Following on from the dream in which my living room was getting drenched by leaking water, I had a very appropriate dream about getting a new boiler fitted in my flat. It was just over a week ago that I had someone in to look things over and provide me with an estimate, since I no longer feel that I can trust my existing model and I'm pretty sure winter is going to start setting in sometime soon.
The quote came with two different boiler options - let's just call them 'expensive' and 'not so expensive', since the difference in final costing was 'only' a couple of hundred quid - and there doesn't seem to be much to choose between them according to the specs. The estimate also includes thermostatic valves and, because I quite like the idea of warm towels, a plumbed in towel rail in the bathroom.
It's worth noting at this point that I mentioned to the guy who did the estimate that I was interested in an electric towel rail, but he recommended plumbing one in with the new boiler as it would be more cost-effective, especially with the addition of the thermostatic valves. I figure he knows his stuff (a certain family member is in the building trade and uses these people for all his installations) and, since I most certainly do not know my stuff when it comes to boilers and central heating, I accepted his assessment.
On the upside, a friend of mine warned me that British Gas required her to buy an entirely new set of radiators when they fitted a new boiler, so switching between isolated electric and plumbed in for the bathroom radiator is hardly a big deal.
So, having gone through all that, and received an estimate that's significantly higher than a ballpark estimate suggested by an engineer - in all fairness, he said it was very ballpark, and I hadn't discussed things like thermostatic valves or the new radiator with him - it's probably no surprise that my already somewhat heightened state of home anxiety turned it all into a very specific dream.
It seemed to start towards the end of the installation, when the boiler was being switched on... and it didn't work. At all. One thing I noted almost immediately after waking up was that the geography of the room was not that of my kitchen, where the boiler actually resides. Nor was it the bathroom, nor the bedroom, nor even the lounge. The size and arrangement of the room actually reminded me more of the back bedroom in my parents' home, where their boiler/immersion heater thing lives, hidden away in the airing cupboard.
Now, bear with me, because this is where it gets weird...
A brief investigation of my not-kitchen in the dream uncovered... an immersion heater hidden away inside a shadowy junk pile behind the wall. Referring back to the geography of the back bedroom at my folks' place, this area would actually be the cupboard/wardrobe which, for many years, has basically been a shadowy junk pile where all fear to go. It's only recently been turned over so that a few important things could be retrieved, and it's currently back to being blocked off by... a shadowy junk pile.
But back to the dream. The engineer told me there was no way that model of boiler would work with the immersion heater, so they simply pulled it off the wall (because, y'know, that sort of thing is perfectly plausible with a fully plumbed-in boiler in a dream) and left, promising to return with another model of boiler which would.
So, naturally, the first thing I did the following day was phone the boiler people and book myself in for the proposed 'not so expensive' option, with my ever-generous parents are assisting with the bill.
I've struggled to get anything else of any significance done... I've started a couple sketches, but they aren't getting anywhere at the moment, and my efforts toward tidying the lounge were quickly foiled by my habit of shuffling things around and then leaving them on the sofa. Or the coffee table. Or the floor. I'm 'equal opportunities' like that.
That said, on a complete whim this afternoon, I decided to move things around in my bedroom. There were obvious benefits - making it easier to place containers under the areas affected by the leaking roof, making more space at the foot of the bed and increasing the light in the room - and it didn't take very long. I did regret moving things 'out of the way' and thereby blocking my access to the vacuum cleaner, because it seems an awful lot of dust can collect under/inside a chest of drawers. For a few moments, while I was moving things, I had a sneaking suspicion things wouldn't be much better but, now I've done it, it seems to be a huge improvement. Still some way to go before it's all sorted, and what I've actually done is create space to eventually place additional furniture in there, but it was certainly worth doing sooner rather than later.
Ain't it nice when a whim pays off?
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