domingo, parte deaux

okay, so rough start to the day, but it continues on. so when we last left our hero, the flood was gone, no poo in la casa, shorter grass, and drains are working well. so on to the next fun project.





so i got these 2 outdoor faucets. 1 in front, 1 in back. duh! so let me tell you what i am working with. the front faucet, pretty simple. the knob is broken, so i just need to take old one off and put on a new one. easy easy. the back one however is another monster in itself. i hate turning this one one. imagine mt. vesuvius covering pompei, and you know what happens when i turn this knob.





so i tackle my back faucet 1st. there is a retaining nut that holds the faucet tight, and then you unscrew the faucet rod itself and out it comes. that's it? that's it! that was easy. inspecting the gasket on the end, you can tell that the gasket is worn. so i bring it with me when i go to lowes. lowes is about 10 minutes away, not to far. i make it to lowes and buy the part i need along with another gasket for additional support. i head back to the house. i sit down and watch dvr shows while working on the faucet. i get both gaskets on and go outside to put it back together. everything is good, i run to the front yard and crank on the water. run back to the back yard expecting to see old faithful spouting out from the house. nothing. no spewing water, no river of life, not even a dribble. nice!!! i attach a hose and turn on the water. it works. water the way nature intended it. through pipes and out a yellow plastic hose.



now around to the front faucet. turn off the water again. this one is just unscrewing the old one and screwing in the one i already bought last week. so i have a new bib/faucet to install with 90 degree elbow to attach with the pipe coming out of the ground. problem is the pipe coming out of the ground is a female. i already have a female. this sucks. back to lowes again. so i take the 10 minute drive again, although now it feels like 15 minutes. while there, i get a few more pieces. i eventually will do a sprinkler system at this house, so i want to add a 'T' into the line for the stand alone line later. so i get what i need, and back to the house. so i get everything together, (this is nice!) the only thing left is to screw my new faucet and t connector into the ground line. so i make the connection. looks good. over to the water main to turn back on the water. when i got back to my faucet, it looked like what i imagin a car on a hydrant. something is there prventing the water from going flying into the air, but not from shooting out horizontally in all directions. what now. so back to turn off the water. back to the faucet. seems i cross threaded the new pieces that i have added into the female piece that was already there. this is copper. i ain't gonna be able to fix the threads. so now i have to replace this piece. back to lowes. again. 3rd time today.

get the piece i need, along with the missing items i need to sweat this piece back on. you see, this piece must be soldered onto the ground pipe. not hard, but not a simple task if you have never performed this. however, i am up for the challenge. so back to the house. have to cut off the old female sleave. not a biggie, but just adds to the fun. after that prepare the pipe for the task at hand. now it is a matter of heating the pipe and soldering it on. i have a small butane torch and so it takes a little longer to heat this up. wouldn't you know that just before it gets hot enough, i mean another 10 seconds and i am golden, butane runs out. i have given up all control long ago, so i go get the refill and add some in my torch. guess what, i have to reheat the pipe all over again. once i got it hot enough, the solder sucked right up into place, easy work. i then put in my brand new faucet again, this time being sure it was on correctly, and tightened it down. back to the curb, water back on. no leaks. turned it on. water flowed like the Tigres. so happy to be done.

so how was your day?

a ?typical? saturday??? part 1!

i would love to say that i awoke saturday with the whole day in front of me. how quickly that would disappear and be gone. cry, cry. boo hoo. oh, and sorry but this is going to be a long post. it was a long day.
we fed the boys late friday night. what a blessing. they slept until 7 am. i tried to convince the wife to feed them, but that didn't happen (another story i won't discuss.) so i fed the boys. luckily pua slept in for a little bit, so i only had the boys for a little bit. on a quick side note, we were having a little drainage issue with the kitchen sink friday night. this will play a role in my day. after about an hour, i was on my second boy, mommy woke up, came in the kitchen and the family is awake.
so around this time i go to put shoes on to mow the forrest i have surrounding mi casa. then, a shout from the mom to the dog. my beagle decided the boy's floor looked like the perfect place to take a squat. however she decided to poop a little here, then move over 5 feet, poop again, move 5 feet, poop, you get the picture. 5 golden nuggets. any guess who picked those gems up??? so i put them in a tissue and throw them in pua's toilet. she is working on potty training right now and doing a great job. so proud. so pua had also just woken up and went to the toilet prior to the dog's poopfest. needless to say the toilet mechanism broke and the water was not filling up, which meant no flush the dog poo.
so now i have the toilet lid off, trying to see if it is really broke or just a chain. about this time i hear yelling from the kitchen. 'hold on', 'no, get in hear i need help!!!!' so i am now flying into the kitchen to water covering half of the floor. seems that the wife started the dishwasher when she first woke up. remember the clog? our dishwasher drain empties into the same drain as our sink. well, she didn't remember, and i did not think about reminding her. so now i have dog poo floating, and a kitchen flooding. too much fun. oh, and about this time, the boys started crying again. but not like boo hoo cry, like their leg was hanging out of the crib and being twisted off in a vise like grip. fun times!!! oh, and after another 2 minutes, i finally thought to shut off the dishwasher!!!! freaking brilliant.
so about the time that we get all, most, of the water picked up, a fan blowing, and the cabinets cleaned out, the wife and kids left so i could work on the clog. oh, but i have crap floating. so i had to fill up the toilet back to get it to flush. i grabbed the largest cup i could find. a quart size cup we use to heat up bottles. i was really not thinking right. so 15 minutes later, dog poo gone, back on a wet kitchen floor. my next 1.5 hours was under my sink snaking out the drain to try to find the clog. after this time, i was not able to bend my fingers after working the snake. might as well put everything back together and see if i got it. 10 minutes later, another flood, success, i think not. now was a good time for a break. so i mowed the yard. good times. i love yardwork. i know, i must be an idiot, but it is relaxing to me.
back to the drain, i worked for another 45 minutes snaking it out again. i was covered in black disgusting goop from the deep bowels of my drain. seems when the 2nd flood happened, there was still pressure on the line, up until i released that pressure. being covered in water is one thing. being covered in water and food particles from your garbage disposal is another. yeah, fun times. drain back together, try again. water flushing just fine. open up the dishwasher, still drain water in it. so i run the dishwasher. seems that when there is still overflow in the bottom, it will overflow onto the ground. another flood. this is getting old. but at least the water in the sink drains now, and so did the dishwasher after this last little overflow. finally!