My goal for today was to finish sorting enough aluminum to fill the truck bed, go to the salvage yard to drop it off, then go to the nearest Walmart to meet with the Cat Lady and pick up more cat food. We also need a few more things for the bathtub tap repair.
It was raining all morning, so I backed the truck out of the garage so I could work on the cans in the garage. Once I had ten bags, I turned the truck around to make it easier to load. It took longer than expected, and I was no longer sure I’d be able to connect with the Cat Lady.
I was able to get 10 large bags in the truck. All strapped down an ready to go.
I got about half a mile before the onboard computer started dinging, and I got a red flashing “oil pressure low, shut of engine” warning.
So I pulled over and shut it off. After waiting a bit, I tried again, but it went off again almost immediately.
We were due for an oil change, but I’ve never had this happen before!
I ended up walking home to get some oil, and my younger daughter walked back with me. As we were going along, we saw a vehicle stop beside the truck for a while. The driver stopped again when he reached us. It turns out he was a neighbour from up the road. He was hauling a flatbed trailer, so he went home to drop that off, then came back to help us.
Long story short, we manage to get the truck home, and I was able to park it in such a way that it can be easily accessed by a tow truck.
Yup. We are down to no vehicle right now.
And we’re going to run out of kibble, tomorrow.
F***
I updated the Cat Lady and she said she would get cat food to us, but I have no idea how. Someone would have to deliver it to our place, since we can’t go anywhere.
A tow has been arranged for tomorrow morning, and the garage is already expecting it. We’ll get a diagnostic and an estimate, but we won’t have a budget for any repairs until my husband’s disability comes in at the end of the month.
Today is the 22nd. CPP Disability comes in on the 29th.
That’s a week with no transportation. Heck, I don’t even know how I will get to the garage to pick up the truck once it’s repaired – assuming it’s a repair we can afford. It’s entirely possible the problem is gunk in a sensor. Or it could be something major. The engine itself sounds just fine.
Meanwhile, we’ll need to take off the load of aluminum before the truck is taken in, but that will wait until tomorrow morning. I just don’t have the spoons to do it tonight.
I’m going to have to go through our pantry and freezer and see what we can use for cat food.
The past 12 months has seen so many things breaking down this year. It’s been insane. It seems like every time we take a step forward, we get yanked back five.
One of those things that broke down has been my mother’s car – our back up vehicle – which started to make a banging noise. Since then, it now has a tire that keeps going flat, even though we’ve been using the compressor to pump it back up every couple of days. Even if it were running, though, we no longer have the budget for insurance and fuel for two vehicles anymore. Partly because we now have the truck payments, but also because the cost of everything has gone up so much.
I am just so tired, right now. Not physically tired. Not even emotionally tired. More psychologically tired.
It was around this time, 7 years ago, that my husband and younger daughter flew out here earlier than planned, as my FIL was in the hospital and things were not looking good for a while. I started this blog on the 29th of October, 2017, and we weren’t all united again here until the middle of November. Those first few months saw some rough times, and we’ve certainly had our challenges, every year since. Even so, we’ve have had so many things break down, one after the other, like we have in the past 12 months.
I’m just pausing to write a quick post, before I go to help my daughter with the bathtub plumbing.
We got the new hot water tank element tool out just a little while ago, and headed into the basement to see what we could find in the two older tanks. The hope was to be able to use one of the elements from the old tanks to replace the burnt out one in the current tank.
Yeeeeaaaahhhh….
That’s not gonna happen.
This is what we pulled out of the first tank, where I’d already opened up the panel for the top element. The bottom one was encrusted in scale on the outside, so that one was clearly not going to be good.
Yeah. That plastic cover is melted. That thermostat is burned.
Click through to the next image, and you can see more of the damage, and how completely encrusted the outside of the element is!
It is an absolute miracle that there wasn’t a fire started.
As for the current tank, we no longer even have warm water, so we’ve shut the breaker off. It looks like both elements are burned out now. Seeing what we pulled out of the old tank, I’m not at all surprised!
When the first tank died, it was after less than 2 years of use, which is why we were able to replace it on warranty. About a year later, when we saw the replacement tank starting to leak on the bottom, we were able to replace that on warranty, too, even though we should not have been able to. We kept the new tank in the box until the second tank finally died. It lasted far longer than we expected.
I just looked up my old posts. This current tank was installed just over a year ago – Oct. 10, 2023, to be exact. We were able to pick it up as a warranty replacement in April of 2021. Before that, we got a new tank in January of 2020, though it took a bit longer before we could get it installed. The tank that was originally here was replaced in December of 2017, just in time for Christmas. All four of us had been here for little more than a month at the time!
Not counting the original tank – I found the original warranty papers for that, dated 1963, if I remember correctly – we have gone through 3 modern tanks in less than 7 years of living here.
