More adventures in plumbing

The plumbing crew came back again today to fix up a few issues here and there. Terry and Jeff continued working on the framing, but mostly they're tweaking bits and pieces and adding blocks for the drywall to nail to, so really that part isn't very interesting. We did do a quick once-over for where we want light switches and how the various lights should be controlled. The electrician is coming tomorrow so we'll get everything worked out in more detail then.

The plumbers repaired the leak in the kitchen pipes. This involved cutting up the wall below the sink (inside the cupboard, where it isn't visible) and replacing a section of pipe between the basement and the main floor with copper.

Here you can see where they had to cut the lines coming up from the basement:



The next big work item for today was to replace our main floor toilet. We undertook this for a couple of reasons: first of all, it leaked. Secondly, the fitting in the basement that attached it to the stack was old and needed to be replaced. Thirdly, the old toilet was placed 3" away from the wall and took up a bunch of unnecessary space in an already-cramped bathroom. Finally, it had been clogging up more and more frequently lately.

Once they took out the old toilet, I saw that the tile underneath was in pretty good shape. This meant that instead of getting Kohler's "Santa Rosa" toilet, which is a compact model with a big footprint (to cover up any unsightly holes), we could get the American Standard "Hamilton" model -- whose shape I preferred. So, I got Terry to get the plumbers to change the order (both were in stock at the warehouse) and got the toilet I wanted.

Here you can see where the old toilet was:



And here you can see where the new toilet's outlet hole will be. The previous outlet was in a very strange position which was probably why the old toilet was so far away from the wall.



And finally, here's the shiny new toilet:



The final thing that was done today was to move the hot water tank away from the basement wall about 4 inches. This was necessary because we need to put a drain line for the new laundry sink along the wall behind it. The plumbers were encouraging me to get a new hot water heater --their reason: the current one is "old". Also, the "thermocouple" is failing which is why we didn't have hot water yesterday and why they were having trouble getting it re-lit today. But I was not about to embark on yet another major purchase for downstairs, so I told them to make do.

All the jostling of the hot water tank dislodged about 20 years of sediment, so we had very brown water. I turned on the bathtub faucet and let it run for about half an hour until things cleared up; the water is still a little yellow-ish but I think I could stand to shower in it.



Tomorrow: lots and lots of decisions about lighting!