Washing machine and car fixed

Brian and I spent a lovely Saturday.  While the kids went off for the day to Chepstow races - with the Grand National on the big screen - for their dad's 60th birthday, we spent the day dealing with plumbing.

Hooray!

Actually it has worked out  much better than it  might have.  We were able to put in a new run of outlet pipe which goes halfway round the house to get to the drain by the kitchen which will then take the water into the drain properly.  This means we don't have to dig up the garden to dig a new drain - which is good.   The hardest part was getting a hole in the garage wall to take the pipe outside and round to the drain.  We tried (this is the royal we ie I stood around making supportive noises, holding and handing things while B does all the work) two different fancy drills but they wouldn't go through the concrete blocks.  So B borrowed a heavier drill than mine with long and fat masonry bits to drill lots of small holes which he then chiselled into a big hole.

We had gone to the plumbing supplier who delivered all the pipes etc for us, and once we had the hole we then attached all the pipes together, making sure there was enough fall for the water to actually go out of the garage and into the drain.  We  finished at 6pm and were shattered.  I put a load of washing on, and it started spinning while we were in the  middle of dinner so we both leapt up and dashed out into the garage to see if there were any leaks.  Thankfully there were no leaks, and I  now have a functioning washing machine again. 

My car went into the garage yesterday and I picked it up today - it is so quiet!!

Saturday we did break to watch the Grand National - one of the horses from the yard where Nicky works was running.  State of Play came 4th last year, and was saved for the National this year, so he hasn't run for a whole year.  However we all had a little flutter and he came 4th again, coming in from way behind which was very exciting.  He paid for about a third of my pipework.