Helen's House Update

 If you have been following this blog for the last 10 years then you will know just how much I hate plumbing. Well, we had some plumbing problems with Helen's House. If you used the upstairs sink the bathtub would fill with water and then slowly leak through the ceiling in the parlor below. Drainage was slow and there was no water pressure throughout the house. The upstairs bathroom was installed in 1940. Unfortunately for me they used iron black pipe for some of the drainage lines and the joint fittings instead of galvanized pipe. So I had to get on a ladder and remove some ceiling tiles to expose these pre-existing holes. 

 I looked at these holes for several weeks before finally compelling myself to shut off the water and tackle the problem. I also started updating the upstairs bathroom at the same time. I had to borrow a pipe cutter because when I tried to remove sections of pipe with a pipe wrench they just shattered and here is a picture showing why the tub filled with water when draining the sink and also why the draining was extremely slow. The 3" and 4" iron pipes were in decent condition but anything less was all like this.

 I made certain to get all this done and the shower installed upstairs before having the water line replaced by a real genuine plumbing contractor. There are some jobs I can not do myself. (There, I said it!)
The water meter had to be moved to the front yard per City regulations and I even got a section of the drain replaced with PVC and an outside cleanout!

All this was going on in August and September so this isn't a new story but the good news is that now it is done I had to cover up those holes in the ceiling. Here is what the chandelier looked like before plumbing fix.

Here is what it looks like today!

So now I can add installing a tin ceiling by hand (using a hammer and cone head nails) to my list of accomplishments .......