Happy Mother’s Day

The dogwood comes out a creamy-buttery color than changes to a pink center, and a lot of rock-roses are blooming.
I have been weeding the big ugly stalks out in the Prairie by hand, and filled six yard-waste bags with waist-tall weeds!m More mowing will commence when the sun returns.IMG_0609xDogwoods
IMG_0611xPinkDogwood
IMG_0606xRockRose
It’s been a busy week with me helping Bill-the-Plumber install 1.) a new water heater to replace the sixteen-year old one, 2.) fixing the heater’s flue-thru-the-roof 3.) setting a new toilet, and 4.) hooking-up a re-circulation pump so that we now have nearly instant hot-water everywhere, instead of waiting (and wasting) for 60-feet and a couple gallons of cold water to exit the pipes!
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Over the weekend I picked-up a new toilet for the hall-bath to match the Master-Bath. It’s a long-oval shape and “comfort height,” and I swapped the new oiled-bronze handle to it.
On Tuesday Bill braised-in the pump to the copper lines and wired it to a wall-outlet running through a piece of conduit. He also helped me by cutting back a big old clean-out that was sticking out of the garage-wall about a foot, so now the washer-and dryer can be pushed-back up to the wall instead of standing-out so far into the garage — and we set the new toilet.
Wednesday we drilled through the foundation-sill and came out underneath the floor joists, and ran “Pex” tubing to the far-distant hot-water faucet to complete the re-circulation circuit. The Pex had to be insulated with foam first, and then the copper was cut and a t-junction braised-in with a fitting for the Pex, and finally we strapped the Pex up the the floor joists…
Bon Fromage!

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The semi-sprawling adventures of blah-blah-blah...

8 thoughts on “Happy Mother’s Day”

  1. I like the idea of recirculating the hot water. Still, I wonder if it might be less costly to put a small water heater under the sink. Many years ago, I worked in a shop that put one in their little restroom. That water only had to travel a foot at most. very nice for washing hands, or for hot tea.
    House I live in takes a couple minutes to get hot water to most of the faucets. Stupid design. Built in the 70’s, back when the gas and water didn’t cost but pennies. In the late 70’s, I lived in a house in S’vale that was built in ’65, with NO insulation, and LOTS of floor-to-ceiling single pane glass. Cost about $400/month just to heat the place.

    Last month in your bathroom post, someone mentioned caulking the toilet base. This is generally a bad idea. The potential problem is that you won’t get immediate notice of a leak in the wax ring. The first evidence will be damage to the floor structure, or ceiling of the below rooms, if a multi-story structure. Some people like to split the difference, and not caulk the very back of the base, but this gives a false of security, since there may not be a pathway from the front to that area, due to webbing and/or the wax ring dividing that volume into sections.
    If the floor gets flooded regularly from other sources, then it may make sense to caulk.

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    • The sink was not the problem so much as the shower, and there’s no space under the sink or power (or a gas line). I didn’t want to go “tankless” and the re-circ pump really has been a wonderful benefit. I needed a new hot-water heater anyhow and the addition of the pump done T&M (with time & materials) wasn’t that painful or costly.
      My plumber-friend does toilet caulk just on the front so that a leak out the back would be noticed if the wax ring failed, and he always uses TWO wax rings…

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  4. Your dogwood is beautiful. Mine has been struggling but did well this year.
    Dad’s house has instant hot water at the kitchen sink and I’m now spoiled because of it. So much easier to make coffee in the french press when I don’t have to heat water on the stove. Slowly replacing appliances, would like to change the glass top stove for a gas cook top. I pretty much hate that glass thing, it so limits the type of pots & pans I can use.

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    • It’s not a “tank-less” set up because we have good water that doesn’t erode the anodes in the tank, and I value having a backup supply. My buddy up the hill fell victim to trendiness and demanded a tankless thing – and then futzed with it trying to find “perfection” and blew the gd warranty. Asshole. But friend.
      Gas (or propane) cook-tops are a necessity, I can’t cook on electricity anymore – especially with the on-and-off “energy saving” circuit bullshi*t they stuff into that nowadays, it’s a stupid ecoweenie virtue-signaling waste of time and money. Thank you for letting me vent.

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