Back in the February-ish time-frame, the washing machine in my home decided it wanted to retire, so we replaced it. But when I connected the new washer to the 1954-vinitage pipes, the shut-off valves began to leak.
Badly.
Thinking I should be able to handle the job myself, I headed over to the local home improvement warehouse and picked up some parts.
But, it didn't take long to realize that I had a much larger job on my hands, and that it would probably be a better idea to have someone more knowledgable with plumbing than only myself. However, the wife didn't like the idea of hiring a plumber; she's begun to develop her father's miserly ways as she ages. (She loves her plat more than anything...)
So, at the time, her decision was to let the leaky valves be until and unless they proved to be a larger issue than they appeared to be.
Fast-forward six months...
"Have you seen this quarter's water bill?"
"No. Is it bad?"
"It's 40 plat more than it normally is."
"Wow! That's a lot"
"Yeah, especially since we haven't been doing any extra watering; anyone looking at our lawn can tell that."
"Y'know... I'll bet it's that leaky valve in the laundry room."
"You don't really think it leaks *that* much, do you!?!"
"Let's go take a look..."
...
[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]
"Yeah, I'd say it leaks *that* much."
[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]
"You have one week to get it fixed."
[drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, ...]
...
Thankfully, Belzur knows a thing or two about plumbing in the real world. Which is why I asked for his assistance. I realized the threaded parts I'd purchased probably weren't up to the task, but that I didn't know how to sweat pipe to fix it the way it needed to be.
...And that calling a licensed plumber out of the yellow pages would likely cost me several hundred plat more than my wife was willing to part with.
But, again, that's why I called Belzur.
Now, I have to tell you that I was a little intimidated by the task of sweating pipe, but I quickly realized it was the best solution to the problem at hand. It also gave me the opportunity to install some shut-off valves in the supply lines so I could isolate the branch of pipes in the laundry room from the rest of the house, without having to shut off the supply to the rest of the house.
Did I mention the fact that any time I'd hinted to my wife that I'd need to shut off the water to the house made her feel as though she needed to pee?
Ah, yes... the psychology of needing to do something you can't...
Truth be known, I was a bit concerned about shutting off the main supply to the house, as the original shut-off valve is still in-place. Fortunately, when we bought the house, the city required the selling owner to add a new meter to the system. More fortunately for me, when they added the meter, the plumber doing the job added a new main shut-off valve, meaning I didn't have to mess with something that might mean having to have someone from the city come out on the weekend to shut off the water at the street.
Thanks to Belzur, though, this little problem of a leaky valve provided me with an opportunity to fix something else, too... the faucet to the landry tub. Although it didn't leak like the valve for the washer, it dripped unless you used a crow-bar to shut it off. And, also being of 1954, it was extremely difficult to operate without said crow-bar.
Particularly since the faucet is on the same branch as the valves for the washer connection, but that you couldn't work on either without shutting off the water to the entire house. Which explains why I decided I needed to add branch shut-off valves.
Funny how a relatively simple project turned into something more elaborate. But, it was one of those things where you really only want to fix it once, rather than continuing to patch things together.
And the wife already made me promise "no jury-rigging."
She clearly wanted a water-tight solution, if you catch my meaning.
Well, Belzur arrived nice and early on Saturday, even though we'd been out kinda late, digging up trouble in Stormreach the night before. Once he'd arrived, we made a trip back over to the home improvement warehouse to return the parts I'd previously purchased and exchanged them for the small truck-load of parts we figured we'd need to do the job right.
Except that we hadn't been able to find a replacement faucet.
Which meant a trip to another home improvement warehouse.
Which also did not have the replacement faucet.
Which meant a trip to a *real* hardware store. One of those old-fashioned, neighborhood hardware stores you used to be able to find before the advent of the big-box warehouses.
And, we finally found what we were looking for.
Once we were back at the house, we started laying out all the parts and began the process of measuring things up.
*I* wanted to cut and pre-assemble all of the parts, but I quickly discovered why Belzur chose to custom cut and fit each part as we went along. Especially in light of the 1954 vintage of the house and it's associated plumbing. And, in the end, it proved to the best decision, even though achieving the right fit was a touch more challenging, it was perfect.
More importantly, once we'd finished and tested the new system under pressure, we found only one minor leak, which we corrected with a brief touch of the torch.
All said and done, and no leaks that we could find, Belzur headed home, and I did a quick clean-up of the laundry room.
Of course, it couldn't have been as simple as calling the whole thing done at that point.
Both Belzur and I had decided it would be a good idea to run the washer through an empty load, to be sure all of the left-over flux and solder had been cleared through the line, and wouldn't end up ruining a load of laundry.
If you hadn't guessed, I let this wait until after dinner, after Belzur had already headed home.
Now, while the empty load was running, I would periodically go down to the laundry room to check that everything was still in good order. After all, the constant changes in pressure on the pipes while the washer runs could reveal something we'd missed. But, after the first two checks, I decided I wanted to log into the game for a little recreation.
I hadn't been in-game long, with both Stonehands and Belzur, when I heard a funny noise. So, I excused myself for a moment and went downstairs to find out what was going on.
I had no sooner opened the door and turned on the light when I discovered a river of water running to the floor drain at my feet.
Thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!
I looked around, but didn't see any leaks from the newly installed pipes. Instead, it sounded like water was overflowing from the tub in the washer, as the washer was still running. I quickly reached over and cut the supply using the newly installed shut-off valves, but the water kept coming. It took me a few more minutes to determine that the washer's discharge hose had come loose and fallen free of its gravity connection with the drain, fallen behind the washer and, during the rinse cycle, began to discharge rinse water across the floor of the laundry room, creating the river I encountered.
So, I shut off the washer, called the wife down to assist me, fixed the hose and helped the remaining water find its way to the floor drain.
Again, thank the Sovereigns for floor drains!
Only then did I manage to find my way back up to my computer to re-join Stonehands and Belzur for a little time in Stormreach.
Funny, though, that once I'd returned to my keyboard, they asked me what I wanted to run. They had a good laugh when I said "nothing involving any pipes or plumbing!"
I think it's time for my lower-level characters to spend some time in some of the outdoor adventure areas. Time away from sewer tunnels and slimes and such...
Keep it fun!
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