Mon, Sept 4

Now this is getting ridiculous. This morning Paul drove to our house in Hertford early so he could fix some floorboards before the guy from Carpetright arrived to lay our carpet. Unfortunately, while nailing down a loose floorboard, he also hit a hidden radiator pipe resulting in water seeping downstairs into the entrance hall. Luckily Paul was able to stem the waterflow by using a screw that had come out of the door handle that locked him in the same room last week.

Paul made several phone calls to plumbers out of the Thomson Directory before finding someone who would come out within the hour. But, with a half-hourly rate of £45, it wasn't going to be a cheap fix. At least the plumber drained all our radiators and then replaced the damaged part of the pipe.

Meanwhile, the guy arrived to lay the carpet. However, because the floorboards were damp in the small room, he suggested coming back Tuesday to finish the job.

But the drama didn't end there. While all this was going on, the water tank in the loft overflowed when the plumber turned the water mains back on to refill the radiators. Not, however, before the water came through the bedroom ceiling, started dripping on the new carpet and causing the ceiling light fitting to start to crackle.

This wasn't the worst of it. The plumber could not refill the radiators because there was a blockage somewhere in the system and now has to come back next week to resolve that problem. And the cost of that will run between £300 and £1000.

Things could be worse.