when good houses go bad

Aggh. It's been one of those weeks when everything goes wrong!

I tested the underfloor heating on Monday, and three of the four zones ( eg kitchen, small sitting room and dining room) aren't working. That's OK now, in this nice warm muggy weather we're having, but what if we have a cold snap next week? Several phone calls to Nu Heat later and we have worked out that it's an electrical problem relating to the wireless thermostats and their receiver. The one bit which only carried a year's guarantee. Sighhh. So the nice guys at Harland and Voss are coming out tomorrow to take a look at it. I hope it will be quick and simple to fix, but I have a feeling it won't be.

Then I looked up at the dining room ceiling in an unwise moment yesterday and spotted a huge damp patch that wasn't there last week. We're not sure whether it means a leaking pipe ( the last bit of old pipework runs under my son's bedroom floor just above) or my son's habit of kicking over full cups of water onto the stripped wood floor up there. Really hoping it's the latter, as I can't bear the idea of having the floorboards up again!

Then Dawid, who is replacing the bit of the glass roof that cracked just after installation ( yes we are finally getting round to it!) noticed while he was up there measuring that the one next to it has cracked too! Double agggh! There are loads of them and at £250 a pop I could do without having to replace them all one by one.

Then, while I was out in the garden this morning I noticed that one of the slats on the cladding to the extension has worked loose and was dangling at a rakish angle over the sliding folding doors. I shoved it back in again and will have to get Dawid to look at it when he comes back.

And shamingly, I am going to have to ask Dawid to change one of the lightbulbs in the new shower room. My husband and I have both tried and failed to work out how to get the halogen spot out of its housing. Duh. Our only excuse is that it's not at all like the ones we had in our old house.

Actually writing it all down has been quite cathartic - and I realise it's not all that much really. Touch wood..

I have a lady coming out on Saturday to measure up and quote for the new sofa cover. In the meantime I am making do with an artfully draped cashmere blanket to cover the worst patch. I am kidding myself it is sort of shabby chic.

I have just noticed that it's almost exactly two years since I started this blog - time for a photo of the worst house at the worst time to remind me of how far we have come, cracked roof panes and damp patches aside?!