The Broken Pipe Saga Continued

The beginning of the removal of siding.

Well... the broken pipe saga continued. After doing what we could, we decided it was time to call a plumber. Mike Babineau, owner of Glendora Plumbing and Heating, is our top choice in plumbers. He came out on that Tuesday and let us know that he could do a temporary fix until we could get the entire house re-piped.

More siding removal

However, while cutting open the house and digging around some more we found a bigger problem. The drain pipe from the sink had corroded and was draining under the house. Apparently, it had been this way for quite some time. He fixed the leaky pipe so that we could turn the water back on, but we cut the water off to a random pipe that we could not figure out where it went. In addition, we could not use the sink. The next day Christopher used our second bathroom and discovered that the random pipe was water to the toilet. Yikes! He called Mike back to let him know the new situation, and Mike was already scheduled to return the following day. This, of course, could have been a lot worse. Mike arrived and set to work climbing under the house and removing the damaged section of drain pipe. That was quite a task. It was cast iron and 107 years old. While he was under the house he discovered these bones.

Bones discovered under the house

We have no idea how they got there, but we have decided it was a large animal that brought them in and had set up home under the house. These bones were not small. I'm hoping they were bones removed from someone's trash and dragged here. If not, please let me live in denial.

Over 6 feet of corroded drain pipe

This nasty drain pipe has been removed and replaced with something more efficient. You can see all of the corrosion on the pipe, but just in case you need a closer look...

Here is a closer look.

Now imagine this crack running the length of at least six feet of pipe. This was very bad news. It was vital to get it taken care of immediately. However, in order to remove it, Mike had to not only crawl under the house, but he had to remove a gas pipe temporarily in order to shimmy his way over to the problem pipe. What a mess!

Christopher and Mike holding the offending pipe

Working as a team to get the pipe out through the siding on the house, Christopher and Mike had a grueling day. It was hot and humid. Working in these conditions is never easy, but these two made it happen and Mike saved the day. Of course, all of this work is like a bandaid until we can have this little bungalow re-piped. This will happen sooner than later. Now onto the task of figuring out how to pay for it. Oh the joys of home ownership of a 107 year old bungalow!

Hugs,
Jenni

I've got the POWER!!!

Starting new home improvement tasks are not always about the know how. Sometimes the knowledge is there. However, the ability to complete a task is not always realistic without the right tools. In my case I often find myself mulling over the "gonna do" list with dreams of wowing the doubters.  That isn't to say that I am a home pro when it comes to fixing everything. It does mean that I've been blessed with just enough experience to pull off a few general tasks. In all of that, one constant I have found about myself over the years is that I really don't want to start a task if I don't have the right tools to finish it adequately, or in a timely manner. How AWESOME is it then that Jennifer likes to collect power tools!  I feel a little Tim Allen pride coming on. Anyway, there have been some whispers going around that I'm not very handy... OK people, enough! Summer is here and the power tools are out. Let's work on something.

All the best,
Chris