The most recent one lasting just over a year after installation.
That. Is. Insane.
It all really comes down to our water. I remember talking to the plumber during one of the installations, and he told me that this is pretty typical for hot water tanks in our area.
When all this started, these tanks cost a little over $400. Looking at them now, I see they cost about $700 for the exact same tank.
The elements cost about $40 each.
With the powered anode rod that should arrive next week, that will hopefully keep the tank going longer, though we still need to get the right tool to remove the old anode rod. I thought the tool we got for the element might also work for the rod, but it’s way too big. We need to buy the right size socket to be able to remove the anode rod.
For right now, though, I need to go help my daughter. She was able to get the piece out that needed to be cut out. With the adapters, we might not even need to replace the copper pipes to the basement, though the hot water one has the 90° elbows in it, so that one should probably be replaced with Pex, at the very least.
My main thing was to go into town and talk to my favourite manager. We spent a lot of time looking at the photos I took of the bathtub plumbing, and things like whether or not we will be replacing the copper pipe for the shower with Pex as well as the hot and cold water pipes. Plus, we’d need to replace the pipe to the spout, which is completely different and would be removed with all the other old parts, since it would be soldered in place with lead, too.
My brother had talked about using Shark Bite fittings, but the manager suggested it would be better – and cheaper – to use Pex crimps. That meant getting a crimping tool, which is something we’ll need in the long term, anyway, and a Pex cutting tool. I wish I had that when I bought Pex (a different type) to use on one of the raised bed covers.
As we went through various fittings and joins, crimps and, of course, the Pex pipe, etc., there was one type of fitting they only had two of. We figured I would need at least six. He called another store for me and confirmed they had plenty in stock, so once I was done with the local store, I drove to the next town up the highway to get the rest.
He assured me that, anything we don’t use, we can return. Just hang on to the receipt for both stores, because if we want to return anything, we would have to return them to the store we bought them from, even though they are the same franchise.
While I was doing that, my younger daughter scrubbed the exposed walls around the tub, treated it with an anti-mold and mildew spray cleaner, then left the fan running on it. She did that a second time and, when that was dry, she started painting the exposed walls with the mold and mildew resistant primer. So far, that has two coats. I think it’ll need a third.
Once that is done, it will be ready to have the tub surround installed – whenever that will be!
Once I got home, my daughter and I went through the parts and pieces. I was already forgetting what was what. My daughter knew what she was looking at, though.
Having daughters that both used to work in a hardware store comes in very handy at times!
She was in between coats of paint, so I grabbed some tools and headed to the basement. I wanted to see if we could use one of the top elements from the old hot water tanks, and see how to remove the anode rod.
*sigh*
Since both tanks died because they started leaking out the bottom, the bottom panels were already open. Damage on those ones is visible from the outside. I uncovered the top panel on one of the tanks and removed the wires to get a good look.
Hmmm…
After consulting the manual, I realized I would not be able to take them out. There is a special tool – basically, a large socket – to remove them, and we don’t have one.
So I shifted to the anode rod.
Now, this is supposed to be easy. Pop off the cap, remove the anode rod and you’re done.
The cap did NOT want to come off.
I should have been able to slide the tip of a Standard screwdriver under the edge and lever it up, but the edge all around the cap just bent. Eventually, I was able to jam the screwdriver down between the edge of the cap and the metal and pop it off, breaking off something under it in the process.
The opening was full of foam insulation. Oddly, there seemed to be text in the foam. I had to take a flash picture of it to be able to see that yes, there was writing – and it was backwards. Looking at the underside of the cap, I could see the writing that was imprinted into the foam insulation.
There was nothing about this in the manual.
I dug out the insulation until the top of the anode rod was finally uncovered.
Oh… something else that needs a socket.
Back to the tool kit I go and come back with the largest socket we’ve got.
It wasn’t large enough.
*sigh*
So I wasn’t able to get either the rod or the heat element out. With the rod, I just need to know how to do it, for when the powered rod comes in and we replace the one in the current tank. I’d hoped to get the heat elements out and see if at least one of them is still good, so we can switch it out for the burnt out one in the current tank.
I guess I’ll be going back to the hardware store tomorrow. The tool for the heat element is $25. A large socket ranges from about $9 to $14.
I’m certainly glad we still had the old hot water tanks in the basement that I could use to find this out. It would have really sucked to find this out on the current tank!
Since I couldn’t do any more there, it was time to finally start putting away and cleaning up in the garage, so we can finally park the truck in there again, now that the cat isolation shelter is out.
When bringing stuff to store here at the farm, my brother brought me a couple of crane boxes. I have no idea what makes them a “crane” box, other than they are rated to hold up to 1000 pounds. One of them got crushed a bit, but it was still useable. They actually came in handy as surfaces I could use to hold the clear plastic for the isolation shelter. I was able to cut in a gap between the boxes, and have weights on either side to reduce vibration. It worked really well.
