Complete!
Phil finally came over after a few days wait due to his workload. He was here just before 9pm and left about 30 minutes later. The cable was damaged quite a bit, more than I realised, and by other people who lived in the house before us. There was a fixing plug that was through the live wire from many years ago, Phil estimated the late 90’s, and said if a screw was put in it then it would have been connected directly to the live. It was however papered and painted over. There was also a hole where a nail had gone through and two other parts of the cable that were damaged by god knows what.
The hole in the wall ended up to be quite a large one after all that Phil had to do, but at least we know the house is safe again. But being cautious I have started replacing all the old smoke/fire alarms in the house. The kitchen one is specifically for kitchens so it has a burned toast awareness, which is good, not that we have much toast, to be honest. The mad thing is that it connects to all the other fire alarms using wireless technology, so when one goes off, they communicate with each other and the rest go off (different tone) in order to make you aware that there is a problem in the house. I also replaced the lounge one today, and have another 6 on order for the rest of the house, and a hardwired one to replace the old wired one we have in the hall with the spiral staircase. All told 9 required.
Next job is plastering the walls, but I will be doing that in a couple of weeks as we are going away (more of that later).
Mr Knitter 