Janet Wanted to Know . . . the Rest of the Story!!

So, at the end of a lonnnnng, exhausting Saturday, we still had no water but both Kelly and I know more about how a well works and all it little parts than most people on the whole planet!!

We rested on Sunday and then Monday morning, back out to see if we could figure out the problem.  There just HAD to be a solution!!

First, we had to add air to the pressure tank to make it it was working.  Still nothing!!  Then we pulled the pressure tank out, emptied the little water that was in there.  Re-attached it, added more air to right amount.  Still nothing!!

Then, I thought, ya know, that pressure switch looks a little wonky, so I put in a new switch.  Nothing!!

Then we finally admitted defeat and called the Well guy.  He came out Tuesday morning early and knew right off the bat what the problem was!!  Nothing Kelly and I ever could have guessed in a million years!!

His name was Jimmy and he was just as cute as he could be!!

First, he asked us if the pump had been re-wired recently.  I told him yes.  He opened up the back of the pump and said the pump was set for 110 electricity and we now had it wired for 220.

BOOM!!  Fixed just like that, Janet!!  And we now have water again and learned lots and lots of good stuff in the meantime!!

And that is the rest of this story!!  Happily ever after!!  THE END!!

If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother . . .

so says Robin Williams quoting Sigmund Freud!! :-)

Late Friday afternoon, well of course, our well stopped working and we had no water to the house!!  So, on Saturday, and I mean ALL day Saturday we worked on the well!!

This is the housing to the well.  We had to break the PVC pipe away from the pump so we could open the well cover.  It had 4 very rusty and big bolts on the top.  I covered all 4 bolts in WD-40 and then proceeded to slowly remove the four bolts.

In retrospect, we should have only loosened the bolts and not removed then completely because when we wrangled the top off, half of the big metal plate that was under the top metal plates and an inch thick rubber gasket fell into the well!!  Oh, well!!

Next we pulled out the pipe that goes does to the bottom of the well to see if the foot plate was clogged with clay, causing it to not close after the pump pulls the water up from the bottom.   It seemed fine.  That pipe was about 15 feet long, so that is just a bit shorter than how deep the well is.  Here on the Oregon coast, the wells are not too deep because the water table is so high.
 

After we got the pipe back into the well and the cover on the well housing, we had to repair the PVC pipe to the pump.  We MacGyver'ed the missing well cover plate that fell into the well using bolts and washers 3 deep to hold on the top plate.

When we removed the pipe, it damaged the screw-in part (that's the official name of that white part coming out of the pump - "screw-in part")

We hoped it was not damaged enough to prevent us from putting on a new coupling.  Even though it looked bad, we were able to get the new coupling attached.
 

We had to cut this pipe and add some length in order for it to fit.

Ready for repairs!!

New coupling fits safe and sound.

And the pump was attached back to the well with the repaired pipe.

Then we wanted to prime the pump.  That funnel is where we poured water until the well pipe filled up.  That way the  pump doesn't have to work so hard when we turn the pump back on.

So, now it is all together and ready to start up again!!  NOT!!  Still doesn't work.  By this time we have been working about 6 hours and Kelly and I are both exhausted!!

So, we unhooked everything again, pulled the 15 foot pipe back out of the well and replaced the foot plate with a new one, thinking that maybe the valve in the old foot was not closing and preventing the water to fall back down the pipe into the well.
 

Then we put everything back together AGAIN and started it up!!  Nothing!!  So we called it a day and went without water all weekend.  Dejavu from when I first moved into the house in June, 2017.

The Plumbing Project Has Officially Begun!!

We have put this project off for months.  Partly out of fear and the other part out of fear!!  But Kelly spent yesterday and today watching plumbing YouTubes and has now installed the Manifold and drilled all the holes for the PEX pipe to go through!!

Plus, we picked out the stain for the mudroom decking.  This is close to the color.

Tomorrow is a rain-less day, so I am going to be staining the boards, hopefully out in the sun!!

Got All the Flooring Cut . . .

and mostly into place!!

We decided to get 1"x8" boards and also decided to get the clear pine.  When we found out the cost of these boards here locally, I went "yikes"!!  Let's look at Home Depot and Lowes to see if we can save some money!

Well, I checked both places - Home Depot did not even carry 1"x8"x8' pine boards and the ones at Lowes were almost twice as much as the local lumber yard!!  That's crazy!!  But true, so off I went this morning down to Bandon Supply and bought all 18 boards they had in stock!!

Here is my mickey-mouse board leveler!!  :-))

Here are the first boards going down.

All cut the right length and placed where they belong but before we can screw them in place, we have to make a few fixes and get the new plumbing put in place under the boards along the edge of the house.

Before I actually saw the boards, I thought we would paint them, maybe black and white checked flooring.  But after seeing how gorgeous this clear pine is, I don't want to cover up the beauty of the wood with paint.  Instead we are going use deck stain and stain them.  Probably a light grey that will allow the beauty of the knots and grain to show through!!

P.S. Kelly went to work this morning just to get laid off.  So, now we hope to have the time to work on the house with all the stuff we have been buying all through this past year and then we'll have to wait until Kelly gets a job to continue the work!!  It's seems like when there is the time to do the work, there is no money to get the materials and when there is money for the materials, there is no time to work on the house because we are out making money!!  Funny how that works!!

Until next time!!

Now onto the Decking . . .

in the mudroom.  Here's what we got done today between raindrops!!

First, we had to clean everything out of the room!!  That bin in the middle had 300 pounds of cement in it that had to be moved!!  Ha! Ha!  I could only move one at a time!!

Then the 2"x6" boards had to be laid and screwed into the four walls and then the remaining 2 floor joists cut, put in place and screwed down.

The concrete floor underneath is so not level so the first thing Monday will be to cut shims to place under the floor joists.  That will make the floor much more solid once we put down the planks across the joists.  Kelly has to work Monday but I hope to get the planks purchased and some of them put in place!!

Until then . . .

We Got the Walls Up . . .

on the mudroom yesterday before the rains came today.  I couldn't post until this morning because we were still stapling the tar paper onto the plywood last night using a flashlight to see the last half hour and I couldn't get a final picture until this morning!!

First, off with the old!!

That included all the studs and the sill plates on both sides of the door in the middle.  I guess I only took a picture of the one side without the studs and sill plate but the entire wall was removed.

Then new pressure-treated sill plates and new studs went up across the whole back wall.

Once all the studs and sill plates were in place, we put up the plywood walls that will go under the new ship-lap we are going to make and put up.

Here's a look at the inside all fresh and new!!

Going back through time, here are pictures of how it looked originally!!

Finally, as the day ended and the dark fell upon us, we got the last staples in the tar paper and now the walls are protected again the rains that came this morning and apparently all this coming week.

We wanted to start working the the new deck that is going to be built over the concrete floor in the mudroom today but both of us are walking around like a couple of old people.  So, we will probably wait until tomorrow to start the new deck!! And then again, maybe we might do a bit later this afternoon!!