Spring is in the Air. And in my Sofa.

A week or so back I sat down rather more heavily than usual and there was a loud twang from underneath me. One of the springs in our Ikea Ektorp sofa had broken. I checked the interweb and apparently this furniture has a lifetime guarantee. Unfortunately this does not cover springs, cushions or covers or anything else likely to break or wear out.  Such is life.

Fortunately the interweb also took me to http://upholsterysupplyman.co.uk/ where I could buy a replacement spring (you need a 23 inch serpentine/zigzag spring for the Ektorp) for only two quid. I got four in case I decide to sit down heavily again, along with a bunch of clips to hold them in place.

The springs arrived yesterday, and so today I had the fun and games of fitting one. Turned out to be quite easy, although what I really want is a staple gun to pin the fabric back onto the frame properly. I’ve used such things in Doom, and they seem to work quite well.

One handyman success a day is usually enough for me, but then, last thing at night I got the “chance to shine” again, when the power shower suddenly became a lot less powerful. And much, much colder. Having just spent the price of a really nice camera (and I mean *really* nice) on replacing big chunks of the water heating system I was less than happy at this point. So it was off with my socks and hello to an evening of standing in the bath swearing while I tried to dismantle chunks of plumbing.

After a while skimming my knuckles and reflecting that it might be time to call in a plumber again I had a kind of breakthrough when the piece I was pulling at came off in my hand. Turns out that something was blocking the hot water inlet filter. Feeling a bit like a chap in CSI I bagged it for further investigation, put the shower back together and it all worked perfectly. I think something must have got left in the replacement heating tank and found its way into the part of the system that would cause me the most bother. There wasn’t enough of the sample to get a DNA trace, but foul play is not suspected at this point. Just dumb bad luck.

After that it was time for a shower and bed, at the end of a slightly shorter but on the whole successful day.