Plumbing Is Not Our Strong Suit

While I've been away from All Features Great & Small these past couple of months, we haven't been idle. Between a fabulous trip to Japan, December craziness, and Christmas, we've done some pretty exciting work in the dining room AND we've finally gotten underway on the guest bathroom project! But this is about our ridiculous lack of plumbing skills...

Last Monday, the plumber came over and moved around a few of the pipes in the bathroom and also capped off the pipes that we no longer needed. We went from this:

To this!

I guess it doesn't look like much, but it's one more step forward and it's wonderful to us!

This is the point at which we determined once and for all that plumbing is definitely not our strong suit. The plumber was coming back on Wednesday to hook up the radiator in our new master bathroom (it's been disconnected since that big renovation, and the toilet seat was like sitting on a block of ice). We thought we'd be super organized and helpful by draining the radiators on Wednesday morning (okay, we were actually being cheap-o and doing it ourselves so that we weren't paying him to sit at the house while the system drained). Anyway, Tuesday night we planned to hook up the hose to the furnace, and all we'd have to do Wednesday morning was turn the knob and let it drain. Simple, right? Except that the hose hook up is allll the way at the back of the utility closet. After a 30 minute game of Twister played by me, Ryan, hot pipes, the water heater, the furnace, and a pair of long-handled pliers, we finally got the hose attached. Success! And just then, one of us (it was Ryan) knocked the pressure release valve. Uh-oh. Within seconds, the  heating system was depressurized and the emergency valve released a stream of the most foul smelling radiator water on earth, which promptly flooded the electrics of our hot water heater and the kitchen floor.

Now, not only did we not have heat or hot water, but the water that was released from the radiator system smelled so horrifically bad that we had to open the door to the outside and blow a fan into the kitchen. Did I mention that we also managed to do this on the coldest day of the winter so far? Yes, it was cold outside, approximately 17° F.

But all's well that ends well. Despite it being only 40° in the house the next day, the plumber was able to hook up the radiator, repressurize the system, and fix our hot water heater. And I think he must have done some kind of secret voodoo plumber dance in the kitchen, because the stinky swamp water smell was gone too! All I can say is, lesson learned. We'll leave plumbing to the big boys from now on.