Excuses Excuses

My excuse for my stupidity is that I was tired today.

(That doesn't explain all the other days of my life though.)


I was sort-of tired today b/c we had a trailer fire last night and I didn't get to bed till 2am and woke up at my normal time of 7am. I came home and talked to Grace for a bit. I checked my emails and drank coffee. Just another normal day when I come home from work. Grace went to work and I sat on the couch and watched some TV to rest. I watched the Germany Argentina World Cup game that was on and ate some lunch.

I then went outside to work on the yard. The yard has been getting slightly jungle like again because of the rain and such. I got the weed whacker out and also mowed the lawn. My lawn is a pleasant mix of grass and crabgrass. I have been trying to fight the weeds since getting here and they seem to be slowly loosing the battle. I also still have a bit of other junk that I have been trying to get rid of such as ivy and other nameless stuff that just isn't grass. So after mowing and raking the yard I go into weed control. I have those big spray bottles that have the little hose coming out of the top and the spring loaded plunger that you pull and it squirts the stuff out of the nozzle for you. I have a bunch of these for different things: Weed killer for the lawn, Roundup for the weeds and ivy and such, and Ant killer for, well you guessed it, ants.

They are pretty convenient because I don't have to have a pressure type sprayer that I have to clean and such. When it is done you just throw it away. Well I make the rounds around the house spraying all of the offending weeds with the Round Up. I finish that bottle and go to the broadcast sprayer that goes on the actual lawn. It's one of those that you hook to the garden hose and it is a combination weed killer fertilizer for the lawn. I go around the house spraying the lawn down etc. I then start to put everything away. I went and take the weed whacker and lawn mower to the basement. When I was rolling the lawnmower under the table down there I notice that there is a large sprayer of Round up. Hmmmm. Did I buy an extra one at some time? NOPE! I went to the trash can only to find out that I had successfully sprayed all the weeds down with Ant Killer. OK, OK, you can make fun of me now, but keep in mind my excuse for the day. Well shoot, at least the weeds are now fully protected from ants. No worries in that department anymore.

Wet t-shirt contest and the spigot at Andrew and Graces house!!!

And by that I mean water leaking from everywhere which leads to stuff getting wet. Not in a drunken college Mexico spring break wooohooo fun kindof way. Which would've been more fun.

But in the way of pipes leaking. Which leads us to Sundays saga.

I started Sunday by deciding to fix the other spigot that is on the side of the house. It started leaking the other day b/c the valve wouldn't shut all of the way. I figured I would just replace it. We had hooked a hose to the spigot so the water would go to the flowers and not be wasted. So I had waited a couple days before getting to work on it.

So I went under the house and spread some plastic down in order to stay a little clean while crawling in the half basement crawl space portion. I had gone to the valve going to the pipe which lead to the spigot, but it wouldn't shut. In fact that valve started leaking too. Now to give you a mental picture of the way that the house is plumbed the main water comes in the front of the house where the crawl space is. After entering the crawl space there is a main valve. The pipe then goes up at a 45 degree angle and shoots towards the back of the house where the majority of the piping is. About a foot or less from the front wall though is a branch that goes to the spigot on the far opposite side of the house. So you have the main line on the right side of the house, if you are facing it, and the forward (broken) spigot on the left side of the house when facing it.

So what I had to do is turn off the main water going to the house on the main valve when it first comes into the house. I turned it off and went to Lowes (trip 1) to get the necessary piping and such to replace the spigot valve and new spigot etc. I get back and cut all of the old stuff out and but the new piping on. Easy enough. I turn on the water to the house and the new piping has a little leak on there. I think it may be one thing so I turn the water back off and go back to Lowes to get what I think I need. (trip #2) So I am in Lowes and I realize I made a stupid mistake and forgot to put thread tape on one of the couplings. But since I was there I picked up a couple things in case something needed to be changed. It was only like a couple $'s so no worries. I get back to the house and I have to re-cut the new pipe to get it apart to put the tape on and such. (I had bought a coupler on trip #2 for that purpose.) So I cut the pipe but it is leaking a bunch of water from the pipe. I figure it is just the entire house draining out that one pipe so I have Grace follow the main pipe to where it comes out of the crawl space and into the main basement. There is a valve there so we turn it in order to shut the water off from the rest of the house and slow the entire draining of the house. Well that really didn't stop it. The water was still coming from the pipe. I couldn't put the pipe together because of the water leaking. So I figured that the main valve was just leaking by some. I go back to the main valve and close that as tight as I can. Well that didn't fix the problem. But if I lifted the pipe higher than the rest of the length of pipe then the water would stop for about 45 seconds. I decided that I would chance it and couple the pipe in that time. It worked and I got the pipe back together.

