The fools gateway

Consider if you will our self-righteous parish councillor Stewart Rat(aj) and his fellow councillors complaining that our proposed house would despoil the countryside and then take a look at the gates that he has hung on the posts fitted last week. It must have taken a long time, and a lot of digging, to find such a knackered pair of rusty old eyesores as those. But of course, it has been done deliberately, out of spite, because he has effectively lost his futile battle to stop us building. This was all he had left and there's little we can do as neither the gates nor the fence are subject to any form of planning regulations (I've checked). Pathetic.

And so to progress on Wee House.

Following Roy's surprise at the need to have the water pipe chlorinated, he checked and found that this hasn't been the case for some years on a pipe as small a diameter as ours. When he queried this with Anglian Water they responded with the fact that he was the third person to 'phone that week with the same query all caused by the same inspector. One hopes said inspector has now had a "pipe appreciation lesson" and understands that there are different requirements for different diameter pipes.

Lee the painter turned up on Monday and, together with his anonymous mate, set about staining the window and door frames. By Tuesday lunchtime he had finished the required two coats and will return when the windows and doors are fitted to give a final exterior coat.

In the meantime, Bob the chippy, had been getting greyer and greyer (dust from cutting the board) as he fitted first the remaining insulation, and then the plasterboard to the ceiling in what I shall from now on call the guest room, rather than the mezzanine. Due to the fiddly nature of this Bob didn't get a chance to start installing the windows but will start that job on Monday 16th.

Darren the plumber was called to site on Wednesday to connect the rainwater harvesting system control system and mains water feed which runs from the house to the garage (where the control unit is sited) and then to the rainwater tank. A quick test using the generator showed the pump was working so Darren's work is done for the moment.

Andrew the electrician was also on site on Wednesday to connect the tails of the mains electricity feed to the consumer unit. At one point it appeared as though there might be a duel (wrenchs at dawn?) as Darren and Andrew argued about the positioning of their respective equipment : boiler - Darren; consumer unit - Andrew. Both apparently wanted exactly the same bit of the utility room wall! Andrew won because he got in first and installed the consumer unit. Darren will find somewhere else for the boiler!

Meanwhile Gary and Ian were beavering away on the drains, albeit in silence on Monday, because Ian's soccer team Arsenal, had beaten Gary's team Man U at the weekend. The emotions generated by football are somewhat of a mystery to me. By Thursday the drains were complete and the building inspector was summoned to carry out our "dry inspection". This entails checking the fall is satisfactory, which apparently it was, so passed. There's also a "wet inspection". Quite what that entails I shudder to think but will ensure that I am NOT on site on the day he calls for this dubious-sounding process.

For reasons that are not entirely clear Gary Gutter did not arrive again this week, but is now scheduled to appear next week. I'm getting a bit fed up with him. If he doesn't show this week I'll look elsewhere as the walls are getting soaked because the roof presently drains directly onto them. Worse still, the water is splashing into the clay at the base of the walls and a milky spray is in turn being splashed onto the lower red bricks. Looks like a pressure washer is needed.

And finally, to Friday when Gary and Ian, now bosom buddies again (because there's no league football this weekend to fall out over) have been concreting the drains, fitting inspection points and backfilling. This means that the rainwater harvesting tank has now almost disappeared with just its neck showing, and the ground beside the house is reasonably level - bloody boggy, but reasonably level!

Jan and I had our usual weekend clean up on today (Sunday) but really only had a bit of sweeping to do. Hopefully, the windows will be in by next weekend and so stop the debris getting into the house. Mind you, it won't stop the builders being their usual messy selves!

Jan & Rog