The garage walls are unfinished, with exposed joists. When I moved off the farm, the garage was just a single “room”, all the walls were exterior walls, with shiplap boards covering the outside. Over the years, lean to additions were added to each side.
My brother had brought scrap wood they were intending to add to the burn pile, but there was a lot of useful wood in there that I kept, instead. From those scraps, I was able to cut three supports per box and attach them to wall joists, using the shiplap boards as a guide to keep them even, since I didn’t have a level with me.
The boxes each had three “feet” on their bottoms that reached from side to side, made up of stacks of what looks like plywood, nailed and glued together. Unfortunately, they were spaced in such a way that, while two of them could fit in the space between the wall joists, the third one did not. So each box had to have one of these “feet” removed.
That was NOT an easy job. They were nailed together from both the inside and the outside, plus the inside had extra long staples into them.
I had a pry bar handy, though, and was able to get them off.
Once that was done, I could put the boxes on the supports, with the bottoms against the joists. They then got screwed directly to the joists, as well as the supports.
The supports are all longer than the boxes are deep. The boxes have lids. Once I get some larger hinges, I will attach the lids with hinges on the bottoms. This way, they can be opened from the top to form a surface. It will make it harder to reach what’s inside, but I figured having that would be useful enough to be worthwhile.
Once the boxes were hung up, I had someplace to start putting things on my work table away, rather than returning them all to the sun room. Last winter, the cats knocked way too many things down to the ground, so I want to avoid storing things there, if I can.
Eventually, we’ll be making more shelves against the walls, and I will be able to clear the space under these boxes. That’s all on a makeshift shelf that’s just a piece of scrap plywood sitting on top of a couple of 5 gallon pails on their sides. It was meant to be temporary. We just haven’t gotten to working on organizing the garage, yet. There’s just too much stuff in there that I have no idea what to do with.
These boxes have enough space in them that we could probably add another shelf across the middle. Maybe in just one of them, and leave the other open for larger items.
That done, I was able to finish clearing off my work table, saving some of the wood scraps for future projects, while others will go to the fire pit, moving the miter saw, and so on, and the work table got folded up and set on the swing bench in where my mother’s car is stored.
The saw horses that I’d been using while painting now had a screen over it to hold the curing shallots. My daughter wants them to cure a while longer before braiding them, so that got moved in front of the swing bench.
Then came the finicky part.
Getting the floor safe to drive on.
I’d already fired up the compressor to pump the flat tire on my mother’s care, then used the air to clear off the sawdust on the work table. For the next while, I used the compressed air to blow away the sawdust on the ground, too.
I’m glad I did, because I found quite a few shards of glass in there! I have no idea where they came from, or how long they’ve been there.
Eventually, I got to the point where I could start raking the dirt floor, and used a magnet to find any nails or other metal bits that might have been lost.
I had to consider what to do with my brother’s lawn tractor. There isn’t room for it in the lean to’s on either side of the garage, and I don’t want it stored in the barn. I ended up moving some bins to the other side of the garage, where they are now being used to hold recycling. There was a lot of weird odds and ends in the ground under them, like rusted out bolts and very old spark plugs that predate us living her for quite some time. The area got raked and cleaned and raked again before I went over it with a magnet.
In the end, I still wasn’t confident in the space. I had rolled up the protective cover that the clear roof panels were wrapped in. It’s got a waterproof surface on one side. I decided to lay that out on the ground against the wall, and that’s what the lawn tractor is now sitting on, close enough to the wall that the truck has plenty of space.
After a bit more raking and a bit more searching with the magnet – and finding more bits of glass in the oddest of places! – I was confident enough to get the keys and park the truck in the garage.
Finally!
By the time that was all done, my daughter had finished more coats of paint in the bathroom.
So while we still don’t have the plumbing fixed, we still don’t have hot water (though if we leave it long enough, we do have very warm water at times), we did get some good progress today.
The next six days are supposed to be warmer, so I’m hoping to be able to finally work on cleaning up garden beds, but if my daughter needs help with the plumbing, that’s the priority.
I just wanted to share the adorableness of Syndol, as he accompanied me on my morning rounds. That’s all. 😄😄
Anyhow…
Today turned out to be a rather productive day, all in all.
Our main goals for the day were to get my husband’s bed and computer set up again. He was telling me this morning how my bed is soooo comfortable – but is absolutely killing his back! He needs to be back in his hospital bed.
Which isn’t as simple as it sounds. Since the plastic covered mattress causes him to sweat, he had several layers of bedding on top to at least try and alleviate that. It took 4 loads of laundry to wash everything, pillows included.
