Crazy Details in Our New House - Part One
Like we've mentioned earlier, we've just moved into a 1915 farmhouse. It's a wonderful, saggy, uneven structure with more character than Clint Eastwood's face. The house has good bones and most of the work associated with the man who built it and first lived in it is very nice. There have been other owners though who have been tinkerers and their work is...well...interesting. Interesting enough that we're going to start a new series, "Crazy Details In Our New House."
This first installment is of the creative plumbing that occurs as the waste line leaves the house. It's a beauty. The two small lines coming in from the top are a sink and a tub (why bother with two traps when you can just use one?). Unfortunately, the photo doesn't represent the whole effect. You're missing the strange patch further down on the waste line which has a slight leak, and there's no way to tell from the photo, but the plumbing system isn't vented, so every time we flush a toilet, there's a fantastic 'GLUG...GLUG...GLUG." Actually, now that we think about it, the corroded and abandoned cast-iron pipe that's stuffed with newspaper sort of acts as a semi-functional vent. Maybe that's why the glugging isn't as loud on the first floor.
Did we mention that we love this house? We really do.
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Posted by Tool Snob at October 29, 2009 5:05 AM
That looks familiar!?! We bought an old (18xx?) house that was built without electricty or plumbing. These were added (and altered) by many who definately didn't qualify as professionals. This house has suffered any number of "remuddlings" over the years, including having the rear of the house widened! (drip brick and roof tar line on chimney show old roofline.) I've found remnants of gas lines for lights, knob & tube wiring (still live), actual lead pipe (still in wall, but attached to nothing), bits and pieces of gravity return "octopus" furnace, and horse-hair plaster repaired with concrete! There also seem to be no small projects; they all seem to mushroom. For example, I needed to replace a damage two-prong wall outlet. I ended up rewiring half of the second floor to repair an ungrounded ground wire.
Jim
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