I then went to turn the water back on. This is the point where it really got fun (and by fun I mean poking yourself in the eye.) When I turned the water on not only was water leaking from the main valve, but water was also leaking from the second valve that was in the main basement. I tried to get the water to stop leaking but nothing was working. So I am thinking that if I need to replace these leaking valves then I need to get the water turned off to the house. I went outside to find the street turn off. I see every metering valve cover in-between the sidewalk and the street except for mine. I try kicking the dirt around to find the cover but couldn't find it. All the while the pipes are still leaking in the basement. I go upstairs and find the plat paperwork for the house to see if it has the water service marked on there. No luck. I go to the Richmond GIS which has a water layer on it, as well as other stuff as to where buildings are and the fire districts, police beats, leaf pickup areas and such, (you can look anything up on it), BUT NOT INDIVIDUAL WATER SERVICES!!!!! So I go outside with a small chisel that I found quickly and start poking around in the dirt till I hit something. I figured out it is somewhere in line with the main pipe and between the sidewalk and the street. I eventually find it buried in the dirt. I dig the dirt off the lid and raise it off. The valve is in my sights now, but as any good Indiana Jones fan would know the adventure isn't over yet. There are no less than 80 big black cockroaches living in this pipe that I have to stick my arm in about a foot to a foot and 1/2 down with a wrench to turn the water off. So I suck it up and stick my hand down there and try to turn the valve. It wouldn't turn. I keep trying and trying but to no avail it won't turn off. By now I have been cursing like a sailor and acting like an idiot standing outside poking the ground with a chisel saying words like this.....$#%&&;#%@%;#$%#$%;%#@$%&&&%$#$&*%^$@!$^$@^&%%&%^%$#%$#@$:%$%#@$:^:^%:!#$$!$#%!$^$%^%#^@^@$^%%@##%##@!!#%$%^^&...........And a host of other things. So I give up on the valve thinking I may be going back to Lowes for trip #3 to get new valves and a water turn off key. I decide to go once more into the breach and attack the main valve in a last ditch effort before going to Lowes. I get under the house and tighten the nut on the bottom of the valve as tight as I can and the water slows. HAHA! I tighten it more and the water stops. Victory is mine. I have found its Achilles heel. I go to the second valve. The water stops completely. 8 hours later I have successfully changed out one spigot!

After thinking about it when I was opening and closing the valves it probably just loosened up the nuts which haven't been moved and many many years. But in the end the water leaks stopped and I now have a new side spigot. Luckily there are no more that can decide to break. So that is the story of the wet t-shirt contest and the spigot at Andrews and graces house. Sleep well my little ones b/c it will be a dry night once again in The Little Brick Oven.

Where's Waldrew?

There he is!
So I will start this blog the same as the past few by saying sorry that I haven't written much lately.

Now on to what has been going on in no particular order. We have been working on the yard a fair amount. We cut the grass as normal and trimmed the bushes. We raked and pulled weeds and such. Normal yard type stuff.
I bought a extendable walkboard the other day. So I am now able to reach all the spots that I wouldn't have been able to reach. So I stripped the remainder of the wallpaper/paint/wallpaper/paint etc. and I started to mud up the walls on the higher parts. It was pretty hot today so it dried pretty quickly. So I was able to sand and reapply another layer of mud. That is the ONLY good thing about the heat.
I think I am going to deem the house to be named "Little Brick Oven" or as the Norwegians say "Liten Murstein Komfyr." (Why I added that last part I don't know.) It has been pretty darn hot in here lately. Luckily it is cool at night. We put a fan in the window to suck in the night air and it gets cold enough that we need a comforter some nights. Otherwise we either suffer through the heat or go out and wander around Carytown in some of the stores and use their air conditioning. It's not super bad for me and Grace b/c most of the days we are at work so we have air there. So we will get over it.
Well I just read the last blog entry and I realized that I had already talked about the heat. Oops! My bad. I guess I will stop whining about it now.

I had finished the spigot going out the rear of the house the other day. I think I told you that one already too. Well I guess the side spigot got jealous that the rear one was getting all the attention so it decided to not want to close the other day. It didn't want to close all the way for either Grace or me. So now I need to replace that one too. The bad part is that I can't turn off the water. The pipe leading to it does have a cutoff way under the crawl space but it is rusted open. So I am going to have to figure out what I need to do to get the water cut off long enough to put a new valve and spigot in. I may just turn all of the water off to the house and do it that way one day. I need to also get some plastic to put down so I am not rolling around with the dead bodies that are buried under the house. Oops did I say that out loud. Ummmm there are no dead bodies there at all. Ummm yea I'm sure. The fresh piles? Ummmm moles. Really big moles.