What I ended up doing was laying out a king size cotton sheet over the entire bed, folding up and laying out the various layers of bedding as close to the dimensions of the bedding as I could get them without being lumpy, then pulling up the sides and ends of the cotton sheet to encase it all. Then the fitted sheet could cover the whole thing and hold it in place.
With this being the smallest bedroom in the house, and the wardrobe is still in it, getting this done involved a lot of shifting the bed back and forth so I could reach from both sides, layer after layer, until I could finally put it back in its corner….
Only to have to move it again, to set up one of the power bars with a super long cord that had to be removed earlier. This room has only two outlets, and one of them is in the wall the bed is against. Handily, both outlets are higher than usual. More typical of the height for accessibility in modern homes. I’m not sure why these ones were placed so high. Especially since they are both in log walls. I’m not going to complain, though!
After the cord was run under the bed in such a way as to not touch the floor (because, cats…) it was done.
Until my husband asked about some of the bedding and I realized I’d padded his mattress with bedding he preferred to sleep under.
One of them being the cotton sheet I’d used to wrap the whole bundle.
I found a replacement for that one, at least, but the covers I’d left out, thinking those were what he’d want to sleep under, now that winter is coming, were supposed to be part of the bundle.
It didn’t take much to readjust things, but it did involve having to move the entire bed back and forth repeatedly, while I did it!
Eventually, I was finally able to bring back a side table to hold the internet router, other electronics and the CPAP machine.
In between doing this, I also got my own laundry going, then cleared a spot for the girls’ bar fridge to be moved to my room, so that they can then move the wardrobe upstairs. That will open up quite a bit of space in my husband’s room.
Eventually, we had to head out for a dump run; my younger daughter came along to act as spotter again. The pit area looked even worse than last week. At least this time, she wasn’t having to kick away nails the whole way in!
While we were out, we got a message from my other daughter, asking if we were up to a trip into town. Which we were, so she transferred some funds to me, along with a shopping list.
While we were in town, she and my husband moved things off the table he uses as a desk, he set up his computer, and they got his chair in. He also moved his CPAP back, so he’s now set, even though the room is not done.
Once the wardrobe is out, we’ll be able to access the closet again. The bottom of it has storage boxes, some filled with some of my late father’s things, but the closet rod and shelf above are open. There isn’t a lot of space between the footboard of the hospital bed and the closet door, since the bed is quite a bit longer than standard, but it’s enough to be able to open the door completely and access it. There’s still another shelf and his little medication fridge that needs to be set up again, but not until the wardrobe is emptied and taken upstairs.
Most important of all, of course, is that the corner where the tub’s plumbing is, is now clear and accessible.
I don’t want to cut the access panel from this side of the wall, though. At least not at first. Once we are able to cut away the rotted aspenite around the taps, we should be able to see where best to set the access panel. Even if we just make some holes from the bathroom side, to mark the corners, we can use those as guides to finish cutting the panel out from the bedroom side. If we do it neat and tidy enough, we might even be able to use the cut out piece to make a removeable cover for the opening.
It’ll be the girls taking care of getting that wardrobe upstairs, which means that tomorrow…
Oh, my goodness!
Tomorrow I might even be able to…
*gasp*
… get some work done OUTSIDE!
😄😄😄
I noticed today that the sunchokes are starting to die back, so I might start harvesting some of those. I definitely want to get the potatoes harvested. We should be able to use both with our Thanksgiving dinner.
If we have one.
With the hot water tank managing to produce only warmish water, it makes it rather hard to keep up with the dishes. We’re rather not be boiling large amounts of water again, as that makes the entire house ridiculously humid.
We could use disposable dishes, though. I think we still have some. I forgot about that, entirely!
Speaking of hot water tanks.
In going over the manual, it looks like our bottom element might be burned out. The anode rod likely needs to be replaced, too. It might be premature, since we haven’t confirmed this, but we’ve ordered a Corro-Protec rod (not an affiliate link), which we had to do on a payment plan, unfortunately.
The main hesitation we had for ordering one earlier was being able to plug it in. There is an outlet near the tank, tucked next to a floor joist above, but it already has two things plugged into it. One, we can remove; I traced the line and it’s an extension cord that goes up into the closet in my husband’s bedroom, along with a TV cable. When my late father used this room, there was a TV set up for him to be able to watch from bed, but we don’t watch TV, and that power cord isn’t being used.
The other thing plugged into there is the well pump. The problem is, the plug for the powered anode rod is fairly large. We might still be able to fit it in with the well pump’s plug, if we move the well pump’s plug up to where the extension cord is currently plugged in, but I don’t know that there’s enough space around the outlet to fit the powered anode rod’s plug. We won’t know until we actually get it.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the hot water tank repaired affordably, but we have no idea when that’ll happen. It’s not like we can afford to call a plumber for that, any more than we can afford to call a plumber for the taps in the tub.
