A leak here and a leak there

We’re slowly eradicating our mould problems and it seems the universe has taken offense.

First off, our shower is leaking. The leaky pipes are within the wall and just happen to be directly above a power outlet located on the other side. The paint has bubbled up on this wall as the moisture slowly found its way out and down toward the source of electricity. We’re no longer able to shower or we risk the wall getting more damaged and the potential for a fire to start. We noticed the paint bubbling, popped the side of the bath off (our shower is above the bath tub) and realised the concrete floor was soaked, the underside of the bath and the wood that helps support it were literally caked in mould. The water has also soaked into the concrete and found its way under the wall into the kitchen. This appears to have been happening for a while now as the kitchen units along that wall are also caked in mould across the back. We will likely need to replace the units in the kitchen, which isn’t too much of an issue as we needed a new kitchen anyway, as well as dismantle half the bathroom to fix the source of the problem, which is also not too much of an issue as we also needed a new bathroom. Maybe £10k to do them both to a decent standard.

To add insult to injury, the cess pit decided to spring a leak. The container itself is, thankfully, fine. There’s a broken inlet pipe somewhere, letting rainwater in. We don’t have an issue with sewage leaking out but every time it rains the cess pit fills up pretty quickly. We could likely dig up the pipes and try to fix it but we need to replace the cess pit for a water treatment plant anyway. This is not a cheap thing to do – we’re looking at a starting figure of about £8k, though this will likely increase due to some issues with the water run-off and our lack of land.

They say it comes in three’s. They’re wrong.

My car engine light came on. Hopefully this is just the sensor – clearing it hasn’t worked so the next step is to replace the sensor itself. I’m not sure what the sensor is called but it checks the engine vibration and if it detects something amiss, alerts the driver. If the sensor is not faulty it’s potentially a new engine, which with my old-ass car likely means a new car.

A day after the engine warning light came on, my windscreen cracked. Luckily my insurance covers the cost of repair minus £125, which I have to pay. Not too bad.

Though a few days after, my partner and the baby were in a car crash. Both are fine! However the car is likely a write-off. The other party admitted fault right away and their insurance will pay out the value of the car, but until that happens we’re without a second car, which makes it difficult for me to fix mine. Not impossible, just difficult.

I guess it comes in six’s? Maybe two sets of three.

I’m excited to get these problems sorted. Though they’ve all come at once, besides the written off car they’re all things we planned on doing anyway. They’re the last renovation things we need to do before we can start on the detailing – primarily, sorting out the network (allowing me to finally post something technical on here again)

The fact that these things are now active problems means we’re more focused on fixing them. We could have paid to update our bathroom at any point but have been putting it off. Now, though, we’re looking at getting it done sooner. The downside is that we don’t have the money to do it all in one go so we do need to pick our battles in the right order (the cess pit first!)

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