Some time later...(part 1)

Some time later we return to the chalet!

We haven't been back for nearly a whole year! Money problems have prevented any sort of break but we have to get this thing finished. As it is its worth about as much as I owe on it so if I walk now i get nothing for 7 years work. But with a few thousand pounds more to spend on it it could be worth nearly three times what I owe on it! So we really need to try hard for that last few thousand.

So we have rebooted the project with a fortnights trip to see if the place is still standing and so arriving on Saturday, late at night, the two boys and I discover there is no water and no electrics.
This is a bad, possibly fatal sign. OK put the boys to bed and as I have just driven for 14 hours door to door I will not be far behind them.

Sunday morning arrives and we discover that while we dont have electricity we do have cold water (in the hot water pipes, the cold water pipes appear to be "sieved" in about four places) Apparently Morzine has just had the coldest winter in memory with temperatures down to -30. All over the place pipes have frozen and burst. Even though I drained down all my pipes my cold water pipes have blown in a few places. One of the tap valves has cracked and needs replacing but I have a few bits that can be used to fix all but one of the leaks. No electrics, I still dont understand why as I cant see anything wrong. All I can think off is that we have been cut off through non payment of the bill. But its Sunday and there is nothing I can do until tomorrow so we all make the most of it. I still have the camping gas stove from years back somewhere in the garage and it still has some gas in it. We can use that to heat food and water. Its warm enough at night so we dont need heating. It looks like we could survive for a bit at least until I know whats going on.

Monday - Down to Voiron's to get plumbing bits and pay off the 3000 euro bill I have had with them since last time we when we built the balconies. They are great about it and shrug it off saying "OK but this time you pay at the end of your holiday", Hey no problem, they have effectively lent me 3000 euros for a year and I still have an account there.
I fix the leaks and so we now have cold and cold running water. So I look up EDF France on their website and even found some phone numbers for English customers in France but phoning these gets you into a recorded message about pressing 1 for this and 2 for that add to this that the descriptions are garbled in quick fire french, its impossible. So I determine that he nearest actual person I could talk to face to face is in Annemasse which is a good hour away. Into the car with everybody and down to Annemasse we go. Thank god for Sat Nav or we would never have found the place.

We wait for 2 hours before the lovely woman at the EDF tells us she that the EDF has never heard of me of my house or my connection and she knows nothing about anything I say. This is strange but she says I need the number on the electricity meter and that this would allow her to trace me. So back to Morzine we go and write down the number of the meter. Its now too late to go back so we spend another night in the dark, teaching my children how to play cards, dice and monopoly.

Tuesday morning, armed with the number on the meter we drive back to Annemasse and wait for another 2 hours while the assistants serve other customers and then just before the place closes for lunch our lovely lady works out that yes we have a connection and that we need to pay a vast sum of money and that they cant do anything until this vast sum is paid. But I cant pay it here. I need to phone this number and arrange with them to pay.
Now I kind of understand what has happened. Basically I haven paid my bill. But EDF set a ridiculous monthly direct debit of 90 odd euros and take it out of the bank each month. Now I use about 90 euros of electricity in a year so I would be thousands in credit. but no this does not matter. EDF take there money and figure out if they owe you anything eventually later. Anyway with the money problems I have they were not getting paid and as the address they had was in Zurich I was really none the wiser as to the extent of the situation. So it would appear that they had cut me off.

Tuesday night and Rob turns up knocking at the door. After a few words of explanation we are having a look at the various electric boxes and with the help of electric test screwdrivers (They contain a bulb that lights up when the end touches a live wire) we figured out that all the wires were live, even parts of the consumer unit in the chalet but somehow there was no power. Tracing the connection back we came across a broken connection. The neutral blue wire had become disconnected. It looked like the cable had been yanked back and this had broken the connection. A few screws of a screwdriver later and power was restored!

So now the kids could enjoy dvds and Nintendo DS instead of board games and cards and I have some power to do some work and after three days I am feeling very frustrated!