Plumb wrong

Over the last couple of months we have had quite a lot of rain - I'm not complaining, it's great to have it and our reserves are now much higher than they've been for years.

However, one thing I've been meaning to do for ages is to get the gutterings cleared out. As a result, when it rains most of the water spills over instead of draining away, and the other night it spilled over down an interior wall. Luckily the wall it spilled down was in the shower recess so there was no real damage done.

This was the spur for me to call the plumbers to clear out the gutters. I thought while they were at it I could get them to replace the washer in the mixer tap for the shower which has had a slow drip for a while. This would be a simple job, I thought.

Alas, no. It turns out that with the type of mixer I have it's not simple to replace the washer. After some time spent searching the plumber came back with a part that did fit, but there was a small leak remaining, though from a different part of the tap. His advice is to buy a whole new mixer set and get it installed - initially he thought this would necessitate removing tiles, though after some thought he suggested doing it by going in from the other side, removing weatherboards.

So that's what I'll do in the new year.