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I was cleaning out the basement of the duplex. When we moved into the new house, I didn't really bring anything over from the old house. Some of it was tools which I needed there, and the rest of it was just crap which I didn't need here. So I left it. Now I need to clear it out.
I was leaning up against the washing machine, pondering the work that all the former owners had done to the place over the years. All of the latest remodeling projects were done by the previous owner, and were best described as half-assed. Okay, that's a little unfair - I'm sure the guy was quite happy with his work. It was just... not... as nice as... it could have been. Adhesive vinyl floor tiles... on the wall. You know. Anyway, I was looking up at the maze of electrical wiring, and worrying about how the prospective buyer might view it. And also remembering what the plumbing used to look like down there. It ran everywhere. There were many side branches that were capped off, many shutoff valves leading to other shutoff valves, and all the lines were twice as long as they needed to be. I was thinking, what were they thinking?.
And I heard a noise.
I heard the drumming of water on plastic sheeting. I paused for a moment, wondering if it really was water or if it was simply the plastic settling, or maybe it was an animal just outside the window. I decided it was water, and ran upstairs to where I had just used the bathroom, expecting to see water everywhere. There was none. The shower hadn't dripped. The toilet hadn't leaked or overflowed. The leaky shutoff valve had not overflowed its bucket. Everything was dry. So I went back down to where the water had fallen. It was directly under the toilet. I felt all around the pipe, and there was no water. Nothing was wet. Not the main drain, not the wood subflooring around it, not the supply line, not the drain pipes leading into the big cast iron - nothing. I have no idea where the water came from.
I realize that when I had been internally badmouthing the guys who had done all that work, decades ago, I was being a little unfair. There really wasn't anything wrong with that plumbing. It wasn't optimum, but it certainly worked. There is a certain wisdom in not redoing everything you've got whenever you want to add or remove a line.
I was leaning up against the washing machine, pondering the work that all the former owners had done to the place over the years. All of the latest remodeling projects were done by the previous owner, and were best described as half-assed. Okay, that's a little unfair - I'm sure the guy was quite happy with his work. It was just... not... as nice as... it could have been. Adhesive vinyl floor tiles... on the wall. You know. Anyway, I was looking up at the maze of electrical wiring, and worrying about how the prospective buyer might view it. And also remembering what the plumbing used to look like down there. It ran everywhere. There were many side branches that were capped off, many shutoff valves leading to other shutoff valves, and all the lines were twice as long as they needed to be. I was thinking, what were they thinking?.
And I heard a noise.
I heard the drumming of water on plastic sheeting. I paused for a moment, wondering if it really was water or if it was simply the plastic settling, or maybe it was an animal just outside the window. I decided it was water, and ran upstairs to where I had just used the bathroom, expecting to see water everywhere. There was none. The shower hadn't dripped. The toilet hadn't leaked or overflowed. The leaky shutoff valve had not overflowed its bucket. Everything was dry. So I went back down to where the water had fallen. It was directly under the toilet. I felt all around the pipe, and there was no water. Nothing was wet. Not the main drain, not the wood subflooring around it, not the supply line, not the drain pipes leading into the big cast iron - nothing. I have no idea where the water came from.
I realize that when I had been internally badmouthing the guys who had done all that work, decades ago, I was being a little unfair. There really wasn't anything wrong with that plumbing. It wasn't optimum, but it certainly worked. There is a certain wisdom in not redoing everything you've got whenever you want to add or remove a line.
