Home Maintenance

Well, it's proven all but impossible to come up with a proper post for today.  I'm afraid that my evening has been overtaken by events, in that I've had to devote part of it to trying to repair my heating system.  To be fair, it is only one part of the system - the valve actuator.  This has, over the many years that I've owned this house, been the most troublesome part of the heating and hot water set up.  The one fitted when I bought the house failed a couple of years later.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be of a type that was no longer manufactured and its 'cradle' and three-way valve were incompatible with any other type. So, I took the plunge and replaced the valve and actuator with a commoner type.  Which worked fine for a few years, until the new actuator - a spring return type - failed.  I lost count of the number of those spring return types I went through - the spring inevitably fails.  Eventually, I replaced it with the motorised version.  This actuator has served me well for many, many years.  Until the last few weeks, that is, when it has begun to jam in one position, cutting off the central heating part way through the evening.   Tonight, I finally got fed up with freezing and I've had the actuator off of the valve and I've manually adjusted the valve, which I've also lubricated.  It's reassembled now and I'll have wait and see whether it works properly now.  I've a nasty feeling that I'm going to have to buy a replacement actuator.

I wouldn't mind, but this is the second time in only a few days that I've been forced to carry out repairs in the bathroom (the actuator and valve are in the airing cupboard, which is in the bathroom).  On Friday evening, I went to switch on the bathroom light and the cord came away in my hand.  Obviously, it was far too late to obtain a replacement corded ceiling switch but, faced with the bathroom light now being permanently on, I decided to dismantle the existing switch in order to turn it off.  Buying a replacement on Saturday should have been straightforward, but I had to, quite literally, fight my way to Wilkinson's throufg hordes of Christmas shoppers.  I mean, what is wrong with people?  This year, they seem to be worse than ever: stopping without warning, unable to walk in straight lines, standing around in groups in the most inconvenient places possible.  It was all made worse by idiots wandering around who thought that they could look at their smart phone screen and walk at the same time.  I had to explain to one of these idiots that they clearly couldn't multi-task in this way as, despite two attempts at evasive action on my part, they still managed to collide with me.  Anyway, I eventually got what I needed and managed to install the new switch for the bathroom light, which now works perfectly.  Except that it makes a different sound.  The old one made a clicking sound when the cord was pulled.  The new one makes a clinking sound.  Every time I switch the light on now, I feel that I'm not in my bathroom.  It just doesn't sound right.  I'm sure i'll get used to oi, bit for now, it is very disconcerting.