I’m beginning to think that I should include the word ‘occasional’ in my blog header – despite the fact that life feels very settled at the moment, I seem to have less and less time to write. Having said that, there’s plenty of exciting stuff keeping me busy – not least the House Project!

I rather naively thought that with planning permission in place, and having chosen a builder, that we’d be done and dusted and painting our new bedroom by now. However, I should probably learn to accept that a) life does not move at the speed of Michelle, as much as I would like it to, and b)a rather large water tank in our loft right where our bed should be will definitely present a holdup.

I have of course known about the tank since the start of the journey but had long ago parked it in the corner of my brain reserved for ‘obstacles too big to think about right now’.  It’s a pretty useful corner actually – all sorts of stuff gets dumped there when I’m facing down a large project at work or home;  very often, by the time the obstacle needs to be dealt with it’s either disappeared, or morphed into something more manageable. However it seems that fully plumbed in and functioning water tanks do not fall into either of these categories – who knew? Not me!

There was no getting away from the fact that we needed a plan, and probably a better one than simply getting a really high bed and leaving the tank in situ underneath it, so I’ve been busy trying to figure out the best thing to do.

Initially it looked like changing our condensing boiler to a combi would be the best option. That way we could lose the tank and also lose our hot water cylinder that sits in a cubby hole in the kitchen. This would give us more space when we eventually start reconfiguring downstairs, so did seem an attractive option to start with – but ouch, new boilers are expensive! And despite what the manufacturers say, I hear lots of grumbles from people who have combis about the shower going freezing because someone’s doing the washing up. (If only someone EVER did the washing up!)

Then I had a chat with my Dad who suggested simply changing the type of hot water cylinder we have to one which can operate on our existing boiler but from the mains, rather than via a tank. At over a grand, a new cylinder is not a cheap option but it’s certainly cheaper than a new boiler, and it also has the advantage of an immersion so if the boiler breaks down, we can have hot water independently until it’s fixed.

So I went shopping for a new cylinder this week. Not the most exciting shopping assignment I’ve ever had in my life, though probably the most expensive… *winces*  Here it is in all its glory – it looks very grand and hi-tech next to our existing cylinder (in the cupboard to the left) and it’s certainly a better size for a family of five.  The job of getting it plumbed in will soon be under way – thanks to my lovely and very patient Dad – and then we will finally be on the journey to our 4 bedroom house! Woop! More soon…

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