I’m going to moan about life, you’ve been warned.

Firstly, I’ve not got much to moan about when compared to some people in the world – but we all live within our own context.  So in the global scheme of things, I’m super lucky.  But that doesn’t stop me being overwhelmed by rubbish stuff.  So, in an attempt at some cathartic release, here we go.

We bought our house about 5 or 6 years ago and haven’t done much to it since, so everything that’s ‘wrong’ with the house is a hangover from previous owners.

Driveway

Our driveway is tarmac.  It’s starting to perish and the rate of failure is increasing.  There’s a long crack from the front to almost the back, and about 2 feet of tarmac is going to slowly fall away.  I suspect when our next door neighbour had a long hedgerow removed to put in a fence, the contractor hasn’t backfilled tightly enough, or the ground has dried out, and so the drive has sunk a little.  Around a water access grate at the front of the drive it’s beginning to crumble, and near the back of the house where the tarmac joins a sheet of concrete patio, it’s sinking into a little hole.

Car

Car is due it’s MOT at the end of March and we know it’s going to fail with various bits.  If they come back and say it’s a few hundred, we’ll pay, if they say it’s a lot more we won’t, but if they come back in the middle ground, it’s always an annoying decision.  Pay and hope we get another year out of it, or don’t pay and just replace it.  Replacing a car isn’t easy for us either, we don’t know anything about them, and when you have no transport, getting around to buy another car is always a depressing experience.  I do not cope well.

Brickwork

A layer of bricks around the bottom of the house is crumbling.  This worries me in a sort of esoteric way, I’m not even sure how terrified I should be.

Electrics

The electrics in the house are a little worrying.  At some point, one of the previous owners did some ‘work’, so there are extensions running all over the place, plugs that appear to hang off other plugs, and various other things that seem clearly wrong to me.  But we’d need to get someone in and review it and then do a lot of work to fix it.  And we never have a single lump of cash to do that with.

Plumbing

The plumbing isn’t bad (especially compared to the electrics), but the bathroom sink hot tap has seized up, and although it’s decreasing in frequency, flushing the loo causes some of the pipes somewhere to vibrate.  Also, the silicon sealant around the bath and sinks has perished and really needs sorting.

Kitchen

The oven is starting to fall apart, and I try and avoid thinking about how the various bits of electrical equipment in the kitchen are actually wired in.

Windows

Our bedroom double glazed window has had a hole in the outside of the glass since we moved in.  The woodwork on all the frames needs serious attention.  One of the previous owners extended the kitchen, and the kitchen window’s outside wooden frame doesn’t actually fit into the brickwork properly.  So last year I found two 1.5cm diameter holes at the end of the woodwork, between the frame and the bricks.  Lovely.

Plaster

The paint on the wall in our bedroom under the window is flaking away.  Either it was put onto the plaster while it was wet, or we’ve got some damp action going on.

Decorating

The whole house is in serious need of internal decoration.