Dear Good Hours,
I still hate plumbing.
There is something about me, new homeownership, and plumbing.
We’ve only owned once before, and that house developed a leak in the bathroom the first week we took possession. It was 4th of July weekend and my father and I spent the whole day trying to sweat solder shut off valves onto these 3/8” flexible copper lines under the sink.
It never worked more than a little bit.
We ended up tracing the copper back to the iron pipe main line and cutting off the water to the whole bathroom all together.
As I understand it, those flexible copper lines are intended to run natural gas. And I don’t know about the rest of the country, but some plumbers here in South West Wisconsin must have just loved running those lines about 50 or so years ago. I’ve encountered them in 4 separate houses now. Our old one, now here again in the new house, my brothers and another friends. The stuff never solders, never helps, I just replace it all when I can.
I hate plumbing.
The leaking plumbing turned into a little bit of an origin story though.
I’d never taken a shop class my whole way through school. I took a ton of Art classes, some home ec, but not a shop class. We moved a lot, I changed schools a lot, and I just always missed the chance.
Now I have a bathroom Naomi and I have already decided needed to be remodeled “in time” so there was a shower in the house somewhere other than the basement.
So I start buying “Home Improvement” books (no real “in home” internet at this time, and no YouTube for certain) I started teaching myself how to remodel the bathroom. We stripped it out all the way to the studs and I plumbed, wired, carpentered, drywalled, tiled, painted, and build custom cabinets I would be very embarrassed by today.
It was this process, especially the cabinet builds, that got me and woodworking to start dating each other.
It wouldn’t be until after we lost that house to Wells Fargo and Sub Prime Mortgages that woodworking and I had a chance to fall in love.
I suppose in this analogy that makes my moderately successful blog Oldwolf Workshop Studio, and a handful of magazine articles credits… our love children…
That’s weird.
The bathtub in Winona started with a dripping leaky faucet when we bought it. Over the last few months it has grown to nearly a stream. Now the last few days it started leaking into the basement and Of course it’s old copper clusterfuck plumbing including that flexible 3/8th copper line that hates me so.
After talking it over we decided we needed to just bite it and replace the whole tub faucet and drain. Fuck it, we’re going back to scratch.
And the job got complicated. We knew it would. You knew it would. That strange man I saw walking down the middle of the snow covered street shouting at himself and the cars being careful to avoid him…even he knew it.
Maybe he knew it the most.
There’s only one bathroom and a boiler system heating the house. I decided to just plumb in some shut off valves to isolate the tub for a few days instead of having water shut off to the whole house.
I hate plumbing. I really do.
That said, PEX tubing and solderless fittings are a game changer. The worst part is looking through all the bins at the store for an hour to find the parts you need.
I got the valves in pretty quick and was pleased with no leaks and being only a little wet.
Here’s to progress!
But I still hate plumbing.
Love Derek
Ratione et Passionis
Derek, when I posted into the test lab in 1976, an old test man told me there were only two things you had to know to be a plumber. Shit runs downhill and payday is on Friday. Soldering is like brewing, cleanliness is everything. I haven’t used pen yet, but it seems like the hot set up. PVC is fun as well. Home ownership is a blast, ain’t it?
PEX and Sharkbite connectors are amazing! I balked initially at the per unit cost of them, but compared to a pro, and the ease of use time saved. Absolute agreement.