Spaghetti Junction

Wow, look at the size of that.  Dave, the electrician, leant Bob one of his drill bits to do some of the holes while he was here.  Trouble was that it was so long that Bob couldn't stand back far enough and it did look quite funny.  Did the job though.

The electrician was here Monday to Thursday and got all the first fix done.  That's all the cables in place, but not actually connected.  He was brilliant - he really got on with things, listened to what we said and was very neat and tidy.  All the cables are neatly clipped in place, labelled and taped together where necessary.  I was helping him once, laying the cable along the top of the wall and then through to him in the next room.  That done, he continued to work in the next room running the cable down to sockets.  So, by the time he came back to where I was it was too late!!  I'd forgotten to put the cable under a metal wall tie and he had to clip it up above which completely ruined his neat pattern - oops!  It actually didn't matter - it'll all be covered up - but it spoilt the look for now!

I can't believe how many cables are needed and this is a relatively simple set-up.  Imagine if we'd had centrally controlled mood lighting, curtain opening, loo lid lifting, entry systems and retina scanning like you see on Grand Designs!  I am actually quite disappointed with this picture.  I wasn't quick enough to get a photo before he tidied up and bundled the cables together.  Believe me, before he did that it looked horrendous.  On this wall in the utility room we will have to have all sorts of boxes, so I think we'll hide them all in a cupboard.  When I told the electrician, he looked slightly hurt and said he actually quite likes looking at consumer units!  I managed to take the mick out of him for that for the rest of the week!  We will have to have one normal consumer unit (like the old fuse box), another for the trip switches for the underfloor heating, another for the controllers and contactors (don't ask me - I think they're something to do with doing the heavy switching) for the heating and another for the immersion heater controls.  So, that's most of the utility room used up!

Sparky is quite happy to come back now and then to do the next part in bits as and when we have done the insulation, plasterboard, skimming, etc.  The way it is wired means he could liven up (that's an electricians' term for connecting to the mains don't ya know!) the old house without us having to do anything to the rest.  That means we could move in to that bit!  Yeah! We might get in before the good weather comes . . . . we'll we've missed moving in before the bad weather!

This will be our third winter in the caravan and each have broken records.  The first was the coldest for something like 10 years, the next the coldest for 31 years and now this one has the earliest widespread snow for 17 years!  You can just bet that next winter will break some record by being the mildest since records began!!  We have snow and it is jolly chilly (if the Met Office website is to be believed, we should hit -9 tonight and it won't rise above -3 tomorrow . . . . Brrr!).  This morning the curtains were stuck to the windows by ice and the first loo flush of the day sounds as though there are icecubes going through the system.  So, today we have checked that the lagging is still in place on the pipes under the caravan, re-done the insulation around the outside tap and installed the double-glazing in the caravan.  We use the plastic film that you tape round the edges then warm with a hair dryer so it shrinks tight like a drum (that bit's quite good fun, but we overdid it last year and it started pulling the frames off!).  It does make a bit of a difference and cuts down the condensation, but it does mean you can't open the window so we leave some without so we can still freshen the air.

So, tonight we are having curry for tea . . . . with extra chillies!