November 20th 2019

[H] Today Electricity North West turned up to disconnect the power and move the electricity meter into our new outdoor cabinet. Again, to save money, we opted to do the labouring ourselves and Malcolm has constructed a solid concrete pad, complete with the required ducting to run the cabling from underground up through the pad, and installed an approved meter cabinet on top of it. The electrician was here yesterday fitting a couple of outside sockets on the side of the cabinet and a connection for the caravan, which is all we should need for now. This will serve as our TBS ("temporary builders' supply") while the build is going on and can then be converted to our permanent meter cabinet once the new house is finished. It's a bit more complicated than that - there were lengthy discussions over several weeks about RCDs, consumer units, three phase vs single phase,... which I don't pretend to understand. If you're interested in knowing more then please see Malcolm's write-up on UTILITIES in the TECHNICAL section.

Electricity cabinet and new outside tap for site supply:

November 17th 2019

[H] Our caravan is now up and running! It's had a full deep clean and Malcolm needed to 'fiddle' with the electrics to get that working, fix a leaking tap, buy and fit a new water supply connection into the side of the caravan (as the original one had been discontinued) and change the regulator so we could connect up a gas bottle to heat the hot water. But by far the biggest job was finding and solving a leak at the back of the caravan that had rotted much of the rear panel. We did eventually find the leak and have sealed that up. Then began the work of stripping out the rotten framework at the back of the van, replacing it with new timbers and insulation, making, painting and fitting a complete new window surround panel in the shower room and installing a new seal around the rear window opening. We can't get the built-in heater to work so we've just plugged in a small electric heater instead and that works fine.

The space is perfect for us as a site office/base and it's amazing how much you can fit in. We have a gas hob, oven and grill, fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave, sink with hot & cold running water, seating for up to 4 people, toilet, the shower cubicle is being used for hanging wet jackets and keeping buckets, brooms, etc. and we have enough storage space for food, pans, cleaning materials, vacuum cleaner, first aid kit, work boots, working clothes, extension leads, hard hats, gloves and a few everyday tools. Originally we didn't want a shower room as such (we were just looking at caravans with tiny toilets) but as it turns out having the more spacious shower room has been very handy - it's functioning as a utility room and changing room as well as being the toilet with wash basin. And we've converted the two side bunks into very useful storage space underneath with the upper bunk being our site office desk. All in all we're delighted with it!

November 1st 2019

[H] Today the phone line was disconnected, and I mean properly disconnected - i.e. the cable running from the telegraph pole to the house was cut and removed. It was very easy to organise with BT Openreach and we have been assured that it's just as easy to run a cable back to the new house when it's finished.

We have also had the water meter moved as our original meter was going to be in the way of the build. Again, that was pretty straightforward to organise. United Utilities did a survey earlier in the summer to check that where we wanted the new meter was suitable, they gave us a job number and, when we were ready to go ahead, we simply rang up and they came within a couple of weeks. We had dug the hole ourselves (about 3ft deep and 4ft across) to expose the main water supply pipe further down the garden and give the men enough room to work in the hole. It was cheaper if we did the labouring, although we had to do it by hand as the main electricity cable is buried in the same area so using Kubi didn't seem like a very sensible idea! The United Utilities guys simply climbed into the hole, clamped the pipe, cut it, fitted a new meter (which comes as a complete unit with the housing, cover and meter all built into one) and then released the clamp. They then removed the old meter and put in a bit of pipe to span the gap where it had been so that we still had water to the existing house. All done within an hour.

They'd come from Oldham and had arrived at Cragside in two vans, one towing a large trailer. Prior to us they had been sent to a job on the west coast of Cumbria. Their sat nav had then given them the most direct route from there to here, which is over Hardknott and Wrynose passes. Anyone who knows that road will know that it's not really suitable for a large van and trailer, but that's the problem with relying on sat navs! They arrived not only looking rather shell-shocked but with two punctures, one on the van and one on the trailer. They tried pumping them up with our foot pump but the tyres clearly weren't going to get them back to Oldham. So one of the guys had to sit here and wait for three hours for someone to come out and change the tyres.