Septic Woes Over

We've been having some trouble with our septic system. Bad odors from the drains, slow flushing from the toilet, even a few wiffs of bad odors outside in the yard - all worrisome signs. A couple of days ago I picked up three 6" risers to raise the lids of the hatches up above the level of the surrounding terrain, because with the heavy rains we had last week water had puddled over the top of them, which is not reccommended, even though they are supposed to be water tight. When we went to install them, however, stinkwater came up out of the lid. Not good, definately not good at all! We tightened the lid back down without installing the riser, and today I called Jake of Fountain Construction, and described the symptoms to him. He immediately wanted to come out and take a look, so I left the office and headed home.

Jake quickly figured out that the problem was that the pump wasn't running, so our tank was full. Really full. It took a few more minutes to figure out why the tank wasn't running - a bad switch on the alarm circuit. This was not only preventing the alarm from sounding, it was keeping the whole system off-line. Thank goodness I called when I did, or the failure of this $1 part could have cost us hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Not to mention the ugly possibility of nastiness coming up in the shower drain and touching my toes.
Anyway, Jake & Lee (his dad/boss) managed to override the bad circuit and get the pump going enough to take the pressure off the system. The sound of the water that had been backed up into the house pipes draining out was pretty impressive. We called Mark Schramer and got the number for the electrician, and thankfully he, Andy, was able to come right out and replace that pesky switch. Jake helpfully installed the risers for me, so now the whole system is ship-shape and closed up again. We need to treat it gently for a few days (no laundry marathons!) but it looks like we caught the problem before any serious damage was done to the drainfield.

There was one unfortunate casualty: a small frog jumped into the tank when we had the lid open. I tried to fish him out, but he kept diving and swiming away from my bucket. I selfishly wasn't willing to actually TOUCH the stinkwater to save him. I feel a little bad about that... but mostly I feel like I just passed some sort of official homeowner test, and I got an A. :)

Update - Leak fixed

So the plumber went out yesterday and it turns out the leak wasn't from the Pex tubing at all, it was the valve itself that had a defective somthing-or-other in it. Which means that it was actually Barron Heating who needed to come out and fix it, which they did. There's a shiny new valve now and it all seems to be dry. I left the bucket sitting there for now, just in case, and I'm going to try to make it a habit to check the mechanical room at least once a week in the future so that if any additional problems every come up we'll catch them early. We were just lucky this time!

The defective valve is actually very GOOD news; I was a little worried that if the Pex was having trouble holding up to the heat, where else might it begin to leak? It sure would suck to have a leak in a wall somewhere. Drip... drip... drip... drip... {shudder}

Eeek! A Leak!

That's right, we have a leaky pipe fitting just below the Rinnai hot water unit. It started leaking sometime last week (I know it wasn't leaking last weekend) and was discovered on Friday when Steve went out to work on the punch list. The plumber is coming today to fix it. It may be that the temperature of the hot water coming out of the Rinnai has "relaxed" the Pex tubing over the last couple months at the intersection with the brass valve fitting, in which case he'll need to replace the Pex in that area with something metal. It kept up a pretty steady drip over the weekend... The wet area on the sheetrock is from splatter; the drops fall directly onto the elbow in the copper pipe (just above the bucket). I don't think there's been any permanent damage to the sheetrock yet, but we'll have to see once it dries out.

In any case, I'm sure glad that Steve discovered the leak when he did! With the Munchkin running quietly, I don't necessarily go into the mechanical room that often. I hate to think how bad it could have gotten before it was discovered...

We've moved in!

Everything is in the new house now, although of course it will be quite a while yet before everything is actually unpacked and in it's place. We've unpacked the daily use stuff, and most of the furniture is more or less where it will stay, but we haven't started putting stuff up on the walls or positioning the houseplants. There are still some boxes out in the shop or stacked up in the the corners, but it feels really good to be actually LIVING in our house.

