Aqua Vitae

We chased up Cadgers, at some point in August, about progress on getting our water connected. Not a lot!

But he promised to either have it sorted for our arrival, or to provide a water bowser. He muttered about doing the Aberdeenshire Council & Scottish Water paperwork after the event.

And he did get it sorted, just as my  brother Ric got on site. We have a standpipe close to where our front door will be (eventually) with a respectable flow rate. They had cut across the access track and refilled it without much visible sign and the road end looked equally undisturbed.

It took 313 days from posting the form to Scottish Water to getting the tap! The water had a very plasticity taste throughout our fortnight there, but we did not really flush out the pipework before we started drinking.

 

Water? Ah yes, the water!

Many moons ago, I emailed Aberdeenshire council about how to get permission to work on the roadside, to prepare for connecting our water supply. They never got back. I kept chasing until early December, just when I was getting ready to lodge a complaint. Instead, someone in the council put two and two together and gave me contact details for the person I needed to speak to. That person was unapologetic and asked for my HAUC ticket number.

So it turns out that you need to be in the ‘approved contractor’ club to work on public roads. He gave me a shortlist of local contractors.

I mentioned it to George, he suggested Cadgers, who are also in Clola and who had sorted our neighbour Mr Aitken’s water supply at the roadside, immediately next to our pipe (and buried at the same time by the Slains Estate).

I phoned Cadgers after New Year. Firstly I had to give the person at the other end a landline number (because so many people do not answer mobile calls), then say how I had found out about them. I dropped George’s name, she knew who he was and I was in.

Meanwhile my application for connection was grinding through Scottish Water, I phoned them at the end of January to be told they had sent a quote out by post. They emailed it to me: ‘Application’ £83.70, ‘Connection’ £266.60, ‘Infrastructure’ £333.90 and ‘Building Water’ £190.00. The total is £874.20, rather less than I had been expecting. I accepted the quote and awaited an invoice, which arrived whilst we were away for three weeks. We paid electronically on 12th March and got a red reminder the following day by post. That was 3 days short of 5 months from start to finish.

Anyway, I let Cadger know that we were waiting on them, he came out to the steading over Easter, had a look and suggested around £1,800 for both ends of the pipe. He reckoned the water pipe is 32mm and he would reduce it down to 25mm. He would apply for the permit and talk to the Scottish Water contractors (probably Seivwright, one of the companies recommended by Aberdeenshire council). We said we would want the water by June.

Planning for 2015

We are rather more than a year into our project and have a clearer idea of what we want to get done in 2015:

• Get the temporary electricity supply sorted, this is mostly getting Luke the electrician to do his stuff.
• Finish the fencing. Two things, firstly putting posts in the fence between ourselves and next doors, secondly closing off the open gap on the north side and installing the gates. We need George to have cleared the concrete from the area and to dig holes for three strainers and two gateposts.
• Clear concrete, this a job for George. He thought he could get two days in January to break the long silage pit wall and the concrete ramp to the south of the steading. He would pile up the concrete for us. We need to remove the concrete lintel embedded in the east leg of the steading so that the wall across the courtyard can come down. There is then the hardstanding and shed bases. We would keep some of it to stand materials on.
• Get the water supply installed. We will contact Cadgers Plant Hire, Clola, to run the pipe under the road, they did the same for the Aitkens. We can do the steading end ourselves. We are waiting for Scottish Water to produce a quote for their bit.
• Buy equipment and tools including scaffolding, roof ladder, large angle grinder, concrete breaker.
• Get a demolition warrant. Steve Brown says he is on the case, should submit mid-January and we should have it some six weeks later. This allows us to start removing the roof of the steading.
• Remove enough roof to allow Ric to start on the stonework, assuming he is available. We want to see if the slates are good enough to re-use, possibly on the bothy. The roof timbers will add to our firewood pile.
• Demolish the faulty gable end.
• Foundations for rebuilding the gable end.
• Re-build the gable end.
• Re-apply for planning permission, mostly Steve Brown.
• Get the building warrant, mostly Steve Brown.