Winter

     Winter has arrived, all at once. It got cold this week, and we had our first snow last night. I laughed when I heard that the warning us that we could get one inch of snow. But then I drove home in the one inch and quit laughing. If there's ice under the snow, and no snowplows, that means lots of fish-tailing and accidents. I was grateful to get home without running into anyone. A new snowstorm is predicted this weekend, and they've already preemptively closed my office and the surrounding schools on Friday.
     I've been sick for the past few days. I count myself lucky, because when I get sick it usually means that I just need to sleep for two or three days. As I lay in bed all day long, I can hear the cat gently snoring next to me, and the dog snuffling in her sleep in the crate. It occurs to me that this is what these animals do, every day, all day long. What a life...
     In this downtime, I did a final tally on my plumbing expenses. The plumber had quoted me $4k to replace all the plumbing, and I received a credit for that amount when I bought the house. I spent $850 on supplies, so my father and I, splitting the excess, each made $1600 and experienced the ineffable joy that is plumbing DIY. The new plastic tubing has an added bonus - since it's less conductive than metal, and the path between the hot water heater and each device is shorter, hot water arrives almost instantaneously when I turn it on. I can't tell you what a thrill I get every time I turn on the shower. Running hot water is the gift that keeps giving.

This and that

Today I've just got two pictures, to show that my life is more than just work and plumbing.

I snapped this picture in the old house, and it's one of the few that have both the cat and dog in it. My pets are good company, and they keep my quiet house from being a lonely house.

I went to see a friend in my old neighborhood last weekend. When I walked by my former garden, I noticed that a huge patch of fennel had taken root from spilled seeds sometime after I cleaned the garden in early October. It's been so warm this winter that they hadn't frozen, so I picked the whole crop, one day before we got a hard freeze. I love fennel, and this (accidental) crop is the most I've ever grown at once. I've been eating fennel salads all week.

Running water - a gift from the gods

     I feel like I just completed a boot camp for home owners. The holidays celebrations were pretty minimal: Christmas consisted of one fairly simple meal and opening gifts, and New Year's Eve was the night we all went to bed early because we were so tired. Almost every day, I woke up and had coffee with my mother, then she started painting. My dad, the night owl, woke up around 9 or 10 am most days (but he would have preferred a less early morning routine). We'd work at a steady pace, stopping mainly for meals and dog walks. I'd crash by 11pm, because I'm now used to an early work schedule, but my father would keep going. In fact, he pulled two all-nighters, something I haven't done since my undergraduate days.
      We were vindicated when my father sawed out the 70-year-old galvanized steel pipes. The corrosion was so thick in the water supply pipe that all the water for my house was coming through a pea-sized hole at a few points. Replacing them has definitely made a big difference: I can run two water-consuming appliances at the same time, and the washing machine doesn't take ten minutes to fill.

 Behold the corrosion.

An expert plumber and his proud apprentice, showing off our handiwork.

     The house was completely plumbed on Saturday morning, and by Saturday at 2pm my parents were packed up and had begun the trip to their next destination, Minnesota. I definitely couldn't have done this without my father's expertise. He soldered to the existing copper, devised creative solutions to the inevitable difficulties that arise when you work on an old house, and taught me as much as he could in nine days. (I suspect that he rather enjoyed the teaching.) 

     I still cannot plumb a house on my own, but if you need a single fixture like a new sink, I'm your woman. 

Cheerful DIY-ing

     There hasn't been a stove for four days, nor water since early this morning. Furniture is piled up in the living room and porch, and my mother is now sleeping in the hallway. Projects have consumed the rest of the house. My father and I put up drywall in the living room while my mother is painting two bedrooms. The bathroom sink was removed days ago, and there is a large-ish hole that connects the bathroom and kitchen (i.e. there's no much privacy when you're in the bathroom).

