I Only Have Eyes for Glue
Yesterday was lost to a combination of rainy weather and a high fever, but today dawned clear, and I was able to get back to work.
On Wednesday night, Noel cut a couple of larger holes through the plywood for me to run the pipes through. With these holes, we can pull out the pipes if that is needed when the siding is being put back on, because the union ends will fit through them.
Today's work was fairly straightforward. I connected the tank to the pump first, because I had all the pieces for that. Of course, that involved lengthening one pipe I'd mis-measured, so I took a quick run to Pagano's and picked up a 1 1/4" connector (I already had one). While I was there I got the hose we're going to use to connect to the sump pump.
In the afternoon, the mail brought my 22 1/2-degree elbow from plumbingsupply.com, so I was able to make that connection as well, which was when I noticed that the route I'd planned to bring the sump water through didn't make any sense and would not work at all. I had to completely replan it, using the pieces I already had.
For some reason I forgot that when you have a union on a pipe, you can rotate it as much as you need to, so in the middle of the day I went and got another 1 1/4" connector at Pagano's so I could rotate one piece of the sump connector pipe to fit the new plan. I know at the time I sort of half-jokingly thought I should get two because I was already making my second trip there, but I didn't. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if I did. "Can you believe," I said to the girl at the checkout, "that I actually planned this project?"
I got home, remembered the thing about unions, and even had a great moment when I was setting aside some connectors to be returned to the store and making a list of connectors I needed that was almost identical to the connectors I was planning to return.... My fever was pretty much gone but clearly I was not firing on all cylinders.
And there you go: end of the day, all done except one connector -- and yes, this is another place where the pipe didn't fit, but in this case because the rerouting I did required it to be a little longer than the original path.
Fortunately, Pagano's is open until 6pm, so the new piece was quickly obtained (I was very thankful that the girl who had checked me out the previous two times was on her break) and glued in place.
And here's the inside view. The pipe coming in on top and sloping down to the right comes from the sump; I'd originally planned to run it across on the ceiling, but the indoor manifold was in the way of that, also there's a funky beam in the middle of the space for Noel's fantasy staircase.
posted by ayse on 01/14/11