Oh goddddddd...

[byslantedlight]

I think I must have done something terrible to someone's house in a previous life, because I seem destined not to have a nice comfortable home of my own... Granted, this one is too small for me, and cold and expensive to heat (cos it has no efficient heaters, just stand-alone electric ones) and there are rats (or summat!) in the roof, but... it was basically sound and I was getting on with it and quite glad not to have to pack up and move again within a year. Plus lovely walk down the long garden, and view over to the hills...

So I thought...

So today I decided to be very good and take my Christmas decorations down early - I usually wait until after twelfth night and take them down on the 6th January, but today being Sunday and all, and tomorrow a work day - I decided to be good. I undressed the tree and got everything put away, and the tree into the car for the tree-recycling place, and hoovered up all the needles (well, lots of them - it's never all, is it...) and paused for lunch. Then I went to move the shelves back into where the tree'd been, from their emergency-space in the bedroom, and had a quick dust... and thought huh, that looks like damp behind the bed... So I moved the bed, and sure enough - damp along the wall. Gaaah! Not lots and not too nasty, but needing dealt with, so I trotted over to Landlord who brought his special mould cleaning stuff and even cleaned it for me, bless him. And okay, this has happened before on the same wall.

And as I did it, I thought well I hope it's not gone further along, but I know I checked behind the bookcases not long ago and they were fine... So I shone a torch behind them, just to be on the safe side - and there's big spodges of damp. Waaaah! Landlord offers to clean it for me tomorrow, but I'd rather do it tonight, so I just ask him to leave me the stuff. So I move all the books off the first bookcase (about six long shelves full), and pile them precariously around the bed, and clean the wall. And the back of the bookcase, which is, of course, also somewhat fluffy with damp mould. And then I shine my light behind the next bookcase, expecting to see perhaps a little bit more of the same, and sure enough there are patches. So I sigh (okay, I swear long and loudly), and start removing books and teetering them up between doorways, and then I move the bookcase out properly, and...

Gaaaaaaah! It would be less scary if it hadn't infiltrated that electricity socket, but... *sighs more* So I moved my books even further away, and here now is my Mount To-Be-Rescued, where my Christmas tree was just this morning...

And I moved the Paper Circuit Library folders that I'd brought inside cos they'd be drier/safer inside than down in the Slaughterhouse, where the ivy is winning, and ow-my-back, and then I realised I didn't really want to sleep in the room with the nasty chemical mould-remover smell, or the Big Bad Damp patches (waiting so the electrician can see what's going on, hopefully tomorrow), so here's my new bedroom...

I'm not convinced that my sofa bed is terribly comfortable, though to be fair I always meant to try it before subjecting guests to it...
Although, with interesting timing, I'm sort-of house-sitting for my friend who's off on another cruise with her lecturing partner (forensics, well-cool, I've been a test-audience for him recently *g*) for the next three weeks, and so if Landlord does find that he needs to take off the entire bedroom wall and re-do it then if he does it in the next three weeks, I at least have somewhere else I can sleep... *sigh*

But did you notice that bit of the sentence? He might have to have the entire back wall of my house taken off and sorted out! And electricity turned off, and general uninhabitable-ness... *sigh* I'd almost be better off putting everything back in storage and moving onto the next thing now - but it's complicated by food-saving-in-process and lovely-landlords, and... you know. Stuff. But here I am again, having to move my stuff out of the bedroom and living in chaos rather than in a real grown-up house.

See what I mean? I've only been here a year! Clearly Not. Meant. To. Have. A Home. Of. My. Own...

And of course what I'd meant to do after taking the tree to the recycling-mulch place, was catch up on all my replies, and ci5hq, and... *sighs* And this is all after a hospital check-up appointment last Thursday (basically fine) and tax due at the end of the month... nothing like starting the new year with a whoo-hoo...

And I still have to be grateful that my house is not (yet) on fire, or surrounded by smoke. My nearest are on the outskirts of Melbourne, and had a slight scare the other day (hmmn, and actually the same area's apparently burning again now, 11 vehicles attending...) but are okay, but my new second-cousin and his new wee family are far too close to some of the north Gippsland fires for my liking... Just erk. Looking at the Cfa/Vic emergency site (and the Rfs site for NSW mates) makes me realise I can live with damp and mould...

