Friday, April 20, 2007

One step closer to running water

Monday was a day for pex tubing. We purchased a 20' stick of 1/2" tubing and 12' of 3/4" and on my way out of the hardware store I wondered how we might fit this in my little Rabbit. Loop it out the sunroof!



When we arrived at the house, we learned that the power was still off from the night before. Decided we just need to work quickly while there was daylight. Unfortunately, the batteries on our drill wore down after boring out the first 3/4" hole in the sole plate where the water lines are to come up to the tub.

Working from the 3/4" tubes that we had run to the bathroom many weeks ago, we now had to reduce 'em to 1/2" and run cold water lines to the tub, toilet, and sink. It was tough-going, trying to get a square grip on the crimp rings, contorting ourselves and the large crimping tool under the floor. We managed to pull enough of the tubing above the floor to make the job a little easier. But the tool seems to slightly over-crimp the 1/2" rings. Not terribly, but not as perfect a job as it does on the 3/4" rings. Here's hopin'.

Power came back! The lights lit and the stereo rocked. Headed down to the basement to start working on replacing the maze of water pipes down there. A mouse ran past my sneaker, I don't think it noticed me.

We got a little bit done down there, but I wanted some more time to think about how we're going to interface the heat system with this area. We'd like to be able to switch the hot water source between the existing electric water heater and the outdoors wood boiler so that in the winter when we're heating our house with that boiler, we will also be heating our domestic hot water. They call this an "open direct system."

We went back upstairs and contemplated what else needed to be done in the bathroom before we start getting the walls closed up. Had to think through the post that we'll be adding to support a large oak beak (so that we can finish opening up the kitchen area). Erika cut another stud for the long wall of the tub and I tried shaving the crown off one of the old oak studs with our new block plane. Yeah right. Took a second and third look at the situation and realized we can fix that problem with drywall shims.

Cleaned up and headed home for the night, but I think we spent a good amount of time at home trying to think through the sink basin vs. available vanity size issue that we've been facing. How did it get so late?

- John

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