Orphanage Update

Hola! Things have been going very well here. I was able to get a good start on our kitchen. I did not have time (or money) to put real cabinets in, and since we don't know how long we'll be renting this building, I built a frame with 2x4's and then installed the counter top onto that. I installed the sink and there it sat for 2 days while I mustered the courage to tackle hooking the water and drain up.

Here's the scoop. I have found here that often you come across a job that is incomplete for one or more reasons. For example, there are two bathrooms in our apartment. In one, the water was hooked up to the shower, but not the drain. In the other, the drain was hooked up, but not the water. Fortunately, both my bathroom and the one down stairs, never had drywall hung so hooking the drain up was easy...well, sort of.

I never like splicing into old copper. Especially 10 year old copper. I got the drain hooked up, wasn't too tough, so I decided to tackle the copper hookups. I mean, it was only 8 o'clock, right? I told everyone I was turning the water of (which is "aqua" in Spanish). The pipe I was cuttin into was on the second floor. Took a long time to drain, then we cut in.

It was a touch job on account of the pipe locations, but that's nothing new for doing a plumbing remodel. The test came. 18 solder joints and of course, one was bad. I knew it was going to give me trouble because when I soldered it, it would take. The solder would just bead up. As my amigo turned the water on, I could hear it hissing and feel the air. So we drained it again. This was a "T" and taking a "T" off is not easy. I cut it off, cleaned up the pipes, and away we went. This time, no leaks!

I hopped upstairs, and finished off the drain from the kitchen sink. All was well, no leaks on that either. We're so thankful to have a sink now!!!

The toughest part of a job like that is when you are dealing with something that somebody started years ago, and then they just stopped. You don't know what pipes they glued or why they stopped. All sorts of surprises.

Things are going great though and we think Baja California, Mexico is "maravilloso".