Current location:	home
Current mood:	exhausted
Current music:	NWPR
Entry tags:	home improvement

Pipes and Piping
This week they pretty much finished the roof and switched from exterior to interior work. Quite a lot was done, but since it was done inside the house it is less-visible from the outside.


To start with, the plumber tackled the old piping monster that has been hanging out in space behind the kitchen wall.
Click for "adventures in new piping". 0__o


What a job! First they had to get a concrete saw and cut a big notch into the new slab and into the old slab in my kitchen to expose all the pipes and the water main into the house. I returned on Tuesday to a kitchen draped in plastic sheeting and a note saying, "sorry about the smell". Messy but necessary work.

They had done their best to try and air out the smell of gasoline exhaust, but I kept the windows open and the fans running until later that evening to make sure none of us got carbon monoxide poisoning.


The next day the workmen left a note asking me to clear everything out from under the sink so the plumber could work. I spent the evening going through all the junk I had been stashing under the sink, throwing some stuff out and stacking cleaning supplies neatly in the spare bedroom with everything else that used to be in the utility room. If nothing else, by the time this whole renovation is completed, I'll have a lot less junk and old stuff in my possession. :D

Mom dropped by while the work was in-progress and was impressed with the plumber, who was lying under the kitchen sink wrangling pipes.



The new sanitary water supply hooked up, along with new piping which will serve the washer and dryer.



By Friday they had completed the job, and patched the trench cut in the concrete.

I asked Mom to check the house during the day on Wednesday because I had gone ahead and penned the cats up in the back part of the house, their litter boxes been in the bathroom all this time, but I also moved their food and water dishes in their and used the foldable metal panel fencing that I used to use for their cat run to corral them in the back half of the house. Since the workmen were at the stage where they were actually poking holes in the walls to make doors, there was going to be nothing that would keep the cats from running out into the addition and then out into the yard. They are strictly indoor cats, and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen. Of course, a little wrinkle was that the bathroom was behind the fence and so the workmen would have to maneuver themselves in and out to use the facilities. The first day I came home to find Rum waiting for me in the living room; he had obviously managed to slip through when someone used the bathroom. Fortunately, I think he was too shy of the workmen to actually try and get out through the openings, and before they left they put up plywood panels and plastic sheeting to block off the rough doorways. So far so good; Rum's one escape notwithstanding, every time I have come home, the cats have been where they belonged. Of course the minute I turn them loose they make a beeline for the kitchen to check the work and see if maybe they can't get into the new addition.

The addition has windows, but no back door yet, and so I really don't want them getting out there. During the evenings, I have been taking their Fence and propping it up in front of whichever doorway opening offers more gaps for them to squeeze through. I'm tickled with how they are turning out even in their messy phase, I can see how they should look. I will have a French door from the kitchen into the family room, and a single door with a window into the pantry.

This means I will have to move the refrigerator into a different position in the kitchen, and do some rearranging, but that's all right. In return, we will be getting more natural light into the kitchen since the French doors will have glass, and that will let the light from the picture window through into the kitchen.once I get the camera recharged, I'll see if I can take some photos of the doors from the interior of the kitchen space. They don't look very impressive at the moment, since they are just gaps with particle board over them.

By Friday the potable water lines had all been upgraded. Once that job passes inspection, the plumber will replace the drain piping and my household piping will be about 90% updated. There is one long old pipe that serves the front exterior spigot that I'm leaving alone for now since it would involve cutting a trench across the width of the old house to get to it. That pipe seems to be OK, so I'll just leave it be. :)



The outdoor kitties have been following the renovations with great interest. This little narrative would not be complete without at least one picture of them, since they have been able to wander through the construction zone at will once the workmen go home. This is Sable inspecting the work in the pantry/laundry room this morning. You can see the bathroom with the new shower stall in place and my office through the joists.

Off to get a bit of rest -- Every day after work, I've been moving, sorting, and packing stuff. Yikes! Hey, I may actually get in shape from all the physical work! :)