The Joys of Home Ownership and Lying Weathermen

WARNING TO MY OLDEST DAUGHTER AND RECENT FIRST TIME HOME BUYER.......you probably shouldn't read this one........but then again, maybe you should. Learn from my mistakes and that way you can make your own.

Well, here it was, coming up on the first weekend in June and as frequently is the case, the weatherman was predicting lousy weather for the upcoming weekend. That fact, coupled with the fact that I'd spent the last 4 weekends, at least in some part, up at the compound, made me decide to stay around the house and get some things tackled that have been needing tackling for awhile now. Specifically, the bathtub fixtures and pipes going from the tub to the great outdoors. We not only had a leak on the hot water side of the fixtures, but also a very slow drain at the tub which resulted in a need to turn off the hot water when not using it for showers, dishes or laundry. Decidedly a pain in the ole butt to go downstairs to turn on and off the hot water, but the real capper was the slow drain on top of the leak.....if you turned on the hot water to take a shower by the end of the bathing process you'd have water lapping at your upper ankle region. Not a big problem for the men in the family, but women tend to see things differently, so with that for incentive and son-in-law Adam for major help, we started the project early Saturday morning.

The first thing to do was get the cupboard, shelves, whatever, that were in the way when it came to removing the bathtub fixtures, out of the way. That took me a good hour or two to remove all the trim, supports and the 600 nails that whoever built the damn thing felt it needed to keep it from falling into the basement. By the time I had the unit out of the way Adam (and Ri and new puppy) had arrived so I turned the wrench over to him and he started in removing the old fixtures. After several hours he had everything but the shower portion installed. At that point I decided it was time to remove the pipes downstairs and find out what was clogging up the drain. We removed the pipes from directly by the tub and found the normal amount of corrosion you'd find after 50+ years in any pipe, but nothing that would clog up water. So, while Adam went back upstairs to continue on with the fixtures I decided to go the next step and remove the 400lb steel pipe that ran from the tub area to the main. At this point a project which was going quite well went quite bad thanks to yours truly......

Not considering my own strength (yeah right) and the age of the main casting, I started to twist on the pipe to break it loose. It was only a minute into the operation when there was a crack noise. Without looking I was pretty sure I'd just made more trouble for myself than I wanted to deal with.......what had happened was that the main casting where the pipe fed in cracked and broke into 2 pieces. So, my joy in having the pipe removed AND finding the item in the pipe that had caused the water backup was tempered by a couple of pieces of cast iron in my hand.

So, We headed off for the hardware store to see what they had in the way of adhesives for cast iron. Not a big choice to pick from, but there was one that seemed to fill the bill, supposedly it had glued a cracked engine block back together and the motor ran, so we paid the man and headed back for home. At that point it was time for Adam to head for work so the project was stalled at that point until Sunday morning when he would return. The good news at this point though was there was no longer any leak to contend with so it was possible to turn the hot water on and LEAVE it on. A luxury at that point. So, with everyone leaving me, I spent my first SUNNY Saturday evening in June at home running the dishwasher and washing machine all evening, getting rid of the piles stationed at both appliances.

Sunday the Fetts and their new chocolate Lab puppy arrived and Adam got right with the program, finishing up the installation of the tub fixtures. Once that was completed we headed back downstairs to tackle my little ooops. We mixed up the glue conglomeration and spread it liberally all over the casting and the pieces. It took awhile to get everything in there like we wanted but eventually it was all one piece and the only thing left to do was to wait the prescribed 48 hours for this stuff to dry and adhere itself to the cast iron. By then it was time for everyone to leave me again so I again spent my SUNNY Sunday evening doing more laundry and general clean-up.

At this point we've got the 48 hours in pretty much for the glue to cure and now it's just a matter of hooking things back up and replacing the 400lb steel pipe with a piece of PVC. With any luck at all we should be able to get things back together without breaking the casting again and be able to take a shower without feeling like we're standing in a wading pool. Cross your fingers......

At this point it also goes without saying, but I will anyhow.....I'm going up to the compound this coming weekend NO MATTER what the damn weatherman says.....if it rains I'll catch up on my sleep, or put on a rain poncho and hike thru the woods, but I ain't working on the house again for awhile. I've done enough damage for the time being. I'd much rather fire up the chain saw and cut some wood or do some ground maintenance at the compound than wrestle with plumbing ANY day of the week.

My definition of RICH = having enough cash laying around to be able to afford to pay someone to do whatever needs to be done...that you don't want to do.

TC