22. A Rainy Day

Friday was a bit of a washout this week so rather than get soaked working on the extension, I decided to build a little kart for my one-year-old from scraps of wood left over from the roof.

Can I take your order, Sir?

The timber is cut to size.

The finished kart. Total cost £1.73. I had to buy the castors from Toolstation.

Wheeeeee!

Brrrrmmm....

21. Water main

One of the disadvantages advantages of completely renovating an old house is that one job often reveals another which needs attention. All the digging for the new drainage has exposed the original lead pipe which supplies the house with water. It's not in good condition and is leaking in a couple of places so the decision is made to replace it.

The old lead pipe is corroded in several places.

One trip to the hire shop later and I am back with this baby to cut a trench through the tarmac drive.

The floor saw is returned after doing it's job and I am back to the old pick and spade for the rest.

The connection to the mains supply in the street is exposed after much digging.

The new pipe is laid...

...and connected to the mains supply.

At least now we will be happy that the water supply isn't contaminated with lead and that we're not wasting water through leakage. Time for a cuppa methinks...

20. Drainage

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd take a few minutes to bring things up to date...

A Saturday morning sees the brickies lay around 300 solid concrete blocks to bring us up to floor level on the garage. Those things weigh around 15kg each so I'm glad they brought their own labourer...

I get started on backfilling and digging out the old inspection chamber.

A new inspection chamber is installed to accept connections from the new ensuites and kitchen extension.

The new trench for the ensuite passes under the existing floors...

...as does the one to the new kitchen.

The new pipework is laid, completing the modifications to the foul drainage.

A new storm drain inspection chamber is installed to connect to the new and relocated downpipes.

More digging of trenches...

...and a further inspection chamber to accept surface water from the patio area and workshop roof.

More digging and pipe laying completes the modifications to the storm drains...

...and finally backfilling can commence.

It's been four weeks of hard digging but at least the weather has been fine for most of it. Now to fill it all back in...