14.01.2025 It ain't easy!

 ~o~

  Tuesday 14th 39F/4C [8.15] Heavily overcast. A cloudy day and quite windy from the SW. Possible drizzle or light rain.

 Up at 6.30 after yet another quiet night. 60F/16C in the room. Stove lit. I plan to go to the builders merchants on my way to see my English friend. 

 14.45 Returning from a shopping spree for plumbing bits. On my way back from my friend's place. More of a major detour really. I wasn't having much luck in the big shed, DIY stores. I needed a means of fixing the water isolation valve to the wall. So I called in on a white goods retailer. Even worse. They hadn't a clue! So I visited a plumber's office for advice. He was extremely helpful and showed me what I needed.  

 I found a rather rough mug in a charity shop.

 I decided to drill the dividing wall. Only to discover that the kitchen is not the same dimension as the bathroom. My first hole went invisibly into the end wall. Somebody must have added thickness to the kitchen end wall. I measured the difference and it was exactly 10cm. I could tell while drilling that it was through block wall. 

 So I backed off 10cm from the bathroom outside wall. Only to discover that the toilet bowl was in the way. There was no straight shot. Not even remotely. Not even with a very long drill.  So I was forced to drill from the kitchen side. None of my drills would go through the tiles from the back. 

 It was no problem for the spear drill to penetrate the tile from the front. Sadly it was 10cm too short to go through the wall from the kitchen side. So I gently worked my way at the back of the tile with ever larger masonry drills. Without hammer effect until my patience failed me. 

 The breakthrough came with the 16mm drill. Not clean but perfectly acceptable. More of a countersunk hole in the face of the tile. Completely invisible near floor level behind the toilet.  

 Late dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast. The washing machine was now parked in front of the oven. I didn't have the strength of will to put it back in the corner. Just to warm up the mackerel. So I dragged the mini-oven out again and used that.

 

 ~o~