Not only does Linda own the flat, she owns the free-hold on the whole building.
The ground floor flat is owned by 2 brothers who house their elderly mum there.
The free-hold lease on the ground-floor flat only has around 50-ish years left to run which would adversely affect the value of the property should they come to sell it.
To extend the lease requires them to fork out around £15k to Linda.
We had some work done on the roof last year and the workman found it's displaying the symptoms of 'nail-sickness' which, to remedy, would require the roof slates to be removed and replaced at a cost of around £15k, give or take.
A deal was done, extended lease for a new roof.
With hindsight it may have been better to delay starting the work till later this year, but it was decided to get the job done before Xmas and the exciting scaffold was erected at the end of November.
Things progressed well, the crumbling slates were removed, a Velux window (my request) was fitted...
...then the weather changed.
And how.
During the wild winds and rains that have battered us over the last 5 weeks I've been able to establish we could, if we so chose, drive the whole house along a motorway at around 70 mph with no fear of anything dropping off.
A few leaks have appeared, non of them serious, but we will have to fill several cracks in our recently replastered ceiling and repaint the front room/kitchen.
To be honest I feel we've got off quite lightly in comparison to some poor buggers on our muddy little island.
I feel sorry for the roofers who've been waiting for a break in the deluge.
Today some progress has been made and the roof now looks like this:
The eagle-eyed will notice the hardy roofer nailing a few more tiles on.
What a star he is!
Rain doesn't bother him, but when the wind picks up he has to down tools and take shelter.
Have I been able to resist the temptation to climb up onto the scaffolding?
Well, yes and no.
I started up the wobbly ladder and managed to get 3/4's of the way up before my equally wobbly limbs gave up.
My nerve didn't go, I'm just not physically capable of getting any further up at the moment.
(A health report will appear to explain the current state of my condition later.)
With luck and fair weather the job should be finished in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime I'm enjoying saying 'I told you so' to Linda at every possible opportunity.
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