This is the state of our garden right now. A giant ditch cuts right through the front of it, from the street to the house. It does not just cut through the garden – it also cuts right through the retaining wall that we only just got done, and the newly planted hedge behind it…

We were just going to renovate the kitchen this year. But the mess of water pipes and water meter in the cupboard under the sink was seriously hindering that project, so the conclusion was that we needed to move the incoming water supply connection from the kitchen to the basement. It was only in the kitchen for historical reasons – if a builder tried to put it there today, it would never get approved. Plus the incoming water supply pipe is many decades old, made of galvanized steel, and probably not in a very good shape.

So in came the builder and the diggers and the plumber, and they measured and they planned and they consulted and discussed. And they dug, until the garden looked like a giant mess. As a small consolation, at least they didn’t have to dig up the paving between the stairs, or my planting in front of the house. I do hope the cherry tree survives this – quite a number of its branches and roots had to be cut.

Did I mention that the water pipe was old? And probably not in very good shape?

In fact it was in such a bad shape that all the digging and poking around it was enough to break it. I wasn’t here to see it happen; it must have been spectacular with water everywhere. By the time I got home, the water had been shut off and a temporary replacement pipe was in place. But only authorized Stockholm Vatten personnel are allowed to touch the valves of the municipal water supply, whether for turning it off or on, so we still didn’t have any water… (There are substantial fines for breaking that rule, so our diggers and plumbers didn’t even consider doing it themselves.) We had pizza for dinner – the kids were happy about that – and I made a visit to the neighbours to fill up some plastic cans so we could wash our hands and brush our teeth at least.

Finally late at night a Stockholm Vatten van turned up and we got our water back.

It was a long day.