Are we making progress?

A coat of paint for the garage

I've spent much of the week giving the garage a makeover. Damage to the rendering has been carried out (caused by careless builders); gutters have been removed (both leaking); fascia boards cleaned and painted, and the gutter replaced correctly; the window and side door painted; the walls treated to 2 coats of Weathershield sandstone. I've also arranged for the fitting of a new up and over door from Darrell our local garage door man. The chosen door simulates vertical tongued and grooved boarding but is actually a plastic coated metal, with a finish called "weathered oak". (No maintenance!)

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Wednesday at 11.00 was the critical time when the engineer was due from the Sprinkler company. He arrived as 14.15 claiming the traffic was bad on the M25 - nothing new there then. Needless to say, the instruction for him to telephone me 15 minutes before arrival had not been relayed to him. Had he been on time, I would not have been there to greet him. Anyway, although he was the same engineer that last visited, he had forgotten that he hadn't been able to adjust the height of some of the sprinkler heads, (or had enough of the finishing plates that cover the water heads) because he didn't have the right tool with him. Guess what - he still didn't have the tool or the finishing plates. However, he did have a shiny new pump - would this be his salvation? His instructions were simple - change the pump in the rainwater tank and check the flow and pressure. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it wasn't !

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Having taken the lid off the rainwater tank and peered in, we could see a cord which we guessed was attached to the pump (about 12 feet below us). Grab this and pull seemed the answer. Wrong - the pump wouldn't move because of the 1" plastic pipe that was connected to it and which fed the system via the garage control units. There was only one answer - drain the tank (3500 litres is a lot of water), find a long ladder, climb down into the tank and disconnect the pump from the pipework. It took about 45 minutes to drain the tank even though we resorted to putting the new pump in the tank to assist the existing one. Mr Hyde's field got very wet. As I found the ladder, Paul the engineer volunteered to climb into the tank - a very tight fit, even for someone as slim as him. Working in very cramped conditions he managed to undo the pipework and we lifted out the old pump and were then able to compare the two pumps - old and new. Our existing pump had an enclosed inlet at the base which was connected to a hose and a large blue float to ensure that the cleaner water at the top of the tank was delivered to the house rather than the gunge at the bottom of the tank. Our new pump did not have this. Instead it had a gauze filter as its base so would pick up all the gunge at the bottom of the tank.

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However, as the idea was to trial the pump, it was fitted and tested. Sure enough it delivered the required flow and pressure when tested at the control panel point in the garage, but a much lower flow rate and pressure was delivered at the house. The inevitable conclusion was that the bore of the pipe from the garage to the house was too small and would have to be increased to 32mm from 25. Not only that but the 3/4" fittings used would need to be replaced with 1", the stopcock changed for a different type with better flow characteristics, the pressure reducing valve moved to a different point in the pipework, and the feed to to the sprinkler circuit from the kitchen changed from 1/2" to 32mm. But hey, what does it matter, its not their money - we've got to foot the bill for all this, including the new pump at £560!

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So, its now my job to a), find Darren the plumber (last heard of in Spain) and get him to make these changes, and b). dig a 6 metre trench 18" deep from the rainwater tank to the garage to run the power supply for the new pump (the existing conduit to the garage is too small to allow even a relatively thin power cable to pass through). As an aside we noticed that whoever installed the existing pump had applied silicon sealer around the hole where the power cable goes into the pump. Our guess is that one of the morons that was involved in installing the rainwater tank heaved the pump out by its flex rather than the cord, and in so doing ruined the seal. Had we not had to replace the pump we probably would not have discovered this problem until the pump refused to work one day.

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I managed to get the less than approachable MD of the Sprinkler company to agree with my schedule of work required and he has stated that if we do carry out the work and the pump is replaced, then the system can be commissioned - hoo-bloody-ray! He did say that he was very upset with Dab, the pump manufacturer, as they had said they didn't have a suitable pump, and apparently they do, with all the floating filter thingies that we need. It comes to something when a manufacturer doesn't know his own product line.

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Finding the bigger bore pipe for the run from the garage to the house was not easy, but I eventually found a coil in Peterborough so collected that on Thursday afternoon. I've now got to apply the tape with the legend "Reclaimed Water" every 6 inches along its length otherwise the Anglian Water Inspector will wet himself again!

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Had a call from John Lewis on Wednesday to say that our carpet had arrived and could they fit it next week. As we were originally told that it would be 4 weeks before fitting, we wanted the vinyl floor laid first so have put John Lewis on hold until the end on August (our local supplier is laying the vinyl floors and sisal during the last week on August).

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Had a shock when the quote for the fitted wardrobe arrived - over £4K. Now this may be par for the course but its still a lot of money and IKEA can do the same thing for about 25% so I guess we'll be going for more meat balls soon.

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Stop press - looks like we've sold our house in Clifton to a really nice couple called Jonathan and Helen who currently live in rented accommodation on Baldock. They have a rental contract until mid October which gives us plenty of time to get Brookvale ready to occupy (and pass all the building control tests)

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As a footnote, both Jan and I are losing weight. Jan has lost a stone, and I've lost 1/2 stone. Can't think why this should be.............

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Vanishing Jan & slimmer Rog