Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

We have a plumbing emergency :eek:.

I'd just stepped out of the shower when a loud noise started. I thought DH was hoovering, but then I thought it sounded more like water but I'd turned the shower off. So I peeped out of the door and the toilet next to the bathroom had developed into Niagara Falls :eek: :eek: :eek:. So I yelled for DH to turn the water off (as I was still wrapped in a towel :rotfl:). By then the toilet floor was flooded and it had all dripped through the kitchen ceiling :eek:.

So we have no water atm and the downstairs electrical circuit won't come on so no telly. DH is devastated about no telly :rotfl:. Luckily we have coke and bottled water to drink and anti bacterial wipes for hand washing .

We've called our plumber who is very nice and doesn't charge an emergency call out fee (DH met him on Twitter). He charges £45 an hour plus parts and will be here within an hour. Hopefully it's just a burst pipe and nothing too major. But we've used every towel in the house mopping the toilet and kitchen floors.

Exciting times .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Have you noticed that these things always happen at the weekend? I'm glad it happened AFTER I'd had my shower .

teafor2

Oh no :eek: It always amazes me how much mess a spilt drink can cause let alone a leaking pipe. Thank goodness you can call on somebody pronto who isn't going to rip you off. Hope it gets sorted. xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

Oh no :eek: It always amazes me how much mess a spilt drink can cause let alone a leaking pipe. Thank goodness you can call on somebody pronto who isn't going to rip you off. Hope it gets sorted. xx

Thanks TF2 . The plumber is here now and it's just a pipe that needs replacing. He said he was playing with his beehives when DH rang :rotfl:.

It is amazing how much water can be generated by a simple burst pipe :eek:. Gallons and gallons by the look of it. The toilet floor was like a paddling pool and water was dripping through several places of the kitchen ceiling. :eek: Luckily I'd emptied lots of plastic boxes when I was de-cluttering earlier so we were able to place them under all the drips as we only have one bucket.

Once it dries out we'll have to paint the kitchen ceiling AGAIN :mad:.

Onebrokelady

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Thank you OBL . I'm going to be very de-cluttering everyone on the forum after I've finished my own de-cluttering :rotfl: :rotfl:.

You've always liked horsed then?

Brio is expensive isn't it? :eek:. I reckon we've got £200 worth of Brio, DS2's Playmobil castle is going for 187 dollars on ebay, and the Duplos sets we've got are probably equally valuable as we have the farm set, zoo set and safari set :eek:. You can see where some of our debts came from .

I used to love making schools and houses out of lego and had family sets of miniature china animals who lived in them :rotfl:.

I've loved horse since I could walk and started riding when I was about 7 years old:)
Brio can be expensive depending on what you buy but the set I've found isn't too bad,I like that you can add to it and buy exactly what you need and it lasts forever:T

HairyHandofDartmoor

The burst pipe has been replaced and the water is back on :T. It should cost £40 plus the cost of the pipe as the plumber wasn't here for more than an hour, so hopefully not more than £50-£60. It's lucky he was able to come so quickly.

Unfortunately the downstairs electricity circuit won't turn on so we have no telly and can't cook . The water was running down the kitchen walls so the electrics must need to dry out. So a takeaway it is then. This is turning out to be an expensive evening! We may have to relearn the art of conversation too with no telly to watch :eek:.

[Deleted User]

Sorry to hear about your water calamity. It never rains but it pours doesn't it in more ways than one;)

Have you checked your house insurance policy to see if any of this damage and repair is covered? My Mum had a burst pipe leading to one of her central heating radiators and a bit of the carpet was sodden. The insurance paid out for a completely new fitted carpet for that room :j. She would have been perfectly happy to put a nice rug over the stained bit of carpet once it dried out but the loss adjustor or whatever he was called who went to see her said they'd replace the whole carpet instead. Mum and Dad had never made a claim in their whole lives and had 'new for old' cover so I suppose it was only fair.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks Noella . We can check our house insurance to see what our excess is, but as long as the kitchen ceiling doesn't come down it will hopefully just be the plumber's bill and the cost of a bit of ceiling paint. So unless our excess is only £50 then it wouldn't be worth claiming. I suspect our excess is £100.

Luckily we have laminate flooring in the kitchen which we dried quickly and the area that got dripped on was the bit where the table and chairs are, so none of the kitchen appliances got wet.

beanielou

Oh dear.
Sorry to read this

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Thanks Noella . We can check our house insurance to see what our excess is, but as long as the kitchen ceiling doesn't come down it will hopefully just be the plumber's bill and the cost of a bit of ceiling paint. So unless our excess is only £50 then it wouldn't be worth claiming. I suspect our excess is £100.

Luckily we have laminate flooring in the kitchen which we dried quickly and the area that got dripped on was the bit where the table and chairs are, so none of the kitchen appliances got wet.

Thanks. Yes, these excesses are a pain aren't they. I had it on the pet insurance for my cat and either the condition he was being treated for wasn't covered by all the exclusions in the cover or the excess made it hardly worth making a claim. I cancelled the policy when I was in a lot of debt as the premiums weren't cheap. I always managed to find the cost of the vet bills as I'd had to even when I wasted my money on the insurance. Sadly, we can't really risk not having home or car insurance can we?

I was imagining ceilings crashing down:eek:. Glad the damage isn't so severe:j. There might yet be some big expense with the electrics though and once water gets into the wiring it might not be as simple as just waiting for things to dry out. In our experience, electrical work seems to be very expensive these days:(.


Enjoy your 'old fashioned' evening without TV or other electrical gadgets and devices. Lovely to hear how you and DH are taking this emergency in your stride:beer:. A few months ago the payment of an unexpected bill would have been a cause for great anxiety