Loss of a cleaner, gain of a waterproof roof

We've been abandoned by our cleaner. I had the feeling that all was not well - Josie or her husband would ring, or she would just not turn up, or the time would change at short notice, or the day. It's certainly been a luxury having someone else clean the house, and we considered carefully whether to retain this expense while cutting back on everything else. We decided it was worth it, but even so, there were certain disadvantages. Josie had particular views on where things should be kept, and there was no point in fighting it - the toilet bleach lives in the cupboard under the sink, no matter how often it was moved to the bathroom. We often 'lost' things on cleaning day, only to find them 'tidied' into unexpected places. We won't be able to blame Josie if we lose things from now on. And we'll have to clean the house ourselves unless we find a replacement.

The good news is that Alf the builder turned up early this bright, cold morning, and climbed up to inspect the hall roof from the outside. Luckily it was obvious where the water was getting in, and he checked all along the join between the hall roof and the house wall and fixed the flashing properly. What a relief! We have so many little jobs that are difficult to get round to, we don't know many reliable workmen, and I feel guilty because we should be able to diagnose and fix some of these things ourselves, but it's the last thing we want to do on the one day a week that we don't work. Thankfully Alf came on personal recommendation from neighbours, and it was all done in an hour.

So now there are only a hundred and one jobs still waiting. We've already arranged for Adrian to sort out the loft insulation that was so badly done by the dreadful Mark, and fix the loft ladder that was botched by the similarly dreadful Tim, and fit us with a hatch door. There's a good reason why Mark charged so little, even if he did listen to Radio 4. He only really liked painting, so did as little preparation as he could get away with, and the mess he made was world-beating. I love the story from Richard, back when Mark was painting their living room. They were very careful to make him use a dustsheet to try and minimise the amount of mess. At the end of the day as he was packing up, he picked up the dustsheet and shook it out carefully in the living room, before folding it up and putting it away.