Bathing Solutions

I have just struggled for the last week wondering how I would get a proper wash. My brain gets very depressed if I don't shower or bath in HOT water.  The last time I was without a bathroom, shower or bath I went to my former partner's house every few days but he has sold up!  I could go round to a different friends' house as suggested but I don't like to intrude on family life.
The last time I was without the bath / shower facility I had hot water from a boiler plus with kettle water I filled two orange BnQ diy buckets and went to the outhouse where I had heated (no, NOT HEATED!!) the room with the electric radiator that is out there on the wall!  The temperature outside was minus 26C.
This time I have no hot water as the water boiler has broken and it has been noisy since October 2014.  The installer eventually came in May 2015, said he would contact the manufacturer and despite my phone calls never spoke to me again. In August the machine twice cut the general electricity in the house. I had been putting it on only when we needed bath water every three days as it made such a terrible noise.
Then I was told that the compressor is dead.  It has been installed in a room too small in cubic space. It has been installed without sufficient ventilation.  It was supposed to be energy efficient but hasn't been!  Now I await the third company involved to send me the devis (estimate of costs) to make it function.. it will soon be five years old! They say the manufacturer is involved but my French is struggling to fully comprehend. I WAIT!  I have been told I have no choice!  But surely, there is always choice! Eventually I shall need someone who is fluent at French  to speak to the original installer but when I know MY FACTS!
After one week, last Saturday, desperate to wash my hair, I spent a long time...about an hour ... heating a one litre kettle of water many times.  Then I thought 'let's try the micro wave oven' as my friend has recently given me one and all week I have been trying to use it!  Never had one before!  I have some small plastic bowls and the micro oven took 8 minutes to boil the water in a three litre one.   So that made the process quicker.  Meanwhile, the towel radiator was warming the room nicely!  Eventually, I had two and a half buckets, which with a little cold water was enough to sit in the bath and pour hot water over my head bowl by bowl. After which it was glorious to lie in less than two inches of water and splash about!
What a palava! Makes me appreciate water... and electricity... and how much water I am saving on the meter. That is a good thing because last six months bill was high. I had on two occasions left water running from the kitchen tap overnight!

Wendy Ann 2

I hope my son does not mind me publishing a pic of his home. When I deviated from my journey to make an intangible connection with my son, knowing he would not be there, I took a photo of his boat.  He and his wife live aboard this steel vessel called Wendy Ann 2.  I don't know how they managed without a shower or bath for over or about five years. When the generator packed in there was no electricity!
They are both phenomenal and if you'd seen this boat as a wreck, like many others you would have said they will never achieve their GOAL... but they have and are seemingly happy.
I am very pleased to know that they now have paid employment and are project managing and more for a construction company.  I understand that he is doing carpentry, making tables and recently made a fantail for a windmill! BRILLIANT. AWESOME! He can do welding and make almost anything out of new and recycled materials. His wife sadly had to close her livery as the premises got sold for housing development.  It was devastating just when the business was making even after five years hard labour and I mean hard.  The local community fought the proposals but lost. A sad day for stables, horses and green spaces in Epsom. How lucky she was to have her dream and I expect that one day she will do so again!

Laundry Room 2010

It was June 2010. My son is super strong and had built his muscles by learning to weld 2m x 1m  or larger thick steel sheets to repair his steel tug.  There were two days of hiring the jackhammer - le marteau-piquer: solid cement that had been poured next to the property had to be removed because we believed it was keeping damp within the interior side of the walls.  It was hard on my hands so we found an old saucepan made out of a weird lightweight material, (not for cooking for us!!) to scoop out debris. It was exceptionally hot on both occasions.

After all had been scooped out, we refilled with the larger stones, then the smaller ones, then covering all with large gravel. It is the width of 'my right' to access to my building but of course 'le droit d'echelle' needs more space for the ladder!  C'est un expression legale. As you see the render was falling off and it is worse now!  I must remember but I need a good Workawayer! The sand was not mine!

The first photo below shows the extent where the lead bath / trough was.. possibly for animal feed but where I am told the lady who spent her childhood here was bathed! Presumably, it was then in an extension to this buiding!
The second photo below shows where the water gutter from my building has to pass through a wall into my garden! Why it didn't go straight through at the higher height I don' know but the lower entrance is the height of the ground on the other side of the wall.

 The next photo shows bedrock that the house wall is built upon at the roadside.

After many hours labour, my son and I cooked sardines al fresco with new potatoes eaten with salads at a picnic table in the back garden. Despite angst we shared happiness whilst bonding mother and son. They were not easy days because of other stuff that was happening. LIFE!

 WELL, that was a long time ago!!! The hair shows fewer grey strands!

Laundry room 2015

from no sink or work surface to 'a working area' with the recycled, repaired, repainted oak kitchen cabinets, circa 1985, painted in Dulux Quartz Grey.

I don't think I shall be able to store food in here if that red central heating oil fired boiler ignites!  Nor will I be place chocolate or jams on it!  In fact, I think I don't have sufficient knowledge about how it will affect the room which was incredibly rustic when I bought the house.
I heard it roar once when it was lit to prove it worked on the day that I became the owner occupier!  EEEKKK... Do I know what I am doing?
In July I reported on the Laundry Room called in France un buanderie....
So if you go HERE you can see pics...but close that window and then return here to finish reading.....
On the fourth wall is the 4 to 5 year old water boiler chauffeau thermodynamique,  costing in 3k to install, the compressor of which is dead because the installer has not installed it with sufficient venting nor in a room the correct size!!!!!!! and !!!!!!! and !!!!!!! So I currently have no hot water and the problem started October 2014.
THE PAST
Oh and this was some of the state of the laundry room in 2010. A concrete floor that let in water. A old doorway screed render on a bit of cardboard and wood! I shall make a posting of the exterior of this room ... searching through my blog, I can't find reference to any of the exterior or interior of this room being 'improved'.  I went out whilst a friend's son blocked in the doorway!!! No tying in at all! I was not happy! Now, it is well rendered over on the inside and behind the vacuum cupboard. 
 
I have no idea why there was green matchboarding on this part of the original render (cement possibly !!! ggggrrrrrr ) There it is!!! 
If you look at the ceiling the plasterboard or whatever was held up at the edge by timber lengths.  we had to re- do the ceiling but unfortunately did not investigate what was above it! 
I am wondering if this will have to be done as the thermodynamique boiler in the position of that yellow and black thing may have to have a ventilation unit going through the ceiling and the roof!