Meet Mr. Stack

I think I have written before on this blog that the progress of housebuilding compares to watching kids grow. Your friend's kids (and house) seem to grow faster than you can keep up with, while your own develop at a varying pace which seems to oscillate between extremes of molasses-slow and then "holy wah, look at 'em go." This plumbing phase has been pretty close to the molasses edge. Maybe molasses in July. It has been a fun puzzle, just a little more time-consuming than anticipated.

Anyway the drain pipes are almost all cut and in place. My wish is that someone more experienced will come look at them before they get welded together. I think this guy with the Dodgers hat on is what they call a soil stack: where all the drains come together. There will be a vent pipe coming out the top of his head and continuing through the roof.


These pipes are to the drains in the second bathroom.











We're out of town this weekend in Ann Arbor visiting friends and relatives and playing a little music. It's always nice to go south in April and experience Spring a few weeks ahead of the UP. It's tulips and lilacs already down here. We're having a nourishing time and an excellent break from the routine. Lord knows it will be nice to be back to it again, but I don't know that yet. I got a few more days.

I think I finally have the wastewater drain system figured out. It was a lot more puzzling than I thought. There are a lot of rules to follow: pipe size, type of fitting, vents can't run horizontal until they're higher than the flood level of the highest fixture they serve, and on and on. But they're all for a reason and I'm glad I'm not just winging it and having tons of problems down the road.

The second bathroom is just about roughed-in now, and that was the hard one. Lots of drilling big holes in framing. In fact I burned out the gears in my neighbor's right angle drill, and have to go shopping for a replacement tomorrow (so I can borrow it some more). It was a cheap one, and maybe I should have known not to push it so hard, but hey.



Here is a sketch of what pipes are going where.


We have a general plan of what to do before we move in that puts us moving in at the end of the year, maybe before the snow.

Here's an abbreviation of that plan:
April-Rough Plumbing
May-Rough Electrical
June-Insulation and siding
July, August, September-Drywall and paint
October-firewood, chimney and stove
November-bathroom floor and some kitchen finishing.


Spring came early this year, but as usual it's an in-between time when you don't know what to expect. A wet snow caught these daffodils by surprise. People around here are gradually giving up on another heavy snow storm.