And yet again I'm late with replies and catching-up and all, but hopefully tomorrow...

Comments

[keli]

Oh goodness, that is terrible with the mold and you having to clean it. :( We had a mold issue around our windows and I had to scrub with the mold killer. Not fun. I hope it all clears up for you! I am starting to hear so much about the fires. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you and hope that the fires get under control soon. Hugs

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't have to live with mold! Especially, since it seems to be a known problem.
A rent reduction should be the least!

We are renting out my mother-in-laws house in California for her, and had to let the tenant live rent free, while the heat was fixed. Even though we bought him space heaters for the interim, too. Apparently space heaters don't count.

I hope 2020 brings you the home you are looking for!
And all the best wishes to Australia! It's so awful!

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Oh yuck, you poor love. Though it sounds like your landlord is on the case and doing his best. But still, yuck. I hope it all gets sorted quickly for you.

Fingers crossed for your family in Australia - it's beyond awful. This year really isn't starting too well, is it?

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

What a rotten start to the year and so much extra work for you. Your landlord sounds a decent person, though, so hopefully he'll deal with it asap.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Cripes, but you seem to have bad luck with housing. How soon will you know if he's going to have to have the entire back wall of the house replaced? And does he have any idea as to how long that will take? Granted it was all inside, but when we had a sump pump installed downstairs, the guys doing the work taped thick plastic between where they were working and the rest of the area (because of the dust.) Maybe something like that could be doable, a temporary wall of sorts. As long as it would only takes a few days, and, really, it shouldn't take any longer than that, that might work.

Hope your family are all doing well and stay out of danger's way.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh! And Gah! Yes, I'd rather be dealing with damp and mold on one (rented!) wall than catastrophic fires, or even than damp and mold on my own owned house. *g*. But it's still a pain and damp and mold are health dangers as well as everything else. It does sound to me that if it has spread that far they would be better off taking the wall and really finding and dealing with the source.

Good luck with it all!

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Sympathy and best wishes - I do hope your housing luck improves!

[stellar_raven]

Oh no! That's not a fun way to start the year. :( *hugs* I'm so sorry about all the yucky mold, and I hope it can be taken care of without having to take your house apart. :(

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Well shit. I very much take your point about not being on fire, but even so - I hope your lot in the southern half of the globe stay safe, and I also hope your landlord gets this sorted asap :-\ (and I'm sure you would have mentioned it, so I hope I'm safe in saying thank goodness the wet didn't get into your books and papers). Ah, brings back fond memories (not) of the tiny house low down near the river I lived in when I was at uni, and the Ancient-Mariner-style denizens thereof :-s ... Here's to landlord leaping rapidly into action! And to people and their stuff staying dry where there is damp - and also un-singed, over there where there is governmental dereliction and too much dry :-\

[akin16sk.livejournal.com]

Good luck, i hope that it sorts out better than you expect. You really do seem to have bad luck with housing. I think that you have lived in a year in more houses than I did in my whole life. I admire your tenacity and practicality. Hopefully this will turn out to be THE house just yet :)

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Oh that's just nasty, I hope you get it sorted. Can't be healthy living in a mouldy environment, not to mention the damage to your books. And I can't imagine NOT having central heating in the UK and having to rely on portable heaters. That just sounds wrong!

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

Oh noes!
I can't think of a worse housing situation than having to live in a damp and difficult-to-heat up properly flat! Is it really an impossible option for your landlord to install central heating for you?
In my own experience, until the second to the last flat I lived in London (a decently-sized studio flat in Putney, within a block from the early 1960's) I never really lived in a properly heated and dry rented property in the UK.
I'm so aghast at what's been happening in Australia for weeks now (as I was aghast at the fires in the Amazon forest till recently and the Brazilian president claiming that the Amazon - which (used to) produce 20% of the oxygen of our planet - belonged to Brazil and not to the entire planet), and Australia's prime minister's feeble and frankly ridiculous response to it. I hope your relatives and friends are safe.
What a world we are living in. Not enough to live in an environmental emergency after the other, but also with political leaders who don't seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation, at global level, and are instead preoccupied with their narrow-minded, irresponsible, populist agendas?