FIRE THE LASER

Well ok, if you look closely enough, you will see the laser. Removed the one window and made two - one for "over the sink" and the other for the "dining area - considering a bench. Will upload a kitchen blueprint in the next day or so.

Broadcasting from the Tenternet

Loving the tent - my big railroad desk, tele' and of course the internet...the hot shower is up in the house with some make-do plumbing. (Pex is awesome!) Sleeping much better than I have lately - and "on ground" at the project.

The kitchen designer came out Friday, and I will meet with her this Friday to see what she has come up with.

Stay tuned!

Procrastination....

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Douglas Adams

Yep, I've been comfortably house sitting, spending my workdays at the green ghetto B&B at a hobby pace. I truly enjoy the work - but the pace is too slow. There is a learning curve, a personal need for elegant mechanical solutions (plumbing art?), and a lack of vision - or perhaps taste. Read: do it, don't like it, do it again. So much of the plumbing is sub-grade or to be behind sheet-rock - I just don't wan't it to be wrong.

House sitting comes to an end soon. Good news, as I have my best ally in this business back: my dad. I will now be living at the project - and have made some progress to make it livable.. my cool new 12' x 8' addition. And, if you look carefully - the new Kohler Shower plumbing is showing through the wall above the new tub - that work is actually all in place and hidden by the Hardibacker panels. Used the new mildew resistant "green-board" for the rest of the bath

I added a video in the insulation removal post - ignore the music, check out how much that vacuum sucks!

Lets try this again..

Having justified my emergency turn off by Groundskeeper Willie I was quite surprised by the deluge when I sawzalled the galvanized pipe just before the problematic valve.

I had already scheduled the "turn on" for after the valve replacement ( you can see the new valve with the hammer drill a couple posts ago) for the following Friday. The same middle-aged valve that let me down in the house, also was now letting me down on the city end of things. A deluge of water was disappearing into a mysterious place below my slab. Fortunately, after 20 minutes of pouring water, and kind conversations with Willie's partner in this business, we hit a sweet spot and the water stopped.

I will plumb the house with PEX - a plastic tubing. This will eliminate the galvanized pipe in the house - here is a cross-section of the half-century old plumbing. Check out the iron stalagtites.

Groundskeeper Willie was here...

So I'm messin' with the 50 Year Old valve that seperates the utility water from the house water. OK, it is Sunday, I've had a beer and am tired of "the Great Escape" going on between the Kitchen and the 'alf Bath. So, that valve pretty much decides that it will not. Sunday is the key problem here. It cost me $176.00 to have a AWWU employee come out to still the Chinese water torture that is drip - drip - driping out of the violated valve... The guy that came out to turn the key box had a scottish brouge and the cuss stream to make me think of:

Hammer - DRILL time..

Another confirmation of my tool fetish...the Bosch Hammer Drill - not as sexy as the walk-behind concrete saw, but way more portable. Used this German beast to cut a new hole in the floor of the existing bathroom. My father pointed out that the feng-sui wasn't right with the current commode-basin- tub arrangement. I have made moves to make it right.

Dig it?

A view from the underworld... Well, from the commode end of the 23 foot trench to the existing DVW (drain vent waste) pipe. Think 1/4" slope per foot of travel, you can see the target from here. Hellish as this trench was to dig, it is hardly the underworld. The goal of this trench is to add a half-bath and give the new laundry room a place to drain.