Full house

Been so busy since our canal boat experience, this is the first time I have made an entry since then. Today has been a “bits and bobs” day, starting at 7am getting the kitchen out at the Oldbrook flat that we got back yesterday. Then at 7.30 Shane helped me get the washer dryer down the stairs and in my car so we could put it in the kebab flat as our one has just gone wrong. As we have it in the contract that we are to leave a washer dryer we replaced our new one with the 8 year old one from Oldbrook, just in the nick of time. I then had to take a big mirror and some huge boxes that Claire had filled with our stuff that the old tenant had given us. Whilst I was there I had a call from our metal work man that our stainless steel panels to fit over the doors at Neath Hill were ready. I shot home to the kebab flat and took the £200 suite locks out the front door and drove to Brinnick at Newport Pagnell to get cheap ones to replace them with. We couldn’t leave our suite locks here or the purchaser would never be able to get replacement keys for them and also we have a master key to our suite. I came back and replaced the locks then straight over to Bletchley to pick up the stainless steel panels, stop off at the Bletchley B&Q for a fitting to convert the old washing machine so it would work with cold feed only, then back to the kebab flat to change them around. I got the new one out and the old one in then Claire and I struggled to get it in the back of my car so we could take it to the menders. Quickly back in to connect up the old one and Claire put some clothes in that needed a wash so we could test it. I left the machine out so I could check the connections at the back of the machine for drips. When we got back from the car the kitchen was flooded but I couldn’t find any leaks at the back from anywhere so I pushed the machine part way under the unit to see that water was flooding out of the door. We switched the machine off and got the last few towels that are still here to soak the mess up. I then switched the machine onto rinse and spin and the water now came out the soap tray as well as the door so I had to switch it off again. As everything is already around Jim and Shirley’s Claire dashed over to the market to buy a mop, sponge and a bowl so I could sort it out. By the time she got back I had found that I had tightened the waste connector far too tight and I guess that the water couldn’t get through fast enough so it found other places to come out from. I switched it onto spin and changed the tension on the worm screw until I could feel the water going through and the connection stopped leaking. By the time Claire got back it was empty and mostly sorted. We called the washing machine man and he will check it out tomorrow as the door leaks anyway. Are you still following me?

All this excitement meant that we missed lunch and Claire bought a couple of sandwiches from BHS to keep us going as we were scheduled to meet the Aerial man at Neath Hill between 12.30 and 1 pm so he could fit our new digital aerial and sockets that we need to run our BT Vision and broadband.

While I was changing the washing machines over there was a knock at the door; I answered and it was the new boy from next door, he wanted to borrow some screwdrivers. As I handed them over I noticed that he was wearing one of those electronic security bracelets around his ankle. Goodbye screwdrivers.


We also had a call from Morgans, the agent that is letting out our Two Mile Ash flat and also our proper house in Giffard Park. They want us to go in and sign the contracts for the next 6 months as the tenant will be staying on. Just as I thought that something was going right, he followed that the tenant had lost the window key in the bathroom and could we get a replacement please. He then went on to say that there was trouble with the dryer at the Giffard Park house and should they send a man in to fix it?


Harriet rang Claire to say that she had a leak in her toilet from our favourite plumber but it wasn’t serious as she had a bowl under it. Another call from our tenant in our Cranfield bungalow with a leak in a pipe behind the toilet meant that we had a full house of problems from all our flats at the same time. Have to go now as we are off to pick up the van to move house!