a tense few days

However we have tried to plan carefully, things don't always work out!
Russell & Rob began digging down to the sewer on Thursday, but it was much deeper than they expected, and they had to get a special box to enable deeper digging on Friday (this was so the walls didn't collapse).
Unfortunately that was the day that the local sewage pumping station station stopped working, so when they drilled into the pipe, a fountain of sewage sprayed out. I was mercifully collecting an order at the time - but I had the foresight to provide industrial size wipes as the water tap was frozen!
This meant that the mandatory inspection could not be done; and in order to prevent the hole filling up with water, we had to leave a pump on all weekend. Fortunately on Monday, the station was pumping again, the connection could be made & inspected, and the trench filled in.

It was especially important as today, a trench had to be dug for National Grid to lay the gas pipeline, and there would have been no room if the sewer trench hadn't been filled in.
This afternoon, National Grid arrived, but the traffic lights didn't. They were able to lay the pipe on our property, and leave the end to the public highway unconnected. That meant this trench could be filled, and yet another dug for the remaining services.

Edmund managed to get here on Saturday and helped to move the sanitaryware from the secure store into the house - we are most grateful as we hope to be plumbing in our shower room soon.
I spent this morning taking my very first steps in tiling and managed to get 12 floor tiles down.
So tomorrow, we hope that the traffic lights do arrive and the connection to the mains gas can be made; the scaffolding is erected for the garage roof, and I can learn how to cut tiles to fit the edge of the shower room.