We traveled 8 sunny weeks and visited the most beautiful places!!
The house and animals were looked after by two different care takers (each one month), they did their very best but I think you know the feeling that you have to reconquer your house again after you have been away for quite some time.So did we; we put furniture, cutlery, kitchenware, tableware, towels, bedding back to where we were used to store and use it. This took us a while because we also had some very unpleasant surprises during te first days we were home............
Are you familiar with the expressions that all disasters come in three?
And it is so very true!!
We knew already that the washing machine wasn't working anymore. Unfortunately the last care taker
decided that she could do her little washing without it and did not call for a repair as asked for by us in a little note until the day before she left and as agreed on forehand, she could get a temporary machine.But she booked an appointment for an engineer the next week.
This is what a little note told us when arriving home.
When the engineer arrived, he told us that a repair was almost going to cost as much as a new one so we did what had to be done and went to the shop to buy one. A little sore on the financial side but what could one do.
It arrived the day after, Expert, the company where we buy our domestic machinery, is always offering a superb service.
We were ever so happy because the laundry was piling up; bedding from the caretaker, the dog beds and our holiday laundry.The new washing machine has a lovely feature: delayed starting time. From 24.00 - 07.00 hours we have a much cheaper electricity rate and we now could make full use of it.
After two nights, half of the laundry was done but the third night, the machine decided to throw all its water overboard. Not through the hose but through some mysterious other place and we found the floor covered in liters and liters of water.
And this was of course on a Saturday morning. Bless Expert because they promised to bring us a new machine the same afternoon. And so they did.
On the Friday, we went to a reception of the pensioning of a dear cousin in Groningen. When home again late that evening, we must have forgotten to switch off all lights in the car because when we wanted to go shopping, the battery of the car was totally flat. We recharged it and went off. But after we loaded all our shoppings in the car, it again refused to start. And on top of that, believe it or not, we had forgotten our mobile phone and could therefore not ring anyone.
But in the parking area were a few very kind people who wanted to help us out.
The first one was the owner of a brand new Mercedes. He parked his car close to ours and we all looked for his battery which, oh no... we could not find!! The instruction book explained it was under the seat.
The owner however was a disabled man and we did not want to cause him anymore trouble.
The next person to help put, was a very nice lady driving a Ford. She also parked her car close to ours and when we wanted to open the hood we could nowhere find how to do that! No knobs or handles at all.
We looked inside the car, outside the car, between the chairs and any other odd places. But the hood remained firmly closed.
We all felt so silly, especially the nice lady who was going to ask her husband, as soon as she arrived home,
where the handle was....The third person was a man in an old reliable Peugeot without hidden tricks and in no time the engine of our car was running again. What a relief!!
Again a huge THANK YOU to all who helped or tried to help us.
Home gain the battery went flat in no time and we had to call the AA who arrived at the same time as Expert.
It was very busy at our doorstep with people walking in and out with machines and tools.
But at the end of the Saturday everything was up and running again and we finished the laundries without any problem.
Though at the back of our head was still that little voice telling us that all disasters come in three.
So what next?
Days went by without disasters of any kind and we sighed with relief.
Too soon though!!
On Wednesday, after our wonderful friend Jaap visited us bringing lovely roses, we noticed that the waist water in the kitchen and the little basin in the bathroom, did not disappear. It stayed where it was, what ever we tried.
Fortunately it didn't effect the WC or the shower but we were not able to use the upstairs WC either. One can live with that for a short while though.The next day we bought Soda and tried to to clean the pipes. Sometimes we thought it helped but not long after it was all clogged again. We could easily locate where it was blocked but could not solve it on our own. We called a sewer company who was able to help us out on Friday.
They arrived on time and were able to solve the problem within half an our. We paid the bill and talked the somewhat strange draining system through. When we bought the house, we were not connected to the Community Sewage System and the previous owners all added their own pipes. We simplified it but the contractor also added his own wisdom which means that the kitchen, washing machine, dishwasher and upstairs bathroom basin are all connected to the same long pipe running under the whole house where it easily could have been connected to the large pipe connected to the Community System.
We decided to ask for an offer to change the whole situation to avoid future problems.
They returned on the Monday, made us an acceptable price and this Friday they are going to dig up the path next to the kitchen.
Hopefully it will be a dry day, we had so much rain that it we wonder of they arrive in wet suits and flippers.
Or in clay proof suits. They have to dig through one meter of proper Frisian clay..............