Let's see what else has been going on?

We got a desk from Mike today. We are using it for Grace. It is nice and big and such and she likes it a lot.

We went to Emerald Isle the other weekend. That was nice to get out of the house and in the ocean for a bit.

Grace has a blog now. It tells about the trip and all. I am too lazy to repeat the stuff that her blog says here so you go there and look for yourself.

That may be about all that is going on right at the moment. I can't think of anything else. I could repeat some more old stuff if you want me too from previous posts and make it look like more. Nah. Nevermind. Bye.

Sweatin' with the OLE

So we have been sweating lately. Not only perspiration, but pipe um...eration. It has been hot. Pretty darn hot. But not too bad at night. We put this fan up in the window and it helps to suck in some cool night air into the bedroom. You can really tell the difference when you walk from the closed bedroom to the hallway what a difference the fan makes. I am still working on getting someone to come and take care of the electrical box upgrade. I have been working a fair amount of overtime lately so it makes it hard to catch back up with people that I call.

Since it was hot last week I decided to work in the basement where it is sometimes cooler. Specifically I have been working on the spigot that goes to the back. The problem was that one of the shut-off valves was leaking. So you had to turn the water off at the next valve and not use the spigot. So I decided to fix that. I figured out what I needed pipe and elbow wise. The pipe coming from the shut off valve that wasn't leaking was copper. Then for some reason it enlarged to a slightly larger galvanised steel pipe. This pipe had a T in it so one side went to the wall and then to a snubbed off piece of pipe. The other side went outside and under the deck to the far side. So like I said previously, I figured up what I needed, I decided to keep a snubbed off part just in case I want to put a slop sink in the basement in the future, and I went to Lowes. So, I actually haven't been to Lowes in a while, but as you will see I will quickly become reacquainted with it.

Lowes trip #1- (In my head I say) OK I am going to be smart and get everything that I need so I don't have to come back again. (I guess I am an optimist.) So I get what I need and some extra stuff like an extra can of propane and a couple extra elbows in case I mess up etc. I am thinking ahead here. I pay for and bag up all of my stuff and head home. I get home and go to start to take apart the old piping in the basement. I cut off the copper at a point. Now time for the steel. "Where did my hacksaw go?" Well I can't take the piping apart because it is rusted. I can't cut it because I can't find this hacksaw that I had like 5 years ago and I had thought I saved it for a rainy day. I can't use the sawzall b/c it has a dull wood blade on it. I can't cut the steel pipe with the pipe cutter (end up breaking that). I can't heat the pipe up hoping that it miraculously falls apart. Therefore.....

Lowes trip #2- I go and get a pipe wrench, a bi-metal blade for the sawzaw, and once again "trying to think ahead," get a demolition blade for the sawzaw. So I get back to the house, cut the pipe with the bimetal sawzaw blade like a hot knife through butta, and get to work on assembling my pieces. I cut the pipes to the sizes that I need and start to solder them together. I have never sweated pipes before, but I had helped a plumber for a week when I was working for the cabinetry shop a couple years ago. So I had as much experience as if I stayed in a Holiday INN last night.

Pipe Problem #1- If you are working with 1/2" pipe and a small 90 degree elbow do you:
A- try to heat up the whole thing and stick a piece of pipe in both ends and solder it
B-heat up one end and then heat up the other and solder separately
C-use a wet rag as a type of heat sink

If you picked
A- you got a lot of solder that wouldn't hold a breeze more/less water.
B- the other side melts when you try to heat up the end that you are working on.
C- DING DING DING you are smarter than I am

OK that took a while to figure out, though, why the stuff wasn't holding together or how to keep it from doing A or B. So, once I figured it out I was on my way.
At this point I somehow transitioned into DAY 2 of the operation. It all blurs together after a while.

So I get everything together and go to turn on the water. Well you may have had a vision of the Titanic when you read that first line, but it really wasn't that bad. I did have one elbow leaking though. More solder does not equal not leaking though I found out. So I cut out the elbow.

Lowes trip #3- I go back and pick up something like 4 more elbows and approx 4 couplings. I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER TRIP BACK HERE AGAIN. With that said, I didn't. I got back and started putting the pipes back together.

Somewhere around day 3 of the pipe campaign.

I get everything together. I have only burnt myself twice with hot solder. I only got a little poison ivy on my hand from crawling under the deck to put on some pipe hangers. I only have 2 fingers that don't have sticky stuff on them from the spray foam that collects everything when you get it on your hands. AND I have water coming out the back and no longer dripping in the basement. All I have left is to make a bracket for the spigot to connect it to the deck frame.

And that is the rest of that story.