There is a great satisfaction you get when you finish a project.  With the size of the basement remodel project, we get to enjoy many small victories, but the major finish is still a long way off.  Also, now with the basement project underway, other projects we’ve been putting off seem small and trivial in comparison.  Thus we decided to jump in and attack the hall closet and turn it into a pantry.  Within 24 hours of the outset, we finished the project.  This victory goes to Kathryn for her amazing planning and execution.  Now we have officially refinished the entire main floor and bonus room.

Next up, replumbing the house.  After a lot of planning and a lot of acquiring parts and supplies, we kicked off the official house replumbing phase.  Kevin came over and spent the whole day helping us.  THANK YOU!

First step, turn off the water main.

Family picture by the main distribution point.  It looks especially cluttered with the pex lines we ran to the kitchen sink on Kathryn’s birthday eve that are hooked in temporarily.  Also there are the new lines to the water heater waiting to be hooked in.

Kevin wielding the new DeWalt saw.  It was a very good purchase and saved us hours and hours of hack sawing.

Starting to come out.  Lots of the lines are out and we’re working on breaking the main water entry point loose.

Success!  Now it’s time to start rebuilding.  Time is ticking away and we’re working as fast as we can in order to turn the water to the house back on.  It’s kind of weird going an entire day with no running water and only buckets.

Water is back on around 7:30 pm!  No leaks!   Overall, we were only a couple of parts short and Kathryn was able to get them for us while we kept working away.

It looks so much better, and the risk of scalding or freezing is much reduced when taking a shower and water gets turned on somewhere else in the house.  Also, some of those old pipes were pretty nasty on the inside.  We might have to start taking extra vitamin pills now.

Notice the bandaid on my head.  I was working on removing a pipe union when the crescent wrench slipped off the pipe with and whacked me straight in the forehead.  Ouch!