I left you with a cliff hanger last post as to whether Old Nebraska Dave was going to go down for the count with the new faucet installation or was he going to rise to the occasion and wrangle that old plumbing into the trash can. As Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
As we left the story last time the installed faucet was dangling from a piece of wire wrapped around a mirror cabinet and the wall pipe from the sink P-trap was stuck in the wall. The whole thing kind of looked like a display in a red neck faucet shop. The score at this point in time was faucet 2 and old Dave 0. So let’s continue and see what happens next.
With very delicate instruments the surgery to remove the drain pipe from the wall was performed. An amputation was made with a sawsall and the end of the pipe removed. Next a ball peen hammer and a chisel performed the actual splitting of the pipe and rolling the sides in on themselves. An hour into the surgery the final extraction was made with the ever so versatile vise grips and the surgery was declared a success. Score a point for old Dave. Now the score is faucet 2 and Old Dave 1. Could he be making a come back after being flung to the mat by the stubborn plumbing? I don’t know. Flat box furniture comes next. Everyone knows how much he likes flat box furniture.
I don’t see a smile on old Dave’s face but he is diligently working on the sink cabinet and I’m sure before the day’s end it will be standing in good shape. What do you think?
You can’t see the sink too well because of the bright sunshine but I think we can chalk up another point for old Dave and make the score faucet 2 and Old Dave 2. The old geezer is rising up isn’t he? So the sink is set in place and the final assembly begins. Supply lines for the water are too long. A trip to the home repair store nets the shortest supply lines they have which is 9 inches. It’s still to long and exerts too much pressure on the bottom of the sink when connected. So as this day closes the score is faucet 3 and Old Dave 2. It’s a neck and neck battle. Who will be the winner. Will the faucet repair be too much for old Dave or will he be able to recover and continue the fight for long flowing plumbing at sunrise?
Ah, one more thing before the day shuts down. Old Dave always has to improve on the design of flat box furniture and this time is no different. You can see that he has reinforced the back side of the cabinet to give it more stability Ah, yes, it’s just a thing with him and flat box furniture. It’s been a long day so Old Dave toddled off to a hot shower, a hot coffee, and a hot sandwich before settling down for late night TV viewing.
Wake up!! The suns up and the coffee’s on. Old Dave is revived and ready to go toe to toe with that old plumbing. Another trip to the home improvement store was first on the agenda for very long flexible supply lines. Huh! If short is too long then really long is going to work? This time the plan was to buy the longest supply lines available and circle them around in a loop right into the fitting on the bottom which would give downward pressure to sink and help hold it in place. The supply lines were attached to the sink, a bead of construction adhesive laid around the top of the cabinet and the sink with faucet and supply lines installed was set in place. A small wait of about an hour for adhesive to set some found old Dave rolling on the floor attaching the supply lines to the wall supply lines. A few minutes of close quarter combat and Dave rises hands in victory. So now the score is 3 to 3 with the faucet working and Old Dave is gaining momentum.
Next day Old Dave made a few jabs with a hand saw on the PVC plumbing pipes to fit things together and this fight was over. Final score Old Dave 4 and Sink faucet repair 3. Now Old Dave can get to his real passion …. gardening.
The GRIT Garden Planner says that this 4 X 8 bed will only hold 8 broccoli plants. I haven’t planted or grown broccoli before and didn’t know that a broccoli plant got that big. So eight tiny little seeds were planted in the big prepared bed. The other bed behind me is a different story. The left side is lettuce which has even smaller seeds than the broccoli seeds. In this case an 8 plant by 10 plant grid nets a total of 80 plants. The other side of this bed is planted with carrots which has even smaller seeds than lettuce. A good health sneeze would blow them all away. It was the same grid story through which again was an 8 X 10 giving 80 carrots if they all grow. So
far the only thing up is the lettuce.
So as the sun sets on the Urban Ranch all is well with the plumbing once again. Until that old monster creeps up out of the deep dark depths of the drain pipe life will remain good.
I leave with one more tidbit of information which is pretty self explanatory. I just had to try my newly acquired toy which is the flip video camera that I won right here on the GRIT web blog site. Thanks go to Purina and also Samatha Biggers for hosting the give away on her GRIT blog. I hope for you to enjoy many more videos as time rolls on in the life and times of Old Dave and the Urban Ranch.
Now where’s that dang bottle of Aleve. I know it’s around here some where. Oh, yeah, there it is. Right by the coffee maker. See ya next time and the only rule to remember when working on plumbing is that it all rolls down hill.