Until then, we’ll be making do with tepid water, and boiling water if we can’t get away with tepid.
It’s a good thing we only do laundry with cold water!
Still, it’ll make Thanksgiving dinner a bit more challenging to prepare!
Please don’t try to answer that rhetorical question.
Guess what?
Now we don’t have hot water.
There is tepid water, but no hot water.
We’ve already had our tank replaced on warranty twice – normally, it would never be done more than once, and we know we won’t be able to get another warranty tank.
Things are going to be slow when it comes to dealing with our water problems in the tub.
Today, we were able to cut away the bottom of the fake tile paneling, to see the damage behind it. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect back there. Especially with the two walls that are log.
On the one hand, that’s really gross. Especially around the taps, where quite a few bugs were uncovered. They looked a bit like pill bugs, but I really didn’t want to look too closely! Others were too small for even that much of an identification.
There were so.
Many.
Nails in that paneling! My guess is, before the tub surround was added, the paneling was coming loose from the wall, so it was very thoroughly nailed in place before the surround was installed. The problem is, the nails were very hard to see. While I was cutting through the paneling, I kept hitting nail heads in the intersecting lines. Then, as I tried to pull the paneling off, I had to pry it off more nails. Some of them pulled right out. Others, the paneling broke around it.
The back wall and the section of wall on the right are the log walls. I’m hoping that chip board managed to protect the logs somewhat. My brother had told me that shims were used to level the walls so the paneling could be attached.
I didn’t expect there to be scrap pieces on top of the chip board. I even recognize some of the pieces as scraps from the paneling used on the rest of the ground floor of the house. You use what you’ve got!
For now, we have the bath chair set up to support a box fan to dry the rotted walls.
At this point, in updating my brother about all this, I had to ask for help. We simply don’t have the tools to cut away that rotted chipboard.
I am rather afraid to find out what’s behind the wall around the pipes.
Once we get to a point where we can actually install the new taps, we will probably cover the open sections with plastic. That would allow us to turn the newly installed shut off valves, on, and we could use the shower as we get the materials we need to patch and repair. My older daughter has told me she will cover the costs, but we don’t even know what the costs will be. Plus, she’s a freelancer, so the money comes when the jobs get done. Thankfully, she has a pretty steady stream of commissions for her digital art.
With how things are going, though, I expect it will take weeks to get it done, as we slowly uncover things and figure out how bad the damage is, and what we will need in order to repair it.
Until then, we continue to sponge bathe!
Meanwhile, we’ve had a change in schedule. My husband called the clinic about his CT scan tomorrow and cancelled it. He’s in too much pain to handle the drive.
So that frees up the day though, under the circumstances for my husband, I would rather have had it otherwise.
Today has been a very windy and rainy day, but I still managed a bit of progress on the cat isolation shelter. I kept the garage door closed because of the weather, or course. Usually I have it open for light and fresh air, but the winds were blowing in from the south today, and that door faces south. I was surprised by just how much that door was rattling and shaking in the wind, even with the truck parked outside, right in front of it, acting as a bit of a wind break!
All was warm and dry inside the garage, though, so that worked out well.
I decided to work on the frame that will be supporting the clear roof panels, starting with the board that would support the piano hinge in front.
The piano hinge has 18 screw holes in each half, and came with its own little baggie of screws. I started by centering the hinge on the board, with a plan to attach the hinge at each end, then continuing on the shelter itself.
I had problems with the very first screw.
The head broke off!
If the screws that came with it were going to break that easily, I was not going to use the rest!
I did have the remains of a box of small screws that I used on the catio roof that were the right size, so I used those, instead.
After securing the hinge to the board at each end, I set it up on top of the shelter. I dug around the garage and found a strip of aluminum thin enough that I could use it as a spacer between the frame and the board. The board had a slight bend in the middle, so that got weighted down with a couple of bricks.
I didn’t have enough screws for all the holes in the hinge, but there’s enough to hold it in place. I’ll have to pick up more screws later to finish the job.
In the first photo above, you can see some of the empty screw holes. I made sure the ends and the middle were secure. I supposed I could use the screws that came with it for the rest, but it’s not worth potentially filling the holes with broken screws I won’t be able to get out later.
Once that was in place and the spacer removed, I had three boards to attack to the hinged piece. I used one to work out exactly how I wanted them positioned. The overhang is slightly longer in the front than the back. After marking where it lined up with the frame, I used that to mark the other two boards.
I spent a fair bit of time making sure they were exactly where I wanted them, then screwed them in place.
That left three ends in the back that needed something to keep them from wobbling around when the roof pieces are attached.
Once again, wood lath to the rescue!
The distance from one side to the other is 4′, which is the length of the wood lath. I find the most even piece out of the new bundle I could find, and simply nailed it to the ends of the roof supports.
