I was doing a little survey of the lounge yesterday inspecting the cracks, and I started thinking about how quickly things have gotten quite bad with them, so I took a few photos of the worst parts and I’ve been comparing them to photos I took earlier, and it’s actually quite frightening just how quickly they’re deteriorating … which is probably why I’m freaking out more now my bedroom is starting to show some cracks building up as well. Anyway, I thought I’d share the latest piccies, and you’ll understand why I’m freaking … I’ve shown a couple of the comparison shots as well ‘just because’ 😉
I’ve used Webshots for the photos, which means all the photos are automatically clickable, as it takes you to the Webshots album for that photo … Anyway, welcome one and all to my world:
To start with, this is the worst corner in my eyes – this is the front window of the lounge, which opens out onto the road (I’m on the 3rd floor of the building, and every time I come home I expect to see fire trucks etc in the street, with my home contents strewn out on the pavement from the collapse on this side). From left to right, we have photos taken on 5 Dec 06 and 12 Jan 07, then below is the one taken yesterday (complete now with the gap where the architraving fell off!):
 
 
Then we move to the actual window itself in that corner – this is as far shut as I can get it because the window frame is now all shifted and ‘skewiff’ and the window how actually sits ON the window frame on the outside of the building. Now the weather is colder it’s like an icebox in the lounge, and there’s no point putting on heating, so I’ve been sitting huddled in my stitching chair under a blanket to keep warm … and we haven’t even had the coldest weather yet. When I mentioned that to the landlord when he came round to inspect it while Mum was here, he said “wait until winter haha” – yeah, the last laugh will be on you buddy boy when you no longer have tenants and no rent money coming in! I actually bought some curtains last year for this window, then didn’t put them up because my new lounge suite didn’t suit the colour, but I’ve been thinking about taking Mum’s suggestion on board and putting them up just to cut out the cold breeze … but then again if I’m moving soon, it may not be worth the hassle (and it may take me that long to work out where the heck I put them haha).
 
To the left of the same window we have some serious movement as well – the whole window frame is being lifted … as you can see that is actually daylight showing underneath the window join itself, which of course shows it’s no longer joined! Further left we see how the whole sill is shifted well over a cm now away from the wall, and the whole left side of the window frame is doing the same. And there’s also a serious crack going down to the floor too.
 
 
Are you freaked out now as well? Yep, scarey stuff … but wait, there’s more!! (but I apologise in advance, there’s no set of steak knives)
Back into the lounge now, in the corner of the archway is another doozy of a crack … if you look closely you can actually see daylight up there at the top! This is where I first started freaking out at the agents last year … and when Mum was here she also noticed something that I hadn’t … if you look carefully enough, behind the bookcase in the same corner there’s also a pretty significant crack going up the wall too – I can’t see the full extent of that damage as it’s behind the bookcase, but I guess I soon will! To start with, here’s a before and after series – again we start with Jan, then yesterday (can you see the bit of daylight? it’s where that ‘beige’ part is) … then there is the crack behind the bookcase – the crack coming down from top is the end of the ceiling crack with the bit of daylight!:
 
 
 
There is also the horizontal crack across the wall – I actually presume it finishes behind the bookcase by joining that hard-to-see crack, but I’m just guessing there. Regardless, it goes right across the wall as far as the eye can see anyway, and goes around the corner to meet the window sill in the infamous ‘bad corner’ …
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The dining area hasn’t changed that significantly since I started taking photos, except the crack is a bit bigger and the balcony door blows open every now and then because the lock doesn’t sit very well together anymore … luckily so far it hasn’t happened while it’s been raining and I’ve been at work!! There’s also a lovely opening down the bottom of the door because of the door now being out of plumb … just an extra added pleasure now the colder weather is here!
 
I’m also keeping a close eye on the archway between the lounge and the dining room. They’ve obviously had a crack there before, as the ‘scarring’ is starting to show … there’s a teeny tiny hairline crack starting, but I can’t tell if it’s just the paintwork showing stress, or whether it’s an actual crack beginning … but that ain’t somewhere you’d want a major crack appearing in my eyes!
 
So, there you have it, ladies and ladies (I don’t think there are any gentlemen that read my blog, aside from Fraze once every six months … although I guess I could be wrong) … welcome to my ever so humble home in all its glory – or perhaps I should give it a nickname of “The House of Horrors” haha.Â
I think I’ve made my decision that I really do have to get out of here for my own sanity and safety – I’ll deal with everything else later, for now I just want to have a safe roof over my head, wherever that may be. I’ve sent an email to Sally about the housesitting, which I should get an answer to tomorrow, then I’ll start thinking about getting some boxes (thanks Andrew or Len for stealing my old ones from where I had them in storage at the old place – I really appreciate having to fork out and buy new ones again, thanks so much!)
I may even pop down to Dan Murphy’s (my version of Heaven – liquor wholesaler extraordinaire haha) to see if they could spare some empty wine boxes, as they’re perfect for packing books away, to save me buying more file boxes.Â
Anyway, that’s tomorrow’s job – today I intend having one more day of rest and relaxation before I start dealing with everything. At least today I’ve stopped crying, which is good in itself! And I managed to get a really good 8 hours sleep last night, which was even better … only two more sleeps before I get this shoulder fixed up yay 🙂
Yesterday I managed to almost finish the centre piece of a new start … For The Birds by the Drawn Thread (just have the backstitching left) – today I hope to get the whole thing finished, as there’s just the border to be done plus the tiny bit of backstitching. I’m still not getting a whole lot of joy from stitching, but I’m forcing myself to do it to try to get that joy back … the only project I feel like stitching on is Bordeaux, and I’ve discussed it with Carol that if I can’t shake the feeling off, I’ll just pick it up and stitch on that for some therapeutic stitching if nothing else (but that unfortunately throws out SAL out, which will be really disappointing). Regardless, though, there should be a stitching piccie of some sort tomorrow – I figure this post is picture heavy enough without a WIP piccie too 😉
Now, before I head off and do some tidying up and general housework for the day, I’ll answer the last two SBQ’s, ‘cos as per normal I’m behind in answering …
 Talking about RAK’s I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for my RAK Registry blog. A couple of people would like to see more interaction on the blog, with space to post about RAK’s sent and received, as well as one person that would like updates on new members joining etc. I’m just wondering what the best way of going about this is … you see, I’d prefer to leave the blog contents as ‘static’, ie the birthday list, and the individual wishlists, and wonder whether to just set up the blog with “pages” with tabs at the top with each topic, then use the ‘main’ part of the blog for individuals to post to, or maybe using a ‘shoutbox’ … but perhaps there’s a better way to go about it? It’s easy enough to show those that have been ‘new additions’, as I can send an email to everyone, say monthly, with new blogs, as well as adding **NEW** after the details on the blog itself. Anyway, if anyone has any good suggestions about how people could interact more on it, I’d love to hear them  😀
Feather Stitching 