Driving back to Norfolk with Daniel and collecting Steven Bloom on the way to drop Dan off and then find Heronshaw with frozen pipes and flooding but Paxton Princess okay.
The day rectifying the mayhem and then an architect meeting before a welcome dinner out at The Bridge Restaurant. Mr Lincoln was felling our boundary tress formerly screening us from his boatyard.
I had planned to spend some time working at Heronshaw and then be joined by Diana and the girls and so I was up early today. Daniel was also joining me. As Daniel was without the use of his car, I was taking him back to the UEA in Norwich. We loaded up the Range Rover together and collected Steven Bloom from Gransden on the way who had offered to help me for a couple of days. The weather was atrocious with further falls of snow to make road conditions even more difficult so that I was again thankful to have the Range Rover which was man enough to cope with it. We left at about 8,00am and then, after stopping for coffee, ended up dropping Daniel off at about 10.30am at University Plain which was quite good going considering.
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Then on to Heronshaw where all types of disaster were there to greet us. The sound of cascading water as we pulled up revealed that my worst fears of frozen pipes were well-founded. In fact we found eight burst pipes in the end as we worked our way around the bungalow. With so many dodgy compression joints, the pipes had just been forced apart by the ice and it was a situation that called for patience and stamina to rectify it stage by stage. We worked on until mid-afternoon on this, with a break for lunch in Wroxham whilst we bought some materials as well as eating. The water had gathered in the middle of the bungalow in the kitchen and second bedroom and so we put fan heaters on to try to dry out the mess. Apart from some stores of kitchen and toilet tissues etc under the sink, there was not any real damage of note considering the spectacle that had greeted us. There was also the shock of seeing that Mr Lincoln, the boat-yard owner, was felling all of the trees that had previously screened Ropes Hill Dyke from the marina and Racing Reach houses opposite which now left Heronshaw very open and exposed.
Somewhat tired and dishevelled, Steven and I then drove off to see my architects who I had arranged to meet in the later afternoon. The objective was to review the designs and costings for a new Heronshaw and to examine the horrendous estimate of a quarter of a million pounds to rebuild it. We made some progress in questioning the costs and they will respond again within a couple of weeks to see if these can be limited to £150K. Better news today was that the Paxton Princess was unaffected by the cold weather and all systems appeared to be working properly. The background heater had performed its function well. We ended the day with a fine meal at the Bridge Restaurant (which was very enjoyable) after which we went back to the bungalow to fire up my computer simulator so that I could show Steve what it was capable of.