The sink is sunk- Clint gets a consult.

Clint had a big paper due for a grad. class he was taking- not thesis sized but 12-13 pages. In an attempt to be a helpful spouse I took Caelun to the play place at mall and to run some errands. I came home to hear that yeah the paper was complete but my dear hubby had come downstairs during a break from writing to hear water pouring out of the hot water pipe going to the kitchen sink. The old galvanized pipe had rusted through. Knowing he HAD to finish the paper he shut the hot water off to the house – since there wasn’t a specific shut off to the sink past the hot water heater. At least it was a Saturday. We we able to get cold water so we heated water on the stove for the little person to take a bath that night. Abbi was at her mom’s for the weekend and we then had at least a day to learn to be plumbers. Our current plumbing is a mixture of galvanized steel, plastic, some copper, with a good dose of magic and luck holding it all together.I had remodeled the bathroom when I first bought the house, before Clint and I were married, with some help from a plumber friend who’s wife was in my garden club. I help them install a deck at their house and that with a steak dinner got me a plumber who used me as an assistant – teaching me the basics. We ran copper to the bathroom and I learned to sweat and solder copper pipe- I just haven’t done it since and that was 10 years ago. Clint got on line to see what the options were. He found our new best friend – as far as plumbing is concerned – PEX. PEX plastic piping and Shark Bite valves. The tubing comes in red for hot and blue for cold making it easy to distinguish. There are no elbows to solder and it easily makes turns and corners- very important for our -plumbing is an after thought- crazy old house. The shark bite valves and connectors – which are kind of like a version of the “Chinese handcuffs” we used to get as kids- will connect ANY two pieces of plumbing. ANY! Copper to plastic, plastic to plastic, plastic to steel. Yep we were in business. Clint went to Lowes- one of the trifecta of home improvement stores where we worship regularly- and purchased the PEX, Shark Bites, and a pipe cutter and he had us back in hot water over the next couple of days. Caelun found this all very exciting of course. Especially when Clint started feeding long pieces of tubing under the sink and down into the basement. Yes Daddy had a “super helper” no doubt about it.

The PEX tubing has a higher than standard burst rate so it is especially good for areas where freezing can be a problem. You know in the spring our exterior hose connections are getting replaced with it.

 

Caelun comes to “help”

The consult.

Clint explained each step to Cae as he went. What a good dad. Some day when Cae has a crazy old house with crazy plumbing he will know what to do. Well maybe he will need a consult. (wink)