Pont troubles

The snow continued until about midday, but has since melted below about 900m. Four days working long hours at Pont and although most the work is complete there have been a few set backs.

Yesterday the light in the downstairs hall decided to die. After much checking, the fault lies somewhere hidden in the buried wiring - perhaps a loose connection or faulty wire. Nothing to be done but to safely terminate the existing wiring and pull a new wire from another circuit or the fuseboard. That's where the fun started. The hall is on the opposite side of a 600 thick stone wall to the fuseboard and now the floors and ceilings are long since finished, there's no way to pull another cable through the only hole that carries all the cables. So I eventually found a lighting cable for the kitchen which I could just reach in a ceiling void over the utility room and after hours of fiddling (because there wasn't enough slack in the cable to easily make a connection) I connected everything up and hey presto NOTHING. No light and after checking the cable no current! Bizarre as I know the cable serves the kitchen light. To cut a long storey short I'd connected to the cable after the kitchen light switch (the cable had to come back through the utility to get to the only hole through the stone wall I mentioned earlier). So the light worked but only when the kitchen light was also turned on. If this sounds confusing, good, because it was and I was there!! Plan B involved hours of trying to pull another cable through the utility room ceiling void and up into the kitchen. Eventually success, but 6 hours to wire a lamp!

Set back two involves the septic tank. The overflow from which enters a small tank which once full pumps the liquid up the hill to filter beds. The pump is working fine but there's a crack in the pipework built into the tank which is allowing the water to flow back into it once the pump stops, eventually it refills the tank triggering the pump once more. Not sure if the part with the crack is replaceable, mendable or if I have to get a hole new tank and install it - I only have 2 days before tenants move in!! Will need to bale out the tank tomorrow to have a better look - yuk.

Fortunately the bath at Quelebu is now fully operational after some late night working, with new taps and larger bore pipework (22mm) it fills quickly and effortlessly.