If you click through to the next photo above, you’ll see what it looks like, open. Instagram doesn’t work with having both portrait and landscape orientation photos in a slide show, so things are a bit cut off in the image. The end of the roof support reaches the rafters!
While the piano hinge would allow for the roof to open all the way flat, the overhang will let it open only so far. Later, I might at something that can be used to hold it propped open, but that can wait.
Last of all, I added another piece of wood lath under the three boards. You can see it in the last photo. I lined it up with the edge of the frame, and then used wood glue to secure it, with the bricks to weight it down as it dries. This piece is to make sure the boards don’t slam right against the frame when it closes. It will eventually be further secured with nails.
The roof panels will not be added until last, though.
From this, I started working on attaching the front door/ramp. After checking how it fit into the opening, I cut a small piece of wood to attach under the horizontal top, as a stopper for the ramp.
It was remarkably difficult to attach this to the underside of the 2×4! Quite awkward, and one of the screws seem to be hitting something harder in the wood.
The next step is to attach the hinges to the door, then to the frame, but that’s when my husband came to the garage to let me know my daughter needed help with the taps. There is no signal in the garage at all, so they couldn’t message me to ask me to come to the house.
Well, at least I got a bit done!
Once the door/ramp is on, and a latch installed, it’ll be time to add the clear panels – which still need to be cut to size! It’s starting to look like we won’t be able to set up the table saw in the sun room, after all, so I’ll need to figure out some other way to cut it. If I can keep it from vibrating too much, I could use a jig saw.
I’ll cut it by hand with the pull saw, if I have to.
Ever since my brother told me this stuff can possibly shatter while being cut, I’ve been incredibly hesitant about using any of the tools we have.
It’s so close to being done, but there have been so many interruptions!
Of course, getting those shut off valves and installing them so we could have running water in the house was most definitely a higher priority!
For those who have been following this blog for a shorter time, I’ll give a bit of a back story.
When we moved into this “perfect” house, at the request of my mother, we of course found all sorts of problems all over the place.
One of those was the hot water leaking in the bath tub. The rust stain below showed this was not a new problem.
When we had septic backing up into the basement (again) a few years ago, we had a plumber come in to auger the floor drains. While he was here, I asked him about the leaking tap. He asked me some questions I couldn’t answer, like whether or not the pipes could be access from the front, of if they had to be accessed from the bedroom on the other side of the wall.
There is no access panel, there.
When my father got running water and an indoor bathroom for the house, in the early 70’s, the bathroom walls were covered with waterproof paneling make to look like tiles.
The tub surround was installed on top of this paneling, with arm bars added later on.
The caulking for the tub surround was coming loose, and we had no idea what the state of the caulking on the fake tile paneling underneath was like.
The plumber gave us an estimate of $400 to replace the taps – he thought he could fix them, but we wanted to replace them – but he told us the tub surround would have to be removed, and that was not something he did, so we would need to be prepared to replace that.
With this information in hand, we got a replacement faucet set with level taps in stead of knob style – something better for arthritic hands.
We also picked up a new tub surround, adhesive and caulking.
Which has all just been sitting there all this time.
After the illegal lockdowns and various economic disasters, I eventually called the plumber to ask for a new estimate, but he never called back. Considering all the hits to our finances recently, from now having payments on the truck, replacing multiple desktop computers, etc., it really didn’t matter much.
Of course, over time, the leak just kept getting worse. The strangest thing was that, if only the cold water tap was turned on, the hot water tap would start leaking!
Well, today, it finally happened.
My daughter was just finishing her shower, went to turn off the hot water, and the tap just kept spinning and spinning!
Which bring us to another problem with the plumbing in this old house.
A severe lack of shut off valves.
To shut the water off for the tub, we had to shut off the water for the entire house.
Once she was able to get out of the shower, my daughter started working on taking off the taps and faucet.
The one with more rust on the inside was the hot water tap.
Click through to the next photo, and you’ll see the inside of the faucet.
The rust and scale I can understand, but cobwebs???
My daughter then had to start tearing off the tub surround, starting with the one behind the taps.
That was a messy and difficult job.
We then learned three things.
First, we would have had to access the taps from the other room to be able to replace them. We might still have to.
That will require almost emptying by husband’s bedroom. The only thing that wouldn’t need to move would be his hospital bed.
Then we’d either have to remove an entire sheet of paneling – which is what I think has been done over the years – or cut an access panel. Either way, it’s going to be a major issue for my husband.
Second, the rot in the fake tile paneling is really bad. I expected it to be bad, but… yuck.
No, I’m not going to post picture of it.
The water damage extends all around the tub, but the other two walls are not as bad as we feared.
Still, we’re going to have to cut off at least the bottom 16″ of the paneling (4 “tiles” high), then see how bad the damage is, behind it.