The house itself isn't completely finished yet either, of course. Quite a bit got done since my last post, such as:

sunroom door knob installed

exterior doors painted

paint touch up & second coats on interior walls & trim

caulk around the bases of the kitchen cabinets

transition strips between cork/tile & cork/marmoleum

knobs & drawer pulls installed on the island cabinet

windows washed (HUGE difference!)

closet shelving installed

bathroom mirrors installed

exterior shingling finished

There are still a number of things though on the list that Steve is working on every day. And of course, there are a couple of problems that we've found, such as the fact that the upstairs shower (the ONLY shower) doesn't get hot water. It does get sort of luke warm, and we have hot water everywhere else in the house, so the problem is probably one of three things:

1. A bit of sawdust or other debris is blocking the hot water supply line.
2. The valve in the faucet is stuck or blocked (debris again).
3. The temperature limiter (which keeps you from scalding yourself) is stuck or set too low.

The plumber is coming this morning to take care of it, and I am really looking forward to a nice long hot shower when I get home! It's not like I haven't bathed since Christmas - we've been taking baths in the clawfoot tub, but a bath isn't the same. Plus, we didn't realize that we could turn on the supply lines for the clawfoot - the faucet isn't installed yet because it had defective threads and we had to send it back for a replacement - so we've been filling it with buckets from the kitchen sink. It's not just a bath, it's also an upper-body workout! I can't deny I felt a little sheepish when Mark showed me how to turn on those supply lines. You know how sometimes a solution seems so embarassingly obvious in retrospect? This is one of those. :)

But all in all, I am really pleased with everything. This is the best way to start a New Year ever!

Kitchen Backsplash & Faucet

Here is our marvelous new kitchen faucet. It is the opposite of the kitchen faucet we have in the apartment in every way. Since the kitchen faucet in the apartment is The Worst Faucet In The World, logically this faucet must therefore be the best. If it isn't perfect, well, it's pretty dang close.
Behind the faucet there you can see a little bit of the slate tile backsplash. Below here is a shot of the corner to the right of the sink, where the backsplash steps down in line with the front of the upper cabinet. This is still a work in progress, hence the bucket, masking tape & tools, but it's really looking nice. Robin has done all this tile work herself. I don't think this is usually one of her jobs, but she and Mark & Steve are all really kicking ass in order to get us in before Christmas, as promised. I really appreciate all their efforts.
Here's a shot of the tile where it wraps around the edge of the bar. I really like how that one rectangular tile looks, it is just the right touch to continue the line of the bar countertop into the backsplash.
Natural slate is just so pretty!

Indoor Plumbing - teh R0x0rz

As you can see below, I remembered my camera last night. So here's pictures of all the bathroom plumbing fixtures & faucets for your viewing pleasure. First, the lovely downstairs bathroom vanity, with its glass tile backsplash all grouted:
Here's a close up of the faucet, photographically proving that when you turn the handles, actual WATER comes OUT. Gotta love that!
Here's the clawfoot tub, in its nook in the downstairs bathroom. The drain and input lines are hooked up, but the faucet is not - yet. But it will be soon. I'm pretty impressed with how NICE the tub looks. For comparison, here's a post on the restoration process. Or you can click on the "clawfoot tub" tag at the bottom of this post to see a round up of all the posts about it.
Also, there is the toilet. I can't think of anything particularly interesting to tell you about the toilets, except that I'm happy to see them. Most people take them for granted, but not me. See, when I was little, we lived in a one room cabin out in the woods which did not have a toilet. We had an outhouse instead. (Why yes, my parents were hippies. Why do you ask?) Let's just say I have a thing for flushing.

In the upstairs bathroom, we have the mexican sink, looking lovely as always with its brightly colored tile backsplash - now with grout! - and its oiled bronze faucet. This is actually the same faucet as the one for the downstairs sink, the only difference is the downstairs one has porcelain handles.
Here's the shower head we chose, in oil-rubbed bronze of course. I can't wait to try it out...
This is the faucet and temperature control knob thing for the shower/bath. It's part of the same line as the sink faucets, so they all go together.

I've got about a million photos to post today, but I'll do separate posts for different topics. Check back later!

