Initial plumbing

The first order of business was to have the water turned on and see how bad the plumbing was going to be. Initial visual inspection suggested a few braze joints that would need to be replaced. There was also an old water softener and humidifier system plumbed into the main water loop that I planned on removing. Stupidly, I waited to do repairs on the water system until after the water had been turned on. Instead I installed the stove:

 

These are gas pipe fittings. The white stuff is a paste used to seal gas connections.

 

I used soapy water to verify that my work had no leaks. If after coating the connections in the soap solution bubbles had appeared, I would have known there was a leak.

OH LOOK! SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC SELFIE AND CHILD LABOR ENTHUSIASM PHOTOS:

 

 

 OH...about that turning the water on thing: Did you know that if the valve on the street-side of the home doesn't work, it's not the water company's responsibility to fix? It's yours. I did not know this and it just so happened my street-side valve didn't work. I had to have the water company come back out and shut off the water at the street while I put in a new shutoff on my side of the meter. 

Once that was fixed I was able to replace a few valves and remove a couple useless loops. The humidifier and softener went, as well as a burst pipe that ran under my back deck to a spigot. Yes, 12' of exposed copper water pipe in Northern Ohio is a brilliant idea. I don't care how good you are at draining your system, that shit isn't going to last. Oh, I also tore out and capped the lines for the obligatory creepy Cleveland basement shower.

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Ah, pluming that happens when you let stupid people have tools:

Someone had joined the copper drain pipe from the kitchen to the PVC floor pipe in a manner that pushed up on that black pipe. That black pipe is a gas line. The weight of the heavy black gas pipe caused the PVC pipe to crack. 

 

So I cut that crap out:

 

 

...and I rebuilt my own using new PVC:

 

 

 To stop the whole 'pushing up on heavy gas pipe and fucking shit up' thing, I hacked out a few inches of copper pipe. By hand. Overhead. With a hacksaw. 

YES...I have a reciprocating saw. I also have fucking common sense and know not to saw on a poorly supported metal pipe at and awkward, overhead, angle with a power saw. There was really no simple way to use a power saw to cut this thing. I could have purchased a special clamp for my saw, but since I will probably only ever saw a fat copper pipe once in my life, I chose to just man-the-proverbial-fuck-up and hacksaw it out. I like my fingers and face as-is, thanks. 

 

OH LOOK...they don't touch. Gee, that was hard. (/sarcasm)

Still leak-free, too. Go me!