We'll dig, dig, dig.....

Although we got the keys to the house a few days ago, we haven't been able to start work as we have had some very dear friends staying with us. So, the plan was that when they left yesterday we would go to the DIY place to get a few tools and then we would be able to go through to the house today and start looking for all the water pipes.Then an early start this morning and we would have the whole day to dig a few holes, find a few pipes and see what we were dealing with.

Neil had spoken with Jose, the seller and he had shown Neil a stick at the back of the property that marked one water pipe, an area in the garage where there was another, all the pipes coming through from the wall for the heating system and the pozo down the hill.

So, work boots on, big gloves and pick axe in hand - Neil started to dig the first hole hoping x really would mark the spot!




Before long we had found a pipe, which wasn't connected to anything - and it actually pointed the wrong way - it wasn't in the right direction to be from the bathroom to the pozo, it seemed to run from behind the house into the garage. Still, we were looking for pipes and we had found one - we would have to find a few more pieces of the jigsaw before it made any sense.

So, next stage was to dig outside by the 'stick'. We dug for a while and thankfully we didn't have to dig too deep before we found another pipe.

This time it was the water main.

We just couldn't work out where the pipes from the bathroom to the pozo were supposed to meet up. We had dug where Jose had said the water pipes were and found nothing that connected up from either end, only a pipe to nowhere and the mains.

Then Neil had a thought, could it be that the bathroom waste pipes were already connected to the pozo after all?

We needed to find out.

So, we connected the hosepipe to the only tap we have from the mains, in the garage

Fed it through the dining room window

Through the house to the bathroom

And pushed it down the loo.

Then we turned the water on and hoped the toilet didn't fill up and overflow. If it did, we would need to keep digging. If it didn't it meant it was flowing away somewhere.

And flow away it did. We ran the water for a good 10 minutes and it all just flowed away. Whatever Jose had been telling Neil, the problem between him only speaking Spanish and Neil only speaking English, it wasn't that the bathroom still needed to be connected up. All the taps need connecting - but the loo is done. So, we took the hosepipe and filled the cistern up - and had a ceremonial 'flushing of the loo' moment.

This has saved us a few days work and we can now start to fit out the bathroom and kitchen.

Maybe the house will be ready for us to move into at the end of the month after all.