Back when we moved in 2018, we discovered a leak in the downstairs ‘bathroom’ (amongst many, many other problems which I ranted about across two separate posts: Appearances can be deceptive [..] and Moving Tales: Part 2) I said, on making that discovery:

the leak appears to be coming from the shower, which is a lot easier to fix than if it were e.g. coming from upstairs

So you can imagine how much I laughed and laughed when 6 months after having that fixed, water did actually start leaking through the ceiling from upstairs. (Spoilers: did not actually laugh)

We thought, at first, that we knew where that leak was coming from. The upstairs shower cubicle door was slightly warped so didn’t close properly; we thought that the water was running off the bottom and through a small gap in the floorboards where some of the central heating pipes came through. We blocked the hole with a rag as necessary and continued to use the shower.

Bad idea. The problem got worse.

Because of the weird construction of the shower cubicle (recessed backwards over the stairwell, with the cubicle some ~2ft in the air and complete with badly constructed step) I had to start dismantling parts of the bathroom to try and see where the problem lay:

But the more I dismantled, the more obvious the extent of the leak became. There was extensive water damage to the vinyl flooring, the chipboard underneath (which appears to be standard loft boarding instead of the water resistant stuff they recommend for use in bathrooms) and the framework that the shower sat on:

The problem was obviously a long-standing one, as the joists that support the floorboards underneath all this are completely rotten have some water damage, but it’s not as bad as we first thought – woohoo! One step in the wrong place and the floor sinks by several centimetres under your feet. It’s probably nothing short of a miracle that the ceiling hadn’t come through.

Still, when life hands you lemons, the only thing you can do is make lemonade. I’ve come to terms with our house purchase and am practicising being stoic about the work involved to put it right (how am I doing?!) It’s an opportunity to turn the room into something more useful to our wants and needs.

For example, the old bathroom had obviously been designed for short people, with a small bath along the narrowest wall:

However, when you’re 5 foot 8 inches (10 feet tall in Gaz’s case… something like that) tiny baths are entirely useless, so we’re using the opportunity to refit an ‘extra long’ shower bath. This means we can keep the actual shower unit exactly where it is, and still fit a nice bath in the room.

Combined shower/baths aren’t for everyone, but prior to this house it’s all I’ve ever had so it doesn’t feel like a hardship. The new floorplan should then hopefully look a bit like this (with the shower over the left side of the bath):

We’re keeping the same style of wall tiles (‘metro’, which seem to be everywhere) in the hope that we can then replace fewer to keep costs down, as well as re-using the same sink, under-sink cupboard and taps etc — all being well. That should leave us in a better position for our next project at the end of the year (ooooh~)

So… the plumber is upstairs removing rotten wood and damaged tiles as I type. If you could cross your fingers that he doesn’t discover another layer of issues that we have to deal with before the above can be completed, that’d be great. And hopefully my next post will be a glorious ‘after’!

I posted at length late last year about all of the things that had gone wrong with our new house. This week marks a year since we moved and as I feel like we’re finally starting to settle in — I know, after 12 months! — it seemed poignant to give an update. Many of… read full entry »

Alright me duckies, how are we all? You may notice that things look a bit different. I’ve gone a bit old skool, drawing inspiration from some seriously old layouts of mine. Kudos if you have been around long enough to remember the originals. I’ve not finished faffing with it but it’ll do for now. Or… read full entry »

With at least two of my friends in the process of buying a house at the minute, and my place full to bursting with accumulated STUFF since Gaz moved in, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking lately about what I’d like out of a home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not moving any… read full entry »

I wrote this last week but have been a tad busy – oops! Juneathon day 7 saw me take another slightly unorthodox activity day. No, not more vacuuming (although there was plenty of that), but the second Sunday spent totally gutting my home ‘utility’ (that is, brick lean-to outside the back door). The utility is… read full entry »

In a recent post I mentioned the fact that I was finally going to finish decorating my living room. Karl and I started this back in 2012, but a combination of small children, full time work and laziness got in the way so it was never finished. However, now the house is “mine” I have… read full entry »

One of the good things about half term and end of term holidays, which the kids spend with their Dad due to him only working term time, is the fact that I get my babies for the entire weekend instead. No splitting, no half days or couple of hours here and there like before and… read full entry »

Last year we built a cat run. The original plan was to have one built for us by a guy who specialises in bespoke wooden runs but after 2 visits he went quiet and despite numerous calls and emails we’ve never heard anything back. Anyway, we did some searching and found some metal run panels… read full entry »

We had some sunshine here in jemjabella-land today, so despite the chill in the air, everyone was wrapped up warm and shoved into the garden (and as such both kids were asleep for 6:30pm despite Oliver having late nap!) I’ve re-potted my strawberry babies from the runners last year into their allotted tyre and did… read full entry »

Spurred on by your suggestions in my plea for ideas post, Karl and I have set about hacking at the living room this week. We’ve pulled off 90% of the paper, started removing the hideous and uneven polystyrene coving, and replaced the skirting that was — for some absurd reason — nailed to the wall… read full entry »