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Saturday, January 9, 2010

Good News: The House Is Back In One Piece..

Bad News: after I spent 5 hours inside the wall and under the kitchen sink, replacing the broken 1.5" PVC drain pipe in the outside wall of the building.

The day started off normally:

01:00 Windows XP says it will take approximately 39 minutes to finish installing on my shop computer, which is being rebuilt along with the reorganization of the garage.
05:00 #3 whines in his sleep, wakes me up. Teething or pissing, one. He doesn't wake up.
06:00 #3 wakes me up again with his whine.
07:00 #3 wakes me up again
07:30 #3 wakes me up again
08:00 #3 wakes me up again, I wake up my Darling Wife who slept through the night as usual, and she goes to tend to him.
10:00 Wake up to a breakfast of huevos con chorizo. Windows says, after I tell it what to do, it will only be another 34 minutes
11:00 #1 is excited at the ICE!!!!1! on the slide in the back yard. I patrol for more ice and find the baby pool has some ice in it. The trash can has some ice in the bottom of it. These are all very exciting, but not nearly as much hassle as . . .

icicles coming from under the siding on the corner of the house by a hose bib, where the kitchen sink is mounted on the inside of the wall. Great. I think we have had a leaking pipe for quite some time because the edges of the crack in the pipe were all black and nasty. With the freeze, it's pretty hard to miss the ice forming on the outside of the bottom of the siding, from the broken-drain-drips from when we ran the dishwasher last night.

Did I mention it was cold outside? The low was around 20ºF and if it broke 40º today I'd be shocked.

Well, 6 hours later, the siding is back on the house. I have some spare 1.5" PVC fittings and pipe (rule: ALWAYS buy more than you need for that job) and there is no longer a 1" x 2" HOLE in the drain pipe from our kitchen.

Cost to DIY: $30
Cost to have a plumber do it: 5 x $60/hr. + $50 weekend charge + $50 for materials + tax.

Thank you Jesus for letting me be handy.

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