Wednesday, April 2, 2008

House of Horror

We seem to have moved into Amityville. Only instead of rooms filled with flies, taps that drip blood and a voice in the basement yelling, "Get Out!" we have a couple of dripping pipes, a boiler that stopped working, a fridge that stopped working and lights that, erm, stopped working. Perhaps less the Amityville Horror, more the Amityville Disappointment.

Not our houseAs of yesterday we'd lost the boiler and two lights. Plus the dishwasher was broken, but we noticed that when we opened it on final walk through and the door fell off.

OK not Amityville, perhaps Mrs Potarto made a better comparison when she said, "I feel like Shelly Long in The Money Pit."

Walter: I'm not trying to tell you your business but you haven't even looked at my pipes.
Plumber: I looked at them three years ago. You figure they've improved with age?

Yesterday another light went and then I noticed water dripping from the ice-maker in the fridge-freezer. During the day, my better half got all the food next door into the neighbour's freezers - nice neighbours - and we spent the evening on the internet trying to find a place that would deliver in less than a week. Every other time we've bought something - a carpet, a bed, a dishwasher - they've been almost too eager to deliver, "I assume you would like that tomorrow, please pick a two-hour slot." When it comes to something we really do need immediately the shops have gone all old-world on us. Delivery in a week from Sears was the best I found, with some sites suggesting a three weeks' wait.

This morning another two lights died which motivated me to do a little circuit testing. The fusebox trip switches were all normal, but the first light fitting I looked at did not respond to new bulbs. I thought I'd try plugging the fridge into a different socket, so I got an extension lead and plugged it into a nearby socket. The extension lead has an led so you can see if it is receiving current. The led stayed off. I tried it in another socket - led came on. Back to the nearby socket - led still off. The socket has a little red button which is some sort of trip switch. I pushed it and the led came on. As did the fridge that is plugged into a completely separate socket!

$1,200 saved and I was awarded a hug, which was very nice.

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