     I am impressed with my parents' fortitude and stamina, and their good cheer. Although I now have guest rooms, they are not yet usable, so my parents tolerate makeshift beds in ramshackle rooms and my mother tells me how pleased she is that I have a house and how much fun we're all having. And in truth, it's not that bad. Yes, it'll be great when I have a stove again, and we're definitely making the return of running water a top priority. But we're all in good spirits, my father is having fun teaching me, and I'm having fun learning*. 

Some of what I've learned so far: plumbing isn't that scary any more. It used to involve soldering and precise measurements, but it doesn't have to. Because my dad is here and is awesome at working with copper pipe, we're doing some of that. But there are new products that make it relatively painless, and I think in the future I'd be able to do quite a bit of my own plumbing myself. How cool is that?

Novice plumber

     My father and I were at Home Depot for five hours today. This is quite possible the longest time I have ever spent shopping in one store, and most certainly the longest the two of us have ever shopped together. We hadn't planned on such a long trip, and were forced to turn to Home Depot's small selection of snacks for sustenance, so lunch was Coke and peanuts.
     When we were done, we had bought a $800 worth of tubing, connectors, drywall, paint, and tools. We haven't done any actual plumbing, but we have spent three days walking around my basement, looking at pipes, pulling out bits of wall to look at more pipes, and researching options. At the time my father suggested helping me replace all of my house's plumbing at Christmas, I was pleased that he wanted to help me, but I assumed I'd be pretty clueless. However, as we spend all this time researching and discussing, I'm feeling more comfortable. I'll always be less experienced than my father when it comes to home repair (as are 98% of people, I think), but by the time we're done, I think I'll feel comfortable doing smaller plumbing repairs on my own.
     Stay tuned for more scintillating plumbing posts...

Lost and found

     I'm feeling pretty lucky this week. I lost my wallet on Friday while I was on the Metro. I couldn't tell if it it had fallen out of my bag or been stolen, but there I was, with no card to swipe so I could get off the train, and no money or credit cards. Alas, I am a veteran at replacing wallets: one was stolen in 2012 and last year one was lost. So I know the drill. I called the credit cards and within ten minutes had my accounts closed and new cards on their way. The next day, I ordered the rest of the new cards, transferred my metro balance to a new card, and mourned the loss of the cash and wallet. I keep a spare ID, credit card, and a bit of cash hidden at home, which are handy while the replacement cards arrive.

     But today my wallet came back to me! Some honest soul turned it into the lost and found, where I had filed a claim, and even left the cash in the wallet. The total loss was $20 for a replacement driver's license, which was needed in any case because I have a new address.

     I'm trying to devise a system to attach the wallet to any bag I'm using. Although it's a sample size of only n=2, I think we can say that I have a habit of losing my wallet, and need to figure out a way to prevent myself from doing it again.

More home discoveries

     Today was an extra special project day, because it was the first one at my new house. I had decided that we would install two electrical outlets in the bathroom. There were none in there when I moved in, and I thought I needed one on the wall, for things like hair dryers and razors, and one under the sink, so I could recharge my electric toothbrush.

     As always, planning took a very long time. We scouted out pathways for the wire through the walls, discussed what parts we'd need, and just generally spent a long time staring at my bathroom fixtures. In the end, we installed the outlet shown here, just to the left of the existing light switch. I've opened up the mirrored cabinet so you can see the little discovery we made. N and I had looked at the odd strip inside the top of the cabinet, trying to figure out whether it was a storage device or perhaps used to have a light fixture attached. S had the brilliant idea to read the label, which said "Tap-a-line 120 V" and that's when we realized it was a string of outlets.

See? You can plug in an entire line of appliances, right next to each other. It's somewhat shocking that something like this was once allowed. It can't believe that this would be up to code today because you can cram a huge number of plugs on to one circuit, and the live parts of the circuit seem so exposed.

It still functions, though, so I'm planning to use it.
     In the other room, S the very-experienced-painter started working on the Blue Bedroom. I suppose I'll need to come up with a new name soon; it had blue walls and navy blue carpet when I bought the house. I've pulled up the carpet, and S began priming the walls. I'm guessing that it'll take a number of coats to cover up all that blue, but then the room will need to be christened again.