Third, this is going to take a long time to get fixed. We don’t even know what we’re going to need to do to get it all useable, yet, anyhow.
Meanwhile, the entire house is without water.
That meant a trip to the hardware store for a couple of Shark-bite style shut off valves.
My daughter then spent almost 3 hours installing them, with me as her flashlight holding assistant. It was incredibly awkward, and hard to get at.
Once they were finally installed, we added a sealing tape around each end of the valve, then went over that with electric tape, just to be on the safe side. We had to install a shut off valve in the hot water pipe to the laundry sink, and it now leaks every time we turn it on to use the tap. That on is an actual Shark-bite brand, and one end never gripped properly.
The first image above is the cold water pipe. That one had to be installed directly above the sump pump reservoir, which made reaching it a bit precarious. It was the easier one to install, though!
If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see the hot water pipe, which is just off where it branches to the kitchen and laundry, and next to the pipe that goes up to the toilet tank, and next to the furnace duct…
That pipe didn’t have as much play in it, either, and my daughter ended up having to cut off more pipe just to be able to get it into the valve end.
To top it off, there was all the water to deal with. My daughter did the hot water tap first, and after the first cut, the water just wouldn’t stop flowing! We ended up having to drain the hot water tank and open other taps, and still had to kept lifting the pipe at a bend to try and get more water out of the pipe. The cold water pipe did that, too, but not as much as the hot water pipe!
Needless to say, my daughter was feeling wet and gross by the time it was all done.
The important thing, though, is that they work. We could turn the water back on for the rest of the house!
While my daughter was finally able to leave, I stayed to monitor the refilling of the hot water tank. We couldn’t just turn the valve on all the way, as it would drain the pressure tank faster than the well pump could fill it again, which causes problems for the pump.
Yes, that still needs to be replaced, too.
Every now and then, I’d have to shut the valve off completely and let the pump finish filling the pressure tank before opening it up again, to stop the grinding noise it was making!
After the hot water tank had time to fill for a while, my daughter turned its breaker back on, so it could start heating up, too.
Then we had to run all the taps in the house to get the air out of the pipes.
That will be all we do about the tub for today!
While we figure things out there, we’ll all be sponge bathing for the next while – and I can’t even guess how long it will take for us to be able to use the tub and shower again! I supposed if we are at least able to install the faucet set, we could use the tub to wash in, and make sure not to splash. We just won’t be able to use the shower until this is all done.
*sigh*
It’s a pain, to be sure, but right now, I’m just thankful that the rest of the house has water, and it’s just the tub/shower that’s out of commission! We’ll just have to deal with things as they are.
With all the problems we’ve been having with our plumbing and septic system, we’re doing everything we can to find ways to not just fix them, but to prevent them from happening again.
Once of those things is the use of enzymes, both for the septic tank and for the drain pipes.
The drain pipes are one of our biggest problems. There’s a section that needs to be cleared. We have the commercial drain auger, but access to the pipe is almost directly over the sump pump reservoir and hard to get at, between the mess of pipes around it, and a wall. We will get that done, eventually, but I will be doing it with the help of my brother, when he is available. The alternative is a $300 minimum visit from a plumber so he can use his commercial drain auger, instead… 🫤
Until then, we are doing everything we can to get the drains clear using bacteria and enzyme products. Since I had to go to the town north of us to pick up kibble at the feed store anyhow, I went to the hardware store there that carries a produce we’ve been using quite a bit.
After looking over their display, though, I decided to try something different.
One of them is specifically for the septic tank, so we won’t use that until after we get the tank emptied for the winter, which is a call I need to make today.
Looking at the instructions for the other one, I decided it was worth trying. It is to be used in stages, starting from the pipes closest to the septic tank. Which would be the accept pipe in the floor, right next to the pump. That’s where I’ve already been having to shove a hose through on a regular basis, to clear what feels like two bottlenecks between the opening and the tank.
The next closest would be the bathroom. Tub, toilet and sink are all really close to each other, so any one of them can be used to apply the product.
After that, it’s the drain for the laundry, and finally, the kitchen sink.
We really need to get things cleared up. We’re still draining our washing machine through a pipe running out the storm door window and into the lawn. When a large amount of water drains out of the kitchen sink, like draining a sink full of wash water, we can hear the water gurgling and backing up to the drain pipe for the laundry, with is just a few feet away. The pipe from the kitchen to the corner of the basement has already been cleared by a plumber. It’s the rest of the pipe, from the corner of the basement to where it goes through to the septic tank, that hasn’t been done yet, and that’s the one that needs to be worked on the most until we can get it augered.
We also have to consider the pipe from septic pump to the ejector, out by the barn.
Which still needs to be repaired.
Another call I need to make today!
