At last

For my regular readers, you will remember that back in February we had a chimney fire.  (For those of you that aren’t, the story is here)

Six months, one week and one day later, I am relieved and pleased to say that the chimney has finally been fixed.  Back in February we were issued with a prohibition notice – we were banned from using our fireplace.  Well, we were banned but that didn’t mean to say we couldn’t.  If we carried on using our fireplace and something else happened then a) we weren’t covered by the insurance and b) we would have to pay all the fire brigades costs.  Needless to say – we didn’t use the fireplace!  All we are waiting for now is a visit from the fire brigade’s safety officer to check that everything is in order and the ban is lifted.

 

The repair of the chimney took less than one day – the other six months and one week has been spent “communicating” with the insurance company, waiting for everyone and his mate to inspect the damage, make their reports and then decide whether to pay out or not.  We even had one “inspector” come to see if we actually had a chimney – he must have been one of the worst people we have ever had to deal with.  He spent just 10 minutes in the house, looked at a previous inspection report (which he then made his own) and barely spoke to us.  How nice!! We seem to have spent the last six months dealing with people who say one thing and then do the complete opposite (my favourite sort of person, preferably on toast!).

So at long last, the saga of the chimney, that reached nightmare proportions at times, is finally over.

Roll on the winter (well, not too quickly , as it would be nice to have a bit of summer) and cosy Sunday afternoons in front of the fire.