Firstly, we found out that there was NO water movement through the hot water system - and THEN found out from the neighbours that it had been like that for FOUR years
An electric shower took care of getting them clean & a dishwasher took care of the dishes.... it then took hubby 2 hours or so in the loft rodding various pipes & banging & clunking & voila! Water through the hot taps & the heating - yay!
So... then we find that there's no water pressure through the cold mains tap & at first we thought that the cold went straight into the water tank - it doesn't, we know that now. But I could pee faster than the water came through the taps, so it was VERY frustrating - especially when try to water the veg, or run a bath, and my washing machine would take AGES.....
And we've lived with it for 18 months. Himself has been avoiding it like the plague & I've been complaining about it like a stuck pig. So on Monday, I decide to investigate the hole outside the front wall & test the water coming into the property... all ok there, but there WAS a leak on the connector. A few metres inside the garden was a water pipe coming out through the grass with a gate valve (the previous guy told us he was going to install a water feature there - like idiots we believed him
) After a trip & 10.80 euros, we replace that piece of water pipe & the connectors - digging the pipe up was an education, trying to tunnel under the wall & its foundations, then tunnelling under the beech hedge roots still in the ground, oh my! And the pipe was buried 3 foot down - it was an interesting day
So yesterday, I start digging outside the back door to try & find the tee connector where the water splits - one goes into the house, the other goes directly to the very slow and very leaky outside tap. I find it & another trip to the village ensues.
26 euros gets me another 26 mtrs of water pipe, more connectors, a new tap.
I get back & hubby is digging the pipe up along the length of the garden - by now, it's 6pm. and by 8pm, we have PROPER water!!
OK, we've now found that the pipes indoors are still silted up quite badly - and the increased pressure is driving the dirt through and clogging up here & there, so that all has to be looked at, but I have a list of bits to get for his next set of days off, starting with a new water tank
But after 18 months, all it's taken is TWO days of digging, and 36 euros.... and he sat there last night, and said "to be fair though, we've not really had the weather for this sort of job".......
Phew, I feel better now!
especially when you find yourself washing his underpants! 