While at the hardware store, I asked about a septic pump. With all the problems we’ve been having, and with how often it’s been running dry, it’s going to wear out. It already sounds wrong, but at least it’s working. I’ve been searching online to find out where we can buy one, and I’m even saving my Canadian Tire dollars towards the cost of one – but have had no luck. Any searches bring up septic pumps that are designed to be installed in the tank itself. Ours is in the basement.
It turns out, they are marketed as utility pumps, though when he was looking through his computer, he ended up having to search under sump pumps, which is something else entirely. The hardware store does carry them, but none were in stock that I could see. He was able to give me a printout, though.
As for the price, it turned out to be pretty much what I was expecting. $500
A quick search at Canadian Tire, though, and it seems they don’t carry the type of pump I need. The closest they have is a transfer pump for irrigation. It’s designed to pump water from a pond, creek or lake into an irrigation system. My sister has one of those her husband set up to water their garden from the creek their home is next to. I suppose, technically, it would do the job, but that’s not what it’s designed for.
So… we’ll have to come up with $500 over the next while, so we can pick up a “spare” before the current pump wears out!
Until then, we will be going everything we can to keep the system maintained as best we can, starting with using these new-to-us products.
All the areas needing mesh were done, with the mesh first tacked on with staples. For the short sides, I started securing the mesh with wood lath across the bottoms. I then spent a bit of time working out how best to start framing for the clear panels that will be sliding doors, while further securing the mesh on the bottom half.
The clear panel, which still needs to be cut to the sizes I need, is a quarter inch thick. The wood lath is also a quarter inch thick, though individual pieces have variations in width, so that will work out perfectly for sliding channels.
For this side, I added long, vertical pieces of wood that would both secure the wire mesh on the bottom, while also starting to form a frame around the opening that the clear plastic will be covering. This is so that the panel will slide towards the back, over the section that’s insulated and covered.
If you click through to the next photo, though, you’ll see my problem on this side.
The floor boards were placed flush with the edge on the other side. A couple of boards were slightly longer. When covering the section on this side, I took advantage of that and rested the first piece of wood lath right on top of the parts that stuck out, then worked my way up.
There was no way a door panel could slide across with those there. Mostly, it was the one piece that stuck out the furthest, but a second piece had to be dealt with, too.
Thankfully, I have a pull saw with a very thin and flexible blade – a Bear Saw, which I think is a model, not a brand. You can see how flexible the blade is in the next photo of the slideshow. I was able to saw off the parts that stuck out, then use a rasp to take off any bits that were left.
In the last photo, you can see the rest of the framing in place. Some of this will be hidden from view when the sliding channels are complete.
For the sliding door’s channel, I will need to set pieces across the top and bottom, positioned so they will be flush with the panel. I’ll need to find the thickest and straightest pieces for this part!
I am pretty sure I’ll need to add more framing pieces, but I won’t be positive until I have the panels as a guide.
I’ll probably give a bit of extra space for the panel at the top, so it’s not too snug – but not too much space, or it’ll wobble when being opened and closed. Once those pieces are fixed in place – and I’m sure the panel can slide over the covered and insulated section unobstructed – two more vertical pieces will be added that will overlap the top and bottom of the panel, holding it in place.
If we need to remove the panel for some reason, it can be slid right out one end.
The mesh for this section was just a square, but I made sure not to secure it too high. There needs to be enough space for the clear panel that will cover the front of the top level to have the overlap it needs to be screwed in place.
The covered section is over the opening to the second level, so there are no floor boards at the bottom. The bottom piece of wood covering the insulation was lined up with the horizontal frame piece, which made the whole thing slightly lower than the cover on the other side. That gave me room to put a long piece of wood lath across the top as well as the bottom. The rest was done pretty much the same as the other side.
That was it for today. Tomorrow, we need to get the table saw set up so we can cut the clear panel pieces.
Once the clear panels are in place, the door/ramp on the bottom will be installed. Last of all, the roof will be assembled. I have some handles I can add to the sides to make it easier to move it around, too. They were meant for something else, but are needed here, more.
After that, it’s done until we can pick up more paint! With or without paint, though, we can bring it over to the house and set it where the cats can start checking it out and getting used to it.
We’ll need to pick up more heat lamps so that we can have one to set up inside the upper level of the isolation shelter during the winter. Even with insulated walls, the plastic room and clear panels have no insulation. They may be good for passive solar heat during the day, but not very good at night!
I just checked online and the lamps I had in my wishlist are on sale right now, so I’ve just ordered a pair of clamp lamps and a pair of ceramic heat bulbs. I think we still have a timer laying around, too. If it has a light sensor, we can set it up like the one in the cat shelter, so that it will automatically turn the heat on at dusk, then off during the day.
Hopefully, the cats will get to enjoy the shelter soon. Especially the ladies we’re building it for, and their post trap and spay recovery period!
The Re-Farmer 