About two weeks ago, we noticed a smell of damp plaster in Fred's office and our big living room at the end of the hall. Our Spanish friends said it was just stuffy from winter and we should air the place. We duly flung open windows, relished the early warm spring and breathed deep.
The smell got stronger. A small patch of mould appeared above Fred's office desk. "It's where he breathes/vapes" said the clued-up locals. We sprayed the mould and it disappeared. Easy!
The smell got stronger still and last week, the plaster started to bubble unmistakeably. A few tears of water rolled down the office wall, straight into the plug sockets above the desk. This past weekend, two loud crashes announced the decline and fall of two framed posters, sliding down the wall and petulantly smashing their glass into a thousand shards. I was going to call M. Night Shyamalan with a new movie idea. (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Split, Glass, and now Water Gremlins).
Water began to pool, seeping at Olympic speeds until we were mopping on the hour almost every hour. Yesterday, the electricity kept cutting out every 10 minutes, then every five. We called in the cavalry. Our excellent landlord was on to it straight away. The insurers sent a builder and plumber round within hours. We kept smiling as they picked and hammered a large hole in the dividing wall and handed each other tools and advice through it.
Water ploshed and plaster flew (that wall is/was painted a tasteful cafe´con leche colour). The guys resisted all offers of tea, coffee, chocolate biscuits or even water. Within three hours, the water gremlins had been banished, and the walls in both rooms sported fantastic mushroom designs in fresh plaster. I am sure we will not even notice these in a day or two.
Now we just wait two weeks and it is said that a painter will appear as if by magic, to make it all lovely again. The water gremlins have been wrung out - for now.
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