So, you'll have gathered by now that we have water again!!! We finally got switched back on at lunchtime yesterday after more than 36 hours!!!!! It was ridiculous. It would have been amusing if it wasn't so stressful. After speaking to the water company 9 times they finally got an inspector out. Unfortunately, they sent an absolute idiot who was rude & patronising. Firstly he told me it was sorted, apparently the supply had been switched off outside, but when he came inside... still no water. He reached under the sink turned the stop-tap & lo & behold the water was back. In his most patronising voice he informed me that it was no surprise we had no water if we'd switched off the stop-tap! I assured him we had done no such thing. Who would do that? There was some terrible noises coming from the pipe & he rushed upstairs telling me whatever I had left on sounded like it was going to flood the place (again he wouldn't listen when I told him nothing was on upstairs).
The longer he was in my house the more irritated I was getting. I didn't believe a word he was saying because I knew neither Tom or I had switched off this tap plus my pipes sounded like they were gonna burst. I had also had a call from the water company telling me my neighbour had reported the same problem so I knew it couldn't be caused by the tap under my sink. He was so arrogant & unhelpful & at one point even said to me (with a smirk on his face) "it's ok to admit you turned off the stop-tap... You won't get in trouble... It was just a mistake!!" Honestly? I wanted to hit him. For about the 7th time I told him I DID NOT TURN OFF THAT TAP!!!!!
To cut a very long story short (thank goodness I hear you say) we have 2 stop-taps & 2 pipes (there should only be one of each) so all this guy did was turn on the disused tap (which he'd have seen if he'd actually looked properly). The gas man (who was doing a safety check) sorted the 2 taps (turned off the disused one again), the noises went away & I was a happier bunny.
The saga continued that evening when another inspector turned up to investigate why half our terrace are without water. Apparently there's been a leak further up the street in one of the empty houses & all of us below are now without water (we all share a pipe that goes under the houses). When I told him we now had water he looked very confused. I showed him the outside mains supply that had been turned off & explained the whole tap drama. He asked to come in & check if we really had water (apparently my say-so & Rebekah being in the bath wasn't enough evidence).
It turns out that the reason we have 2 pipes & taps is because sometime in the past, whoever lived here got a private water supply, from the mains, installed for situations like this. So while half the terrace is without water we thankfully have this supply none of us knew about. Crazy eh? I am so thankful for this because the water company are unable to do anything about the leak because it is in a private property & not a problem with the mains supply so we could've been without water for a lot longer!!! What a blessing this extra tap & pipe turned out to be!!!
Well, it's getting late so I'm off to bed now. Goodnight!
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