YUCKYLEAKS

The first job when I got to Mum's was to watch Brad from Homeserve fix the leak in the downstairs loo. He'd already fitted a new stopcock, which in Mum's ancient crumbling house meant visits to the cellar, airing cupboard and attic, and the toilet should have been an easy job. However he (and we) discovered that the builder who'd installed it into the extension he was building for my parents 45 years ago had concreted it into the floor and built a decorative tiled surround to box in the cistern which made it impossible to work on without breaking through the box, destroying quite a lot of the tiles and cutting a way through the wooden supports which were built tight up against the soil pipe. There was a lot of hissing and exclaiming, but eventually he fixed the leak, having first cleared with Mum that it was OK to do the damage he had to. Mum was amazingly sanguine about it, and we all agreed that at least it had survived 45 years without needing any repairs or maintenance. Yet another job on the list for a handyperson next year and Brad still had several more calls to make when he left us at 8.15pm.