Fun with pipes

This weekend Tim and I planned to work on some of the trenches and holes in our backyard. The plan was to rent a backhoe and re-work the trenches for the electrical and plumbing lines to the pool and pool house. We were also digging up a big hole around the sewer line in order to prepare for a connection to be put in. Why are we doing all of this by ourselves you may ask? Well, we are trying to save money where we can (POOL ARE EXPENSIVE). Plus Tim is very handy and it always sounds way easier than it turns out.

So we wake up early Saturday morning. Poor Tim got home at 1 am the night before from the high school game. However, our normal K-2 football/cheerleading games wasn't until 4:30 Saturday evening. So we figured we could squeeze in a 4 hour backhoe rental Saturday morning and be on our way. When it took 30 minutes to load and tighten down the backhoe, Tim and I both looked at each other like what have we done?

We get home unload it. Take cute happy pictures with the kiddos and Tim starts digging the trenches. We had already used a trencher, so we had something started but it was about 6 inches wide and 24 inches deep. We decided since we already had it to dig the sewer line up we might as well make some better trenches. So Tim is digging away. Everyone is happy.

He starts digging where the pool house is supposed to be and can't find the water line. After using our two hanger trick to find water (which by the way has worked on all lines so far) and still not finding it, he gave up and went back to working on the trench. He had done the trench that ran to the pool house and parallel with the water lines and now was turned heading to the house. We were working on the slope (fall line) for the sewer. I was measuring and helping to determine where we were on our slope. Tim was digging away. All of the sudden he nicks the water line and water starts spraying out. Off I go to turn off the water, annoyed, but some how not surprised this happened. Oh well, it was just a nick. Totally fixable. Back to digging, and not even 10 mins later Tim yanks the second line up out of the ground.

Now would be a good time to discuss our crazy water line situation. We have three parallel lines running through our back yard. The main line (line 1) runs along the fence we share with the neighbor to our west. To the east of that is a line (line 2) running from the meter all the way to the back of our property. To the east of that is a line (line 3) running from the back of our property to the house. The house used to be on well water which was located at the back of the property. When they put in city water, instead of going from the meter to the house they ran it to the back of the property where there was the existing pipe running to the house. So now we unnecessarily have pipes all over the place. Which we didn't know about until the pool people hit line 3 when digging the pool. Then when planning the pool house we realized the house would be on line 2 and 3. So we made plans to one day re-route the water and make line 2 and 3 connect closer to the house. This was maybe going to happen next summer. Just too many projects going on right now.

Well, back to line 3 now triangled out of the ground. We decide the water re-routing would be happening this weekend. I called and extended our rental. Tim went to digging on the west side of the house, looking for lines 2 and 3 to connect. He dug and dug until it was time to go to Addison's game (Tim coaches the football team and I coach the cheerleaders). We drove the hour to the game, both exhausted. Made a game plan to hit up Lowe's on the way back and get everything we need for the next day. We grabbed Lilah from Jenny's, ate some yummy soup and loaded up some water bottles to hold us over for a day.

Sunday we woke up early and Tim started digging our huge hole on the side of the house searching for line 3. He had found line 2 Saturday but we were having so much trouble finding line 3. This hole was to 15-20 feet long and 6-8 feet deep. Where was this darn pipe? I back from one of my many trips to check on the kids in their playhouse, playroom, backyard, etc. and Tim was sitting on the backhoe with his head in his hands. I knew this wasn't good. He was frustrated and confused.

I had called my sister, Jenny to see if she could watch the girls for a couple of hours. Thankfully, she ended up watching them the whole day. This included for her and Blake to also pose as parents of the girls. We had promised my step sister we would pose for some pictures she needed for her class. Thankfully, Jenny and Blake were able to practice that parenting role for us. 

Back to the hole digging that is now practically to China with no pipe in sight. So he decided to dig two more holes to try to find this stupid line. No such luck. It is now about 11 and we decide the best plan of action is to return to the seen of the crime and attach the lines where we knew they were because we hit them both. So we start to make that hole bigger and clean up all of the area around the pipes to completely expose them so we could cut and attach them together. We were also adding in a shut-off value to the pool house. We decided this made winterizing the pool house the easiest. While we are digging a bigger hole, Tim hits line 2, two more times. At which point I am losing my mind and yelling for him to get off the stupid back hoe. I never want this thing to turn on again and threaten bodily harm if he touches another pipe with that stupid machine. I am in the trench digging like it is my job. I am determined I will just dig it by hand to avoid us hitting it again. We get it all ready to attach the pipes together. We see a light at the end of the tunnel. Now it is just plumbing work, a little primer, cement, put them all together and whalla!

 

 

We head to the shop while it is all drying to concoct my invention. There wasn't really a device at Lowe's that was 3 feet deep in order to protect the shut off value from being caved in by the dirt. So two Lowe's buckets, pretty duck tape from my stocking and topped off with and irrigation hole cover and we have a shut off valve protector. We go back try it out, turn on the water and all is good!

Now we move on to the whole reason we rented the backhoe, digging up the sewer line. Now I am down in the hole guiding that stupid backhoe bucket. There is NO WAY I am allowing the sewer line to get busted. I mean this day is already filled with too many pipes busting. We make lots of good progress.

I call my dad to tell him of our triumphs and walk over to our plumbing job and notice two small leaks. I mean are you freaking kidding me. Off goes the water and Tim tries to save it with a spray can of Flex-All (it is supposed to seal anything). So we are letting that dry and back to digging the sewer and a hydrolic line on the bucket busts and starts spewing out hydrolic fuel. Tim tries to Flex-All this too. We are now googling how we can avoid re-doing our pluming work, but find nothing. The Flex-All works on neither problem. We realize if all the hydrolic fuel drains from the backhoe we are really screwed so we successfully load that on the trailer and begin the cutting of the pipes and such. I meticulously read every instruction on the cans of primer and cement and we followed everyone to a T. While waiting the alotted 2 hours, we filled in the humongous unused holes on the west side of the house. We didn't want a child falling in one.

Even with all the frustrations, it was nice getting my hands dirty with this guy.

Finally, at 7 pm we checked our handy work and NO LEAKS. That evening, we texted our neighbors for their plumbers number. We have decided that we will not be running the sewer line. We will save that dirty work for a professional!!!