Tuesday 1 April 2008

Grand Intentions

I was watching Grand Designs the other day, and it reminded me of when I once watched it with Bert in our previous house.

It was the episode when they converted an old waterworks, and my brother and his wife were also watching with us. At one point, the couple on TV were sanding the very large ceiling in their lounge, using just a small sanding device. The ceiling was in very poor repair and it was clear that this was a mammoth task. Bert couldn't resist adding his two penn'orth. "Why the hell are they doing it by hand? It's going to be a crap finish. Personally I could never live with a ceiling that wasn't perfect."

The rest of us looked at Bert, then at each other, and then at the rather large hole in our living room ceiling that had been there for three years. We all burst out laughing, but Bert couldn't see what he'd said that was funny.

You can just about see the hole in the background of this picture, with the purple balloon dangling from it. It isn't very clear but it's the best I could find.

Bert created the hole so he could investigate a leak that had damaged the ceiling and was coming from the balcony at the front of the house. He couldn't track it down and kept making the hole bigger in order to get a better look. (That's Bert in the foreground by the way. He's probably saying, "It's weird, it's only when there's a strong north-easterly wind with driving rain.")

Bert wasn't prepared to repair the ceiling until he had sorted the problem, and in the end it only got done when we moved house. But at least it was perfect for someone.

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