Wednesday 8 February 2017

Keep Cool!

Right now, keeping cool is really easy for me - we have no heating and no hot water.

One day last week, I came home from work to find my flat a bit chilly. The radiators were luke warm, though, and so at first I did not think anything was amiss. When I am out all day, of course I do not have the heating blast away, but keep it at a low level.
But when I was washing my hands, no hot water came from the tap (I HATE washing my hands in cold water), and so I knew something was wrong.

There are three flats in my house, mine being the one in the middle. The downstairs flat has its own boiler in the cellar, while mine and the top floor flat are connected to a second boiler up in the attic.

I could hear my upstairs neighbour already rummaging about in the attic and called up to him. He told me that the boiler had turned itself off a few hours ago and he had been trying to reactivate it a few times. As he was not successful, he rang a friend of his who happens to be an expert for gas boilers. The kind man came to our house at 8:30 pm - not his usual working hours - and managed indeed to temporarily fix the boiler. But he warned us that it could happen again anytime, and we should start thinking about a new boiler, as repairing it would probably not be worth it for such an old one as ours.

Well, we were happy for the moment, having hot water and heating again - until yesterday morning. About five minutes before I wanted to have a shower, I noticed the radiators were cold again. Just like last time, I could hear my neighbour upstairs, and decided to wait a little and see whether he'd be able to fix it. He did, and I could have my hot shower as usual.

Then after work, it was the same all over again: a chilly flat and no hot water when I washed my hands. This time, my neighbour said he had called the company who originally installed our boiler. One of them came to have a look right away and explicitly told him NOT to try again to fix the boiler himself. Instead, he promised to order the necessary parts immediately and would come in tomorrow (i.e. today) in the afternoon to repair it. (All these conversations were a bit difficult, as my neighbour's German is not exactly fluent, and my Turkish is limited to a handful of words.)

Now we hope that the parts will arrive there today, so that our boiler can be fixed this afternoon.

It is not yet too cold in my flat - the downstairs flat is giving off some warm to me, and I still have almost 20 Celsius in my rooms. But I do not want to go to work without a hot shower, and have arranged to go to my parents' this morning. I'll pack my work clothes and my cosmetics bag, and it will be no problem - my Mum is going to the kindergarten for her weekly reading anyway, so she is up early today and does not have to adapt uncomfortably to my schedule.
But I hate the idea of getting dressed and leaving the house un-showered! I know this is silly, and there are millions of people who never have the luxury of a hot shower, but it is all about what we are used to, isn't it?

If the boiler can not be fixed today, I will have to think about asking my sister or my parents for a few days of staying with either of them.

18 comments:

  1. It's very unpleasant to be without hot water and I do understand the feeling. And yes I can only guess what the refugees we see in the news are feeling like. I hope your boiler is fixed soon.

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    1. I hope that, too, Jenny - but I have been told today that it will be "sometime next week"...
      Yes, refugees or homeless people would be glad if they had even so much as a place to call their own.

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  2. I think even people who normally enjoy the pleasures of heating and hot and cold water occasionally run into problems like this. And with other systems they take for granted. Lucky that your parents are nearby and remember, "this too shall pass".

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    1. Funnily enough, I was at the office today exactly at the same time as yesterday, in spite of the extra time needed to get to my parents and back. I will have to repeat this tomorrow morning, and possibly into next week.

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  3. Ouch, that's rough, especially in the winter. I hope it all gets fixed soon, Meike!

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    1. Me too, Jennifer! I've had a message from the company on my answering machine that someone will be here first thing in the morning on Friday. Let's hope he'll be able to fix it right away, and won't need to order more parts.
      And we are lucky in that it is not quite as cold as it was a few weeks ago - still cold enough, though!

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  4. I bet your mum would love to have you 'home' for a few days! I don't quite understand the situation. Do you and the others co-own your building? Do you not rent? Over here if one rents, it is the landlord who is responsible for heat, etc.

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    1. I've been at my parents' for a shower this morning, and will be back there tomorrow morning. If all goes well, by Friday mid-morning I should have hot water and heating at home again :-)
      Yes, we co-own the building. My flat belongs to me (well, to the bank for quite a few more years until I'll have finished paying the mortgage), the upstairs flat belongs to the elderly couple who live there, and the ground floor is owned by one of the eldery couple's sons. He has moved with his family to a bigger place and is letting the flat to another couple.
      So us owners are going to split the repair cost between us.

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    2. That's great that you own your place!!

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  5. I hope you will get it fixed soon. A day or two without hot water is one thing, but worse if the indoors temperature drops as well... I'm reminded of one or two very cold winters back in my twenties when I had only 14'C in my bedroom in the morning (in a rented flat with poor insulation). No fun!!! ... Good to know that at least you have family in the same town who can put you up temporarily if needed!

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    1. If things go as planned, it won't be necessary for anyone to put me up - Friday at 7:30, someone is supposed to come and fix the boiler. I'm out all day anyway, and we have really good insulation so that it does not get too cold unless this situation lasts longer.
      Right now, I have around 19C in my bedroom.

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  6. It's a good job that your parents and your nameless sister live nearby. At least you have alternative sanctuaries where hot water will flow until your own boiler is fixed. By the way, I chuckled when you said you can't bear washing your hands in cold water as I only ever wash my hands in cold water. I can't be bothered waiting for hot water to come through the pipes.

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    1. The hot water comes through the pipes quickly at my place, and it is always welcome on my hands since they are almost always cold.
      I never brush my teeth with hot water, though - that has to be cold!
      Yes, I am really glad that I have family close by. And if they were not available, I have friends and neighbours I could rely on. Still, I very much prefer my own bathroom and the freedom to move back and forth between my bedroom with the wardrobe and the bathroom, in various states of dress.

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  7. Fingers crossed they fix the boiler Friday if not already done! Lucky you having your family close by -
    but I agree it's always annoying when one cannot enjoy all our personal pleasures in the comfort of our own home. Yes, we are spoiled and it does make us even more grateful for modern conveniences.

    Mary -

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  8. Thank you, Mary! I, too, hope that it will be fixed tomorrow morning as announced.
    The funniest thing is that this afternoon, the heating/hot water at my parents' house stopped working as well!!! Now if theirs can not be fixed soon, they will have to come to my or my sister's place for hot showers and a bit of warming up... Hopefully, at my sister's house it won't break down as well!

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    1. That was really strange, in our house there were 12 flats without heating and hot water, one family with a toddler. Outside last night -6 degrees Celsius. But this morning they could fix it, but anyway we'll need a completely new heating, this one is nearly 30 years old.
      When such things happen, we learn, how we depend from technic!

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  9. I shall add my hopes to yours and those of your commenters that you boiler is fixed today. I rose recently to find that my boiler wasn't working properly. Having ascertained that the 'magic eye' wasn't sooted up I rang my immediate neighbour (who is an oil-fired boiler engineer) and when I arrived back from a day working at Gaz's house my own house was toastie again. I am fortunate in having such a neighbour!

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    1. Lucky you! I know you like a very comfortable 23C as the normal room temperature in your house, and I guess that takes at least some heating almost all year.
      Our boiler is sort of fixed... but it's not a permanent solution. More in my next post.

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