Chapter Seven - The Journey Into Hell Continues
First, an apology to Anglian. It was not a scratch, it was resin glue, which they removed when they did eventually turn up, a week later, (although we are, some 16 months down the line, still waiting for Darren to return to correctly fill in the former tumble dryer vent hole). Secondly an apology to you, dear readers, for the lack of photographs in this chapter, I did not intend to add any more and now that I have I find that I did not take any photographs of the offending areas. Still, I am sure that with a drink or two and a bit of imagination .........
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All seemed well for a while, oh, a few weeks even, then the sink blocked up. Good style! Just in time for Christmas! Luckily I had subscribed to one of the utility providers drains cover policies and was able to arrange for Dyno-Rod to come out at no cost to myself. But not until the day after Boxing Day. Christmas Day was not too bad as we spend most of it away at family but we entertain friends on Boxing Day, full Christmas dinner, you know the sort of thing. What fun it was washing up Christmas dinner for four in a washing up bowl which then had to be carried outside to empty down the drain! But, in true Brit style, we coped. As you do. And the Dyno-Rod man came out the next day and cleared it all, which was fine. Until it blocked again a day later. The second Dyno-Rod man blamed it on the lack of fall to the pipe and wrote us a letter to send to Anglian head office in Norwich. Which we did. To which they responded that they were sorry we had a problem and that their Haydock Depot would contact us. Which thy did not.
On the 29th February (it was a leap year!) 2004 Jean said "Have you seen that the joint on the worktop is splitting open?" WHAT???? I looked and, sure enough, there was a small, but visible, gap between two of the sections. I also noticed that the top of the cupboard door beneath the sink unit was beginning to catch slightly upon opening. Upon further investigation the reason for this became apparent. The lower edge of the worktop had laminated and was swollen, the edging of it finishing flush to the lower edge instead of being wrapped around underneath and, consequently, being susceptible to soaking up water from the sink. Due to the design of the sink area it is extremely difficult to ever empty the washing up bowl without some water at least spilling over the edge. I wrote off to Head Office again and, surprise, surprise, received the standard response that Haydock would be in touch. Oh yes, and what year would that be please? Obviously not 2004 as, on 31st May, I had to write again, the lamination was getting worse by the day and I had still had no contact from Haydock.
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Eventually they did contact me and a date was arranged for a visit from their inspector. Yes, you've guessed it, the appointed day came and went with no sign of anyone even remotely resembling an inspector darkening our doorstep. Following further telephone calls a nice young man called Mr Lloyd eventually came out one evening while I was on leave at the end of June 2004 and admitted that the worktop had a design fault, that they were no longer fitting that type and that of course they would replace it. He took measurements and said he would be in touch as soon as the replacement worktop was ready to be installed.
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We waited.
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And waited.
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And waited.
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And waited.
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The worktop got worse.
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And worse
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And worse
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And worse.
Eventually, in early December 2004 I telephoned and, after a couple of calls, had a date arranged for early January 2005.