The Joy of Sinkholes

Yesterday all the sinkholes were cut in the subcounters, and the sinks dropped into them, including the kitchen sink. I am going to LOVE this new big sink.
I should perhaps explain that one of the things about the new house that I am looking forward to is having a nice, big, deep kitchen sink. For far too long we have lived in a small apartment with a totally insufficient kitchen sink. (Actually, the whole kitchen is insufficient in every way, but the sink is the worst part.) You can't even wash a regular-sized cutting board, let alone a casserole dish in it! You can't fill a soup pot because the cheap @#$*%! faucet rises only about 3" above the level of the counter top, and the sink is only 5 1/2" deep. The faucet is only reaches about 5" from it's base too, which means forget reaching the corner of the sink, you can't even reach the center. I have come to HATE it. Soon, I will be rid of it forever, and I won't be looking back.

Here's the lovely faucet that goes with it:

It's still in the box, but get a load of how long it is... which will translate into being really TALL. It also has a pull-out sprayer nozzle thingy. Oh, the soup pots I will fill with you.

In the downstairs bathroom we have a plain white ceramic sink, to go along with the clawfoot tub.
It will have these super cool nearly-but-not-quite-clear white glass 1" tiles as part of the backsplash. I tell you, it was like christmas last night, opening boxes and peeking inside...
...finding things like the faucet for the clawfoot tub.
Upstairs in the laundry room the utility sink has also been set into it's cutout. Cary demonstrates just how large & deep (15") it really is:
In the upstairs bathroom the Mexican sink is also in its spot. It looks small compared to the downstairs sink because the vanity itself is wider. In actuality, they are close to the same volume, although they are shaped a little differently - not that it will matter one whit as far as using them goes.
The shower/bath insert upstairs has been unmasked at last. It's been in the house since the framing, but we haven't actually SEEN it for so long that it seemed kind of new again last night. Cary demonstrates how tall he really is:
Maybe someday when we have money again I'll tear out this insert and build him a deep, custom tile tub, big enough that he can really soak in it. Or maybe we'll just get a hot-tub. :)

Clawfoot Tub Finished

At last! Here's Cary taking the masking off:
And here it is with the feet leaned up against it.
Doesn't it look wonderful? For perspective, here's what we started with, inside:
And outside:
Yeah, that took a little elbow grease, a few dollars, and several hours. (um, can you say understatement?) But it's worth it, to be able to say we did it ourselves.

Mexican Sink

As I was preparing to leave work to go to the plumbing store, I realized I hadn't posted a picture of the cool Mexican sink that Mom & Dad gave me for my birthday last year. It's going in the upstairs bathroom. So here it is:

The other major fixture that I already have is my great-great-grandpa's clawfoot bathtub. I don't have a picture of it (it's still sitting in the bushes behind the barn) but it's a standard 5-footer, white enamel on the inside and greyish-black on the out/underside. It'll be going in the downstairs bathroom. Aparently it's going to be quite a challenge to find faucet hardware that will fit, because the holes are 3.5" apart on center, and the standard is 3 3/8".

The story of how my great-great-grandpa's tub ended up behind my parent's barn is a pretty good one. When I was a little kid, my dad's cousin Joyce bought a fixer-upper in East Wenatchee. When Grandma Mary went to see the new place, she immediately recognized the house as having been HER grandpa's house, where she (my grandma) was actually BORN! She had also spent her summers when she was a girl, so she knew it well. All the original fixtures were there, although the house was in need of serious remodelling & repair. They took everything out, and I guess they decided not to put the tub back in when they were done.

So my dad took it home, and used it to water the cows and occasionally to hold beer & ice at outdoor parties (for instance, at my brother's wedding). The feet were taken off for safekeeping. It's in great shape, considering. Just a couple little nicks in the enamel, which we'll repair. I didn't know its history until we were about halfway through the house design process, when Dad offered the tub to me. Of course we immediately made room for it in the new house. It's great that even though I'm building a couple hundred miles from the old family homestead(s), I can bring some family history with me.