Sometimes you win …...

Well, a week when more was done than there is to show for it. Quite a few of those over the last few months. Bottom line up front is that I managed to get the water line connected up to the house. What a palaver that all turned out to be. We had to dig a seven feet deep trench, three feet wide, just to bury a 3/4"plastic pipe and at the bottom of it we had to lay 12 inches of sand to protect the pipe from rocks. But it was worth it in the end and I can now cross that little job off the list of things to do.

We started digging at the road end of the line. The place to dig was easily identified because the water pipe was sticking out of the ground so it was just a case of trying to avoid damaging it.

I also cut a smaller trench in the bottom of the main one in order to reduce the amount of sand used. It was easily done using a rake over the rubble in the bottom of the trench loosened by the excavator.

A man sized excavator for the job - honestly I've seen smaller Soviet trench systems than this.

The only real casualties were one tree and some minor damage to the plastic ICF protection, which was easily patched up the next day with some spare protection we still had at the cabins in Galloway.

The pipe was then laid and the sand poured on top. The pipe was then lifted to ensure there was sufficient sand underneath it and backfilling was started before it was all laid, in order to allow the excavator to straddle the trench and get sand into the last bit nearest to the house.

This shot gives you a closer look at things.

By the end of the second day it was all filled in and patched up and ...

… in some parts you would never know we had just dug it all up.

From the road, it just looked like it had been raked over. Note the tree by the log pile that had to be taken out. Fortunately, it was the only one and I cut it up the next day and burned the bows and stump.

I also had two trips down to the States. The first was on Friday to collect the four prow replacement windows and the second was on Saturday to collect the garage doors. Luck would have it that when I came back across the border on Saturday the credit card machine connection was down and so I didn't have to pay any tax on the garage doors. I guess sometimes you win one.

Having cut up the tree that we had to take down I set about trying to find the electricity and phone lines to the lot. I managed to find the phone line pipe but, have not yet found the electricity pipe. I did find the manhole however and so the pipe shouldn't be that difficult.

Next week I am expecting both the roofers and the septic team to come in and do their bits and the following week I hope the electrical connection will be done and the driveway finished. I have also engaged an insulation company to come and put insulation in the roof and garage ceiling and if I can get the last remaining windows in and the garage doors on, that will see me sealed up ready for winter. The fireplace people are on call to install the wood burning stoves as soon as the roof in finished and the insulation is in.