Days 15 and 16: Plumbing Fun

Above, a closeup of the gas pipe that runs from our house to the guest house. It looks pretty corroded, and even though I don't smell gas or hear a hissing noise coming from it, I'm really not a big fan of keeping this under our new addition. (As referenced in the last post.)

Our usual plumber, Tom, came by late Tuesday night to give us an estimate: $1200. Yikes -- that's more than our construction plumber. Tom also said he didn't think our construction plumber was doing a good job, and pointed out some problems.

That didn't make me happy. I called up Contractor Menny and told him I wasn't happy with the plumbing. I also talked to plumber Angel the next day, and he explained some of the issues: Some things were temporary, and others were necessary for our home. Menny told me Angel was his best plumber; I finally decided to let things continue. If there's a big problem, let's hope the city inspector will find it.

In the meantime, I also haggled Angel down to $700 to replace the gas pipe. Actually, it was pretty easy to talk him down to $700; I should have tried $500. But after Tom's huge $1200 quote, I felt like $700 was suddenly a deal.

So for those of you playing at home, we've now added $5700 to our initial $90,000 job. Let's hope the insanity ends there. Of course, if you go by the yardstick that all projects go over by 20%, we still have a long way to go to $18,000. But that ain't gonna happen; we don't have that money!

Meanwhile, plumbing continues. The workers need to connect a new water pipe to the guest house, and also a sewage pipe from the guest house (or at least, from the clay pipe that still exists) to the main sewage line. Prep for the foundation also continues.

Some shots from Thursday morning:


The trench behind the house


The garage, as it slowly morphs from one car to two


The backyard