Day 5: Almost Cold Water

One thing I forgot to mention about what I did after yesterday's AT&T fiasco (other than getting to eat Moons Over My Hammy) was that I found someone to take that horrible hot water heater off my hands.

When I first visited the park where my trailer is located, there were about six or seven units that had been abandoned, were structurally unsound to the point of being dangerous, and would have cost more to make habitable again than they'd ever be worth. Between the time I signed my lease and the day I moved in, park management had decided (or, more likely, been forced by some higher authority) to have these trailers demolished and their remains sold for salvage or carted off to the local dump.

My friend, Rod, standing in front of one of the more structurally unsound trailers that were still sitting in the park on the day of my first visit - the two trailers in the background were also slated for demolition.

My first official day in the trailer, the crew had just started demolition on the third to last unit destined to meet such a fate. Yesterday, they were in the process of finishing that job. So, after the AT&T guy left, I just walked down to where they were working, and asked if anyone would be interested in taking this brand spankin' new 40 gallon, 240v hot water off my hands - no charge - just had to get it out of the trailer and off my property by the end of the day.

In retrospect, I think I was probably taking out a little of my anger at AT&T on the hot water heater I hated so much, but I found a taker and the water heater was whisked away never to be seen by me again.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that, on an equally vindictive whim, I ordered a faucet for my kitchen sink from the local hardware store. Vindictive because, even at just $35, I knew I couldn't actually afford it, and would probably end up having to go without coffee for a couple of weeks if I bought it. But I bought it anyway, and walked out of the hardware store thinking it was probably worth no coffee to have a faucet that was manufactured specifically for my kind of sink with all its special parts included.

The faucet will arrive at 4pm today, and I'd really like to get the cold water intakes plumbed so I can hook it up once I make the run into town to pick the thing up.

As far as the plumbing game goes, this level was a total no-brainer. I had all the right parts. I'd borrowed this really cool tool from my brother-in-law, Dave, that looks like a big pair of pruning shears but, instead of branches, this thing is designed specifically to cut pvc/cpvc pipe. Took me about five minutes to figure out how to use it, and, man oh man, I totally fell in love with it. Put the pipe in, set your blade to where you want the cut, squeeze hard til it clicks, then again til it clicks, then one or two more times, and you're done. Precise, clean cuts with very little effort. My kind of tool.

I started at the toilet with the tank line connector/shut off valve assembly. Did the same on the opposite side of the same wall for the kitchen sink. Connected them with a tee to a single length of cpvc. Ran that to an elbow, another length of pipe, another elbow, another length of pipe, and out to connect to the cold water main valve at the back corner of my trailer.

Using a plastic female part to connect to a metal male part is always going to give you problems. The metal is stronger than the plastic, so if you don't thread it exactly right, you're going to end up stripping out the female end. The advice I got was to use lots of teflon tape, go slow, "feel" for the right connection before you do any hard twisting. twist just enough to fully seal the connection, and no more.

Worked for me. Three hours after I started, I had cold water running into my toilet tank with no leaks there or anywhere else in the line.

With a couple of hours left to kill before I could pick up my kitchen sink faucet, I decided to take care of some of the other small plumbing tasks that were on my list. I connected the shower drain to the main septic line, and caulked the seam where it joined the shower pan. While under the trailer, I noticed that the line draining the toilet had developed a drip, and discovered that I'd somehow not primed/cemented one of my joints. It was a tight join in an awkward spot, and took over an hour to wrangle into place. Outside, I added another six foot length of pipe, with straps, to my septic vent to take it over the top of my roofline. Then, with twenty minutes to go, I pulled the few screws holding from the very back aluminum siding panel very wonkily in place, reseated it in its corner channel, smoothed it out, and screwed it back onto the frame.

It took me longer to run into town to pick up my sink faucet than it did for me to install it. It fit perfectly. It had all the right parts. It works, and it looks great.

The water coming out of the tap, however, is definitely not cold. Now this was something I'd noticed when I used the hose, but I'd just assumed that's because the hose was laying in the sun and I wasn't running the water long enough to get it really cold. Wrong. The water never gets really cold. No matter how long you let it run. In the middle of the day, it actually comes out hot enough, long enough, to fill the sink with enough warm water to do dishes. I have no idea why this happens. I'm assuming it's because the mains are buried so close to the surface here that they pick up the radiant heat from the sun all day. Guess I'll find out whether or not I'm right when winter comes.

For now, the fact that it isn't cold made for the single best, most wonderful shower I've ever had in my life. Brought my hose in through a window, snaked it into the bathroom, hung it over the shower curtain rod, and attached my spray nozzle. Went outside, and turned it on. Came back inside, stripped, got into the shower, turned the nozzle on, and spent 20 glorious minutes standing under the lukewarm water getting fabulously, wonderfully, luxuriously cleaner than I've been in a week.

Clean me, clean sheets, warm night, soft breeze redolent with the scent of sage, and a big open sky full of stars. 

I am really starting to love this place.