Category: Sisters House

Please excuse the lack of polish on this post, this is mainly written as a helpful list that I can look back on in the future and hopefully remember some of the intricacies I’ve learned by trial and error from plumbing my new house.  This is written from my perspective as a total novice plumber, before attempting the sisters house remodel project I had never done any meaningful plumbing in my life, so many of these items below will cover base level errors that anyone who is attempting a plumbing project without any prior knowledge will run into, hopefully someone out there finds some of these tips helpful as well 🙂

• Whenever possible create a scaffolding between two ladders, it’s much easier to work on than a traditional ladder.

• Assembling pieces: Create the assembly of pieces you’re working on and dry fit the entire thing together.  IE if you are creating a shower trap and drain connection to a main line, create the vertical piece, the trap, and the connection to the main line before gluing any joints together.

• Gluing Tips:
  • Use a small mallet to get the dry fit pieces very tight
  • Look at what you’re gluing and determine the part closets to the drain. So for example on a p-trap glue the last fitting that ties into the vertical up to the actual drain, glue that piece last as it is the most critical piece, and it can rotate.
  • Glue in 1 direction, IE if you are connecting a shower to main line glue from the main line towards the shower fixture, don’t glue one piece from the main line then one piece by the shower drain, stay moving in 1 direction or you will end up in a bind.
  • Try to glue as many of the pieces as possible on the ground, its way easier to push the pieces together and form a great connection on the ground than above your head.
  • After gluing any piece, reassemble all parts your working on and dry fit them again. Don’t glue multiple joints on the ground without re dry fitting the whole assembly. The process will start to feel super repetitive, but as soon as you glue multiple joints without re-dry fitting everything and putting it back in place you will end up with a fitting rotated improperly or at the very least you will end up with a fit that is far worse than if you re-assemble each time before gluing the next piece.
  • Use a marker to mark the desired location on both pieces you are gluing.  Don’t mark multiple pieces only mark the one you are currently gluing as the position will likely change somewhat as you progress.
• Always buy the longer 5 inch metal stud guards, they offer better protection from rouge drywall screws.

• Rules on 90’s and Bends:
  • Use long sweeping elbows when the flow of water is going to slow down, IE if you are transitioning to a long horizontal run. 
  • Use short sweeping elbows when you are transitioning to a vertical pipe.
  • Use long sweeping elbows when you are catching water from a vertical drop and transitioning to a long horizontal run.
• Rules on Vents:
  • Try your best to create a dry vent for each fixture
  • When you’re connecting in vents in the attic convert the pipe to 3 or 4 inch as quickly as you can and then join all your 2 inch vent connections into that, don’t just multiple 2 inch connections together you will create a choke point and overload your vents.
  • Use an air trap vent on island sinks.

I’ve been rooting for this project for quite some time, trying to will it into existence. First there were more urgent repairs needed to the outside of the building to prevent any long term damage to the structure. Those have been completed over the past 3 years. Then it was figuring out exactly the best way to pay for the massive project. Finally there was a long term lease standing in the way….

But as of today we have cleared all of those hurdles above and we are ready to put the plan in motion! 🙂

Its rare to feel such a draw to a specific project or direction in life. Almost un-nerving in a way. When you stop and listen to your instinct and follow the path that you somehow know is the right path for you to take in life. Its hard to even find/see these types of moments often, and I’ve only felt this type of draw a few times in my life.

I can’t wait to get started! I can’t wait for the rewarding feeling of returning a building that I love back to its former glory. I can’t wait to see Ellen’s excited face when we dance around the newly completed rooms celebrating! I can’t wait for all the hard manual labor to come. I’m looking forward to all the challenges and frustrations that surely await us with a renovation project like this.

I would love to be able to talk to Jan about this project as well, to show her the plans and show her how well APTTT is running. This project should hopefully provide a huge boost to the charity as well, taking us from 1 unit to 3! I bet that’s why she visited me in my dreams last week, she is excited too! I was actually laying in bed a couple nights ago, thinking about something she told me on several occasions, I’m paraphrasing because unfortunately I never wrote this quote down when she was still here but it went something like:

“When you find the right partner in life, and you marry that person it can put you in a state of nirvana. Life doesn’t have to be a constant struggle, life actually becomes a fun journey with the right person. And if you can manage to find a wave that you both can ride together, preferably something that is meaningful and good for the world, then you can feel almost like your weightless.”

I definitely feel weightless right now.

We just completed a pretty big milestone, the first major round of renovations on the sisters house property. In total we completed:

-new roofs on all gabled front porches

-tear off where needed and replace wood on all porches. The porches are made from a rare kind of wood (forgetting the name now) but our contractor really praised it and pleaded with us not to tear it all off. So we followed his advice and most of it simple got a scrape, sand and re-paint

-6 new mailboxes

-Cut down 3 trees. Never a fan of cutting down trees but these were too close to the house and we plan on planting 3 new trees in the tree-lawn by the curb

-All Cable lines run underground in the backyard

-All new Electrical boxes for 6 electrical services in the back yard (lines to be run underground August 8th)

-Demo and clean basements in 6165 and 6161 units.

-fabricated new “eye brows” that will go up on the roofs during our next round of updates, which will also include the second round of copper work and the new spires.

A few pictures of before, during and after are below.