cathidaw
15-12-2011, 01:50 AM
We moved into our first house with 5 shillings to our name It
had taken all we had for the deposit and all the other fees needed to buy it.
We'd had enough of living wit inlaws and possibly they'd had enough of us too, but even so they advised us not to buy but to rent. In those days there was absolutely nowhere except the odd 'rooms' and the council list was about 5 years long.
It was hard, though never did we admit it.The house wanted so much done to it, and it was cold, even in the summer. The bathroom was downstairs.The day we moved in I decided to have a bath.Then found there were no taps. Who looks for taps?
We heated water in the gas copper in the kitchen and bucketed it into the bath.When I pulled the plug the water drained onto the floor and out of the door into the back living room We'd only just moved and there was stuff and boxes all over the floor.
Not plumbed in ! ! Who looks at the plumbing under the bath?
Next day my neighbour gave us the address her plumber nephew. (who was forever afterwards nicknamed John Wayne) The cowboy plumber (who I later found worked at the pit as a blacksmith.("Turn me had hand to anything, I can"),
He came around whilst we were at work the next day to sort it out. All well and good until the next evening when I got home from work to find my irate aforementioned neighbour waiting for me. Her 'plumber' nephew had 'plumbed' the pipe from the bath--remember, it was downstairs - through the outside wall and the hot soapy waterhad flooded the entry and washed her newly planted wallflower plants out of the ground.
Unfortunately I found it hard to keep a straight face, and she never spoke again for a couple of months.
Cant remember what we said to the 'plumber'.
There was a line across the living room to dry washing with massive butchers hooks holding it at each end.I said "Thats got to go" and started to pull on it. It came away with the plaster and bricks leaving a hole I could put my arm through into the next room It had been stuffed with newspaper and wallpapered overThe other one was the same but led into the kitchen.
I whitewashed the front windows -- no money for curtains.(no charity shops in those days)
That's when the neighbour spoke again - - to ask when we were putting curtains up.I had bad thoughts like 'Nosey bat' but said casually "When I get around to it" She didn't ask again but when much later -she complimented me on my curtains and remarked that she and the other neighbours in the road had begun to think we were diddicoys.
Of course we took it in our stride -- glad to have a home of our own.
If it had nothing else it had atmosphere.
had taken all we had for the deposit and all the other fees needed to buy it.
We'd had enough of living wit inlaws and possibly they'd had enough of us too, but even so they advised us not to buy but to rent. In those days there was absolutely nowhere except the odd 'rooms' and the council list was about 5 years long.
It was hard, though never did we admit it.The house wanted so much done to it, and it was cold, even in the summer. The bathroom was downstairs.The day we moved in I decided to have a bath.Then found there were no taps. Who looks for taps?
We heated water in the gas copper in the kitchen and bucketed it into the bath.When I pulled the plug the water drained onto the floor and out of the door into the back living room We'd only just moved and there was stuff and boxes all over the floor.
Not plumbed in ! ! Who looks at the plumbing under the bath?
Next day my neighbour gave us the address her plumber nephew. (who was forever afterwards nicknamed John Wayne) The cowboy plumber (who I later found worked at the pit as a blacksmith.("Turn me had hand to anything, I can"),
He came around whilst we were at work the next day to sort it out. All well and good until the next evening when I got home from work to find my irate aforementioned neighbour waiting for me. Her 'plumber' nephew had 'plumbed' the pipe from the bath--remember, it was downstairs - through the outside wall and the hot soapy waterhad flooded the entry and washed her newly planted wallflower plants out of the ground.
Unfortunately I found it hard to keep a straight face, and she never spoke again for a couple of months.
Cant remember what we said to the 'plumber'.
There was a line across the living room to dry washing with massive butchers hooks holding it at each end.I said "Thats got to go" and started to pull on it. It came away with the plaster and bricks leaving a hole I could put my arm through into the next room It had been stuffed with newspaper and wallpapered overThe other one was the same but led into the kitchen.
I whitewashed the front windows -- no money for curtains.(no charity shops in those days)
That's when the neighbour spoke again - - to ask when we were putting curtains up.I had bad thoughts like 'Nosey bat' but said casually "When I get around to it" She didn't ask again but when much later -she complimented me on my curtains and remarked that she and the other neighbours in the road had begun to think we were diddicoys.
Of course we took it in our stride -- glad to have a home of our own.
If it had nothing else it had atmosphere.