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.