Water, water

Water does seem to play a big part in our life at Wakelands Road, particularly when there isn't any. You'll recall us running out of water late last year when we didn't understand how the bore/tank/hose/tank/pump system worked, and the belly-laughs we had trying to convince our managing agent that the noise of water in our bedroom betokened the hot water system gaily pumping our drinking water out into the paddock...

A week or so ago the "water feature" that diverts half of the pool cleaning pump away from cleaning the pool ceased to flow because the motor went and the motor had to be replaced as the water went green and furry.

Yesterday we tried to turn on said new pump and nothing happened: no water flowed through the water feature and into the swimming pool, but we don't think the motor has failed (although we're not sure what the problem is, exactly).

Today's moment of amusement came when Michael tried to turn on the pump leading from the bore up to the above-ground holding tank, thinking that he'd pump up a tankful of water and use it to help fill the swimming pool which has been gradually going down through evaporation as we've had quite a dry winter. Well nothing happened. Or more accurately, the pump sprang into action as soon as the power was switched on but nothing came out of the ground.

Does this mean that there's no more water in the bore? I guess it could be the case, after all I don't suppose we're the only household around here using the bore - it would be quite odd if a geological feature like that was reserved exclusively for this house. Or does it mean that co-incidentally the water pumps are failing almost simultaneously?

Whatever the answer, our problems are compounded by the fact that it's a bank holiday and our managing agency is closed, and as it's the school holidays our landlord is away. Of course, this house is also on the market, and our landlord is going to be thrilled to bits that things are breaking down at a point when he's trying to sell the place because he doesn't have any money, so I daresay we won't be popular when he finds out!

Talking about selling the house, one of the selling agents brought around an American family on Saturday to look at things, but they didn't get as far as looking in the office where Michael, Ella and I were holed up because as they said to Jim, they really loved the scenery but would bulldoze the house! They also commented that for the money they'd expect everything to be spick-and-span. I don't envy the agents, really. The house is on the market with two companies, one of which is the agency through whom we rent it, and both agents had the tricky task of telling our landlord that they think he's put it on the market for too much money. Jim said our landlord clearly thinks they don't know how much he paid for it, but of course they have access to previous sales figures through the Land Registry. So they know that he's asking $100,000 more than he paid for it two years ago, and the problem is that the market here is stagnant and the house has been quietly deteriorating. Our landlord has put in a new kitchen, but it's nothing flash and hasn't been properly finished so it would have cost him $8,000 at most and certainly doesn't justify the hike in price.

Anyone buying this place would have to spend money on the spa (which is cracking and will need to be replaced), the swimming pool (a 25 year old concrete pool with deteriorating grout and half a cleaning system which has broken below-ground pipes), the pool area (rotten timbers and uneven tiling), the gutters (almost all of them need serious attention), the roof (decidedly dodgy and leaking), the bathrooms (all of which need renovation) and the windows (all of which have corroding aluminium frames). All up you'd probably have to spend the best part of $100,000! And for the same money around here you could buy a 4 or 5 bed new build home on less land but with a new pool and ocean views...

Who knows what will happen. My money is on our landlord reducing the price of the house he lives in and managing to sell it, and thus booting us out of here so that he can move back in. I'll cope well enough with that as long as it happens after Christmas! I just don't want to up sticks and move again now. If we can get our building going and put the shed up, and if I can see progress and we have to move the other side of Christmas then I might be more sanguine about the idea of living in a caravan on-site, or moving into the shed for a while. We could just say stuff it and set about finding a new home for 6 - 9 months right now, but I don't have the energy and we've got enough other changes on the cards, not least getting our daughter through the process of starting at a new school.