to remove the ceiling fan/light


Cracked cistern



The floor's like this in several places now



We're sitting on garden loungers to watch TV at the moment - Happy Days!


On the bright side .... I'll be despatching the portrait of a gorgeous yellow lab on Thursday in time for a 1st wedding anniversary gift (Saturday).    Can't show any pictures till then ... just in case.  


ps: apologies if you're seeing some garbled words above the final picture ... I can't seem to get rid of them - Christine at work again maybe   :-{

9 comments:

  1. Oh Sue, what a horrible sight to come home to! Those wubbling floors would leave me so upset.

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  2. I haven't seen the movie or read all of Christine, which is odd for me since i love King (except his story endings, the man can write a good story but cannot write an ending to save his life :p)

    well, if you ignore the bumpy floor, you have a very nice looking house :)
    (get an exorcise for that laptop!!)

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  3. So sorry Sue, what a mess! Lets hope your insures pay up. As long as none of your precious art was damaged then that is one blessing.
    How about threatening Christine with the tip if she doesn't behave herself :-)

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  4. I feel so sorry for the mess you are in. Such a lot of damage. christine is a swine and needs a good hiding. Hope it gets sorted really quickly

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  5. Thank you ladies ... would anybody like to 'adopt' Christine LOL

    One good thing that has come out of all this is that whilst clearing cupboards/rooms in readiness for the floor being ripped up/replaced we're discovering treasures that haven't seen the light of day for 7 years and therefore can't be needed. Lots of things going to the charity shops and the Tip. I'm clearing lots of old 'practice' pieces from my studio so when all the work is completed we'll have had a good 'declutter'!

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  6. What a mess. The sofa and chairs look relatively OK but I guess they aren't or you would be using them. I don't envy you all the work. Maybe you should go back to the Canaries whilst they are doing all the repairs.

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  7. The sofas are smelly Jo. Although they are leather the water has penetrated through the seams/fabric sections. The Contents assessor visited yesterday but I won't know till next week if they want to try professionally drying/cleaning them or if we'll be authorised to replace them. So in the interim they have to stay indoors which is adding to the 'musty' smell.

    Nice idea about going to Fuerte whilst work is done .... a lot will depend on the timings as we'll be having 3 different lots of contractors doing repairs at different stages

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  8. Sue, Maybe you should have left Christine on the floor while you were in Fuerte!

    Hope it all gets straightened up quickly!

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  9. Good thinking Jan - she wouldn't risk 'drowning' herself but she'd have found some other way of wreaking havoc I'm sure.

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