I recently made a trip over to Macclesfield, primarily to effect some repairs and tidy up the decoration in our house there.
With the exception of being able to see some family and friends, it was a very disappointing experience.
With the latest tenant leaving the house in a poor state we decide that I should go there to see the condition in person and to fix everything to our satisfaction before taking on a new tenant.
The letting agent had sent me the report on the house once the tenant had vacated the property so I was prepared for a shock, and it was just that.
Here are some of the surprises that I found:
In the main bedroom, not only had they 'decorated' by slapping on some cheap white paint over the walls but they had also (unlawfully) removed some fixed furniture units which I had made some years ago. The two bedside units and suspended cabinets were broken beyond repair so I could not restore them to the room. Because of this, the carpet needed to be replaced as there were now two bare sections of floor where the carpet had been fitted around the units. Further, the tenant had replaced the expensive wall lights with tacky B&Q fittings, supposedly done by an electrician. When I removed the first one to check the condition, the earth cable was not even connected and the live cable simply pinged out of the terminal as I moved the fitting. The second one also had no earth connection and these were metal light fittings. Finally, in that bedroom, the tenant had taken down the curtains and the track and fitted a basic pole with tiny screws that were now pulling out of the wall. The thin, wispy curtain that they had installed was almost see-through, there is no way that the room would be dark at night.
In the second bedroom, they had taken out and disposed of the bed which I was hoping to pass on to our daughter Rachel. It was her bed, a good quality item with integrated storage and they replaced it with a pair of old, filthy single divans which had no headboard and no wheels attached to the metal stick legs making it impossible to move them. I almost ripped the carpet while moving the beds in that room before I realised the situation.
The small bedroom was not in such a bad state, they had [kindly] left a toddler bed in that room. The reason became clear when I moved the bed - there was a very obvious iron shape on the floor where the carpet had been melted by a hot iron. As that is the only sensible location for a bed in that room then it would be covered up so no real need to replace that carpet.
Now into the bathroom where the roller blind was not working. They had pulled the cord out of the pulley and it just did not function. This took about 5 minutes to repair. But it took much longer to clean what appeared to be make-up and/or possibly toothpaste from the bottom edge of the blind. Someone must have been using it as a hand cleaner! The light switch is a pull-cord type so that it can be inside the bathroom. We left it with a wooden turned fitting on the rope. I found a rather nasty and broken pottery thing with razor sharp edges hanging there, that had to be replaced. And, I assume it must be obligatory to break the toilet roll holder. I found that the main screw to fix the stem onto the mounting plate had been stripped out and sadly they attempted to repair it with glue. So a new item had to be fitted, another expense.
Downstairs, the entrance hall had a nice new carpet five years ago, just like the stairs and all of the first floor. Now it looks like they had been bathing the dog on it. Fortunately, if that is the correct word, the carpet that we had to take out of the main bedroom was large enough to replace this - so just the cost of re-fitting.
In the lounge it did not seem too bad except for a strange, sticky stain in the centre of the floor. Not sure what it was but it took some cleaning up. Then when I moved furniture I discovered that they simply cleaned around everything. Underneath the settee and chairs, I found all kinds of rubbish, food, pens, toys, etc. There were even toys lodged behind the radiators. Around all the walls were scuff marks where the furniture had obviously been pushed along and scraped the wallpaper. It was some relief to see that the piano was undamaged - this is a valuable antique that belongs to Henbury church and I have now requested that they take it back for safety.
The kitchen was in a similarly sorry state. There had clearly been a fire on the cooking hob which burnt and deformed the vinyl covering on the cooker hood and left soot in a number of uncleaned places. The fire blanket that we had installed in a strategic position in case of a kitchen fire, was unused and hidden away in one of the cupboards. What is the point of providing these things if the tenant simply ignores them? The cooker hob had been re-assembled incorrectly so the metal grids were resting on the burners and the stainless steel top was badly scratched in places - it just needed some thought to arrange the parts in the correct orientation. The lower tray in the refrigerator door was missing, I found it hidden in the pantry area but when I attempted to put that back in place, it was broken. The reason for this being that someone had failed to assemble the bottom shelf of the fridge properly which caused the tray to snag when the door closed thus breaking the plastic mounting clip. That was repaired with a couple of stainless steel screws but, of course, it is now not removable. The nice wall mural of a Seychelles beach that once graced the kitchen is now a distant memory, the past few years of abuse had left it scratched, torn, and stained with food. In fact, I also had to clean food off the ceiling in the kitchen.
At the top and bottom of the stairs it was evident that someone had been drawing all over the walls and the attempt to clean it up was to simply smear it further around the walls. That was resolved properly with a coat of the original paint.
The whole house had to be cleaned, the main bedroom re-carpeted and completely painted, and the original curtains re-hung. I ended up removing the vinyl covering on the cooker hood and painting the face with four coats of white enamel paint. The entrance hall carpet was replaced. The lounge walls were painted to cover up the scrape marks and the main kitchen wall was painted to replace the picture mural. Some minor electrical problems were resolved, although one problem was not minor and should certainly have been identified by the previous inspection as I located the problem quickly enough. Almost £200 was spent on new lights for the kitchen/diner to comply with building regulations. But the new electrical safety certificate now has just a single advisory note.
Outside was not much better, especially in the garage where the side door had been virtually destroyed and the lower half was completely missing. The only option here was a new door and lock, and many coats of exterior woodstain varnish.
The garden was very overgrown. Janet's fig tree is now quite big, a lot different from the single stick that it was when we left. The apple tree has grown huge and the blackberry plants have taken over everywhere, even inside the greenhouse. There were a number of broken panes in the greenhouse and almost everything inside was wet. The tenant had also been using it as a rubbish dump and, true to form had not cleared it out. The household bins were all filled to capacity with so much rubbish that I used no less than 10 large sacks to collect and sort everything for disposal.
It was two weeks of brutal work to get the house back into an acceptable condition, a lot of money spent which we need to recover by getting a new tenant installed as soon as possible.
On the plus side, I did have a chance to see family and some friends. I finally got to hold our granddaughter, Lyla, and also to meet Rachel's boyfriend. I had an interesting afternoon out in Stockport doing Christmas shopping with Rachel and Steve and also had a day trip on the train to Halifax with Emily and Lyla to visit my parents and my sister.
It is very worrying to see how much the cost of everything has risen over there in recent years. I enjoyed proper English fish and chips during my visit but found the cost a little difficult to stomach. A diet of Tesco meal deal sandwiches and the occasional egg custard or apple turnover was adequate. I did get Domino's pizza and Thai noodles a couple of times but mostly I had special offer 'nuke in the bag' meals to keep the costs down.
My brief shopping trip to Marks and Spencer was a sobering experience, it seems like everything is now rounded up to the nearest £5 and more expensive than ever. Even at Poundland there is little to be found for a Pound.
However, I am now safely back in Vale de Prazeres, though the weather is no better here, perhaps slightly less cold. The air is much cleaner, there is much less traffic and the people are a little more friendly.