Out (of business)

It has been a busy day. The Silver Vixen was out with a girlfriend (this is the same girlfriend she was meeting when she broke her hip, and they are meeting at the same place - needless to say, the Gorse Fox is on tenterhooks).

While she's been gone the Gorse Fox has been catching up on various tasks: he's descaled the coffee machine; vacuumed the stairs, the hallway, and the family room; he's taken a boot-load of detritus to the tip; he's picked up some cat litter and cat food and he's tried to sort out the hinge.

Perhaps he should explain. In the en suite, we have a large bathroom cupboard with mirrored doors. These are held in place with some Euro-hinges, one of which has sheared away from the supporting sidewall. The Gorse Fox looked at the details of the hinge and found the supplier. Bizarrely, they were from Hook (where we used to live). The problem is, however, that they have gone out of business. The Gorse Fox looked for other distinguishing marks and found a brand name that seems to indicate that they came from a Swiss company. Examination of their website shows they do make hinges for mirrored doors - but not, it appears, this one. The Gorse Fox browsed the web and found a possible supplier of similar hinges. Bizarrely, they have just relocated to Chichester. He hopped in the car and went to see them. They were incredibly accommodating and tried very hard to help. In the end, the Gorse Fox forked out a mind-blowing £2.31 for a hinge and drove home, happy.

It didn't fit.

The Gorse Fox called Berkeley Homes and chatted with their customer services team. They asked for photos and said they would talk with their procurement team and see what they could do or where they could direct him.

With all that underway, the Gorse Fox returned to the storage solution for the utility cupboard. This still needed a worktop to finish off the unit. Thirty minutes of hand-sawing and drilling later, the unit is complete.