A Plumber's Tale - the country cottage
My son-in-law is a plumber. From crawling underground to climbing the heights, from fitting kitchens and designing bathrooms, Paul is much in demand both for emergencies and for planned future work.
He is a meticulous, conscientious worker and a few years ago he was asked to work on a run-down country cottage in Dorset. There were more of them available then than there are now. ‘Doer-uppers’ are thinner on the ground than they were and can no longer be picked up for a song.
According to Paul, the cottage was practically derelict and a real money pit. Fortunately, for him at least, the owners had almost limitless amounts of cash to spend on their holiday retreat.
The kitchen in the property was beneath the main bedroom and had a ceiling that sloped so much that it was one foot lower at one end of the room than the other. Paul suspected that the bedroom floor reflected this, and his suspicions were confirmed when he went upstairs. He worked hard to rectify the problem and was pleased when he finally achieved an even, straight floor in the bedroom, complemented by a plumb level ceiling in the kitchen.
However, the wife was less than satisfied. She was content to have a horizontal floor in the bedroom but wanted the authentic ‘olde worlde’ look of the uneven kitchen ceiling, and insisted that Paul should undo his careful work, which he did, though much against his will.
When the husband arrived at the cottage for the weekend, after a busy working week in London, he was astonished to see the ceiling. He listened to Paul’s explanation almost with disbelief but was accustomed to his wife countermanding his instructions, so in the end, everyone was happy. At least, the wife was. Paul and the husband were quietly dismayed.
