Yes, again.

Last week I got the opportunity to visit Washington -it was wonderful to spend time with friends and family. And, I know that there are some people who wish we would move back sooner than later. However, I do think it's a bit TOO cooincidental that the events of the past few days could have happened as they did. So, Michael...Tycen...Dad...I am ready for a confession whenever you are ready to fess up to the sabotage.

That aside, I can explain what happened in some detail. Tuesday morning I was starting to do dishes at 8:30am. As I filled the sink with hot water, I noticed Phil head up the stairs. The water started to slow a bit, and I figured he was probably taking a shower. But then he came back down the stairs. And the water stopped. I asked if he did something with the water, and he replied nonchalantly "No, why?"

It was at precisely this moment when a small inkling of fear began to creep in. Something might be wrong. I knew enough about water that it was somewhat hard to damage the supply without tampering with some pipes. Or something. Having been back only a few days, I was still working on re-acclimating myself into our "unfinished" lifestyle (the nice way of saying that we are still "under construction").

I have learned to be patient with this old house. Things happen, you know, when you are 80 years old. You have creaks and strains in places a youngster of say, 5, would not have. But water? We have been through this before. We have replaced pipes, installed a new water heater and a new filter. The water portion was not supposed to go "wrong" again!

So, we had to do some research. Phil headed down the stairs only to find there was no water pressure coming in to the house. Not really a good sign. This could mean a number of things- very few of which are inexpensive or quick to remedy.

We uncovered the hole outside that holds the pressure tank for the well, as well as the pipes heading toward the house. It was a mess of wires and old plumbing (there's a good reason we had avoided this area so far). Phil tried to plug the light in so he could look down, but it wouldn't work. That turned out to be a really great sign, because it meant that the fuses were probably just blown. I got really excited about this prospect - because fuses were really easy to buy, and really easy to install. We would have water back in no time! Phil was not so excited about this news, because, as he informed me, fuses blow for a reason.

I quickly made the hour-long jaunt to the store and bought a two-pack of fuses. Upon my return, Phil found out what made it trip in the first place: something had chewed through, or worn through, the wire giving power to the well pump. Being the savvy guy my husband is, he made quick work of replacing the wire (putting it in conduit this time!)

"Great!" I thought once again- my water will be back as soon as we put those fuses in.

But, any old home owner or remodeler will tell you that this is foolish talk. To fix a problem like this that quickly is against the rules. There must be more hiccups. And true to Murphy's law, there was. While we were testing out the new power source, we noticed a leak out of the side of one of the pipes. Being cast iron piping, it should have been relatively easy to unscrew and replace the ruined part. So, we again went to the store, and picked up the pipe. When we got home, however, we discovered that no amount of tugging, pushing, pulling, yelling, or crying was going to get these pipes apart. They were fused forever.

And hence came decision time. Although I can't really call it that because we didn't have much of a choice. The whole shebang was going to have to be replaced. This consisted of about 30 pieces (joints, elbows, couplings, valves...etc) that had to be puzzled together just-so. So Phil took out a flashlight, and sat down to sketch out his version of what was going on with the pipes - and what would need to be bought in order to replace it all.

By the time we got into the car, the sun was setting low in the sky, and my trusty remodeler's gut told me we weren't going to have water before bed. So, we picked up some food and a few gallons of drinking water, bought many many parts, and headed back.

Yesterday morning we got an early start - with the day fresh we were ready to tackle the plumbing with new vigor. Phil spent a few hours assembling parts. Excited and ready for running water again, I figured it would be up and running within 20 minutes or so. Oh how I can be so optimistic, even given my background!

We were missing an elbow. It wasn't going to work without that elbow. Trying to be helpful, I started pointing out different pieces and asking "could you switch that one?" or "does THAT piece REALLY need the elbow? It seems excessive..." Nonetheless, I was off to the store once more. To save you the suspense, it was only twice more that we ended up needing small pieces. There is something decidedly unsatisfying about driving an hour to pick up a three inch piece of pipe.

While I was away on my errands, Phil decided he couldn't get a good enough view in the small hole provided from the cement top, so he used a sledgehammer to break apart the cover that was already starting to crumble in a few corners. When that was finished, because he couldn't get any of the plumbing apart, he ended up pulling the entire contraption from the underground connecting pipes, and hauling them out of the hole, along with the pressure tank. Further inspection of the cut pipes revealed a lot of rust and wear. Let's just say that I am glad to have all new fittings for my water.

When the last piece finally fit and Phil reattached the wiring once again, he shot a glance up at me "You know, this is only our first try..." he began, "I just mean, if this doesn't work or if there is a leak or something, I don't want you to freak out."

Freak out? Me? Over no water for two days and one night and dishes and laundry piling up as we spoke? I just smiled, and held my breath, and crossed my fingers.

We flipped on the power, and heard the rushing water coming from the well. That was a good sign. The pressure gauge showed that we were indeed in business. At this point, we noticed a small leak. "Easy fix" Phil said. I had heard that one before, so since we had to drain the pipes somewhere, I ran inside to fill up sinks and the bathtub (hey, I've learned that if there is ever a moment of running water during one of these projects, you have to take it and run...it might not be there in a minute!) But, thankfully, this one was a quick fix- just a tightening of a pipe. Phew.

Now, really, the sudden lack of running water (more than once) is getting old. But the great thing is that I am learning a lot about plumbing: the differences between cast and copper, the jointing methods used in each, what a pressure regulator does...why it's important to have wires put inside conduit when they are running near water, and other valuable lessons every housewife should know.

So, here we are 16 hours later, and there have been no more hiccups with the water. We smell nicer and have dishes to eat off of, and clothes to wear. Since it turned out to be a 15 hour project (not including sleep in between) instead of the initial 1 hour project I had dreamed of, I figure we have probably hit the end of this one.

Two things I have learned from this:
First, if you are going to buy an old house, it helps tremendously to have an electrician, plumber, carpenter, and general handyman around (thanks Phil). Also, realize that this is the story from my point of view, where the biggest obstacles came from having to run multiple "errands" and do without a bit of running water. I was not climbing in claustrophobic holes or wrenching apart pipes. Really, I had it pretty easy.
And second, be thankful for the small things- as soon as I began to get pretty discouraged by all of this (oh, say around hour 5 or so) our neighbor Mike called to "check in on how the plumbing was going". He put it simply "Look at it this way," he said, "it could have happened in January."