I thought it was time for a little interlude to highlight the immense contribution this workhorse has made to our project.
It is no exaggeration to say that living here "on site" these past 6 months would just not have been possible without the fan heater. Its warm glow, in the winter months when there was no central heating, was a huge source of psychological comfort in addition to the obvious physical necessity. But it's been so versatile as well! We still don't have a washing machine, so for those times when it's quicker to wash stuff at home rather than send it out, the heater speeds up the drying process by about 150%. When André's mum was visiting and she got wet in the rain, it dried her shoes in time for her to pack them the next day. It dried paintbrushes so we could carry on with our work on the windows in a timely manner. We never tried, but in retrospect I bet we could have used it to heat food in the couple of days before our new microwave was delivered. I bet in a pinch it could even double as a toaster...
More seriously, the psychological point is an interesting one - André pointed out the other day that the little fan heater has been arguably the most reliable "character" in this whole drama. G.C. let us down hugely (and got us into this whole predicament in the first place). M. let us down. The plumbers are fantastic but slightly mercurial. But this fan heater has been rock solid! And there's emphasis on this one - which is actually on long-term loan to me from a dear friend. I had bought another one in mid-winter to supplement its output, but it conked out within 2 weeks. The supplementary one that André bought from the hardware store gave up the ghost the same day! Maybe it's our talisman... Even so, I'm relieved that we've made enough progress (even though sometimes it feels like we've hadly gotten anywhere) that we won't have to get through another winter without central heating!
