Tuesday February 2nd 2010

Today I had to cancel my Portuguese lesson so that I could be at the house at 8 am, just in case the phone/internet providers turned up – which of course they didn’t. They were supposed to come between 8 and 11 but it is now 2.30 and I think they have just shown up. Reels of cable have appeared in the hallway and Marcelo is getting very excited.

This morning has been interesting. Two guys turned up to unblock the sink, only to discover that the drain isn’t connected to anything. They have spent the best part of the past 5 hours digging up the back garden trying to track down where the pipe stops. It appears to stop underground about 4 feet short of the master drain which isn’t very helpful. They have now disappeared to visit a plumbing supply shop. Let’s hope they return before dark but I as you can probably guess, I am not holding my breath.

My relocation agent has been hovering around seeing what is going on. When she saw the situation with the drain she recalled a situation that she had encountered with another ex-pat family moving into a new house. It seems that this family had chosen a house where the original team of builders had been fired for incompetence. To exact their revenge, the builders had blocked the sewage pipes with builder’s rubble and as a result, after a few families had moved in, the pipes backed up and you can imagine the rest. Hard to prove anything but the family moved out and suffered considerable inconvenience. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen to us.

It also turns out that the plumbing for my microscopic dishwasher is in the wrong place. This means that tomorrow, someone – assuming they turn up - will have to take out the floor of a cupboard to connect the drainage hose. I wonder whether anyone thought to check whether that drainage pipe is connected to the master drain? Probably not.

But, one by one I am ticking things off my snagging list. Trouble is I am adding other problems as fast as I remove the initial ones. Still, things are coming together and with any luck I will be able to move in, in a few days time.

Now, I wonder what my phone number is going to be?