The Honest Courtesan

I was a bit nervous about climbing down below the floor again to put in the seals my hot tub guru sent me; beside the fact that it’s cold, dirty, and uncomfortable down there, I was concerned that it would be too difficult and I wouldn’t be able to get the union off without breaking something.  But luckily, that wasn’t the case; I had already drained and cleaned the tub, and the union came loose with an amount of pressure even my soft little hands could manage (with the help of Grace’s biggest set of channel-lock pliers).  After I let the residual water drain out, the seals went in with a few minutes of fumbling, and though I somehow managed to gash the knuckle of my right forefinger in the process, everything was soon tightened back up and I refilled the tub.  After that, everything went as my guru had said it would: I turned on the power, the unit went through its startup routine, and before long I was able to take this picture.  I had been warned to recheck the union after the pump ran for a while, and sure enough it was dripping; however, retightening it was easy and I’ve checked a few times since, with no issues.  The water level has remained steady now for a couple of weeks and it seems to be running like it’s supposed to, so I’m beginning to feel more sure that I’ve fixed the problem.  And if something like that ever happens again, at least I won’t be working completely in the dark.

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After that double power outage we had around Christmas, I was rather peeved at the gas company for failing to connect my new heater in November or early December as they were supposed to (not to mention failing to return my calls about the delay).  So a month ago today I called again and happened to get the technician himself on the phone.  He apologized profusely for mislaying my paperwork, and volunteered to make room in his schedule to get us connected as soon as possible.  That was Monday, January 9th, and as you can see it’s now all hooked up and running perfectly.  It was a few days before we could switch the water system over to the new heater, but we got it done two weeks ago today and I’m very pleased with it; the temperature range is basically the same as the electric, but the temperature doesn’t fluctuate as much, so one needn’t fiddle with it throughout the duration of the shower.  I don’t think I’m going to save any money in the log run; Dr. Quest crunched the numbers for me and it looks too close to call, plus it cost twice as much to have the new line run and connected as the heater itself cost.  But it’s going to be worth it to have hot water the next time the power goes out.  Once we got it all connected I made an insulated box to go over the works, but I didn’t include it in this picture because it’s pretty featureless (it’s just plywood with a layer of the same styrofoam insulation I used for the bathroom ceiling).  Once I install some skirting on the north side, that will help prevent heat loss as well, and next winter the wood-burning stove will keep the atrium at least temperate, if not actually warm.

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Before we get to the part where I need to MIG weld the roof structure, Grace is stick-welding everything she can reach from the deck or the lower steps of a ladder (I won’t let her get above the third step, and I’m not really comfortable when she’s above the second).  In this picture, you can see where steel uprights have been welded to the roof brackets, and the transverse beam above the shop roof (held by clamps in earlier pictures) are now done as well.  My job while she’s welding is to repeatedly spray the nearby wooden surfaces with a hose to keep sparks from igniting anything; about 6 last evening it started drizzling, and we’re supposed to get more rain over the next few days, so that will help too by keeping everything too damp to catch.  Unfortunately, we were just about to lift this crossbeam into place, so I had to content myself with this shot and letting your imaginations do the rest until next time.  The thing I’m standing on is the wellhouse; once the roof is in place, that shitty old roof will come off and we’ll put a flat top on it, because as it turns out it’s just the right height for a bar.

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Just once, I’d like to return from a trip without having to deal with some kind of problem before I can even get settled in.  After returning from Freedom Fest on the 24^th I spent a few days in Seattle, then returned home to Sunset on Wednesday.  While refilling the dogs’ water bowl, I noticed the water pressure was extremely low, so I went around to make sure nobody had left anything running.  Nobody had, and within another hour there was no water at all.  At first Grace thought the pressure switch had gone bad, but when she bypassed it to check the pump we still had no water.  Fortunately, we had already purchased a new pump when we first moved here, since there was no way to know just how old the one that came with the property might be; unfortunately…have you ever changed a well pump?  It’s not hard, but it’s strenuous and time-consuming and absolutely fucking filthy.  There was also no way to know how deep the well was, so I just had to keep pulling the hose up (with Grace guiding it out of the well casing) until we found the pump; since the water table is pretty high here I knew it wouldn’t be too deep, but that still meant I had to pull up 14 meters of water-filled irrigation pipe with a waterlogged pump at the bottom.  Then I had to dash to town to get about $30 worth of fittings while Grace switched out the pumps, and when I returned (about 5 PM) we still had to wire up the new pump and carefully lower it back down the shaft, then reconnect it to the water system.  We finished a little after 8, at which point we discovered the damned thing still wouldn’t work due to an overloaded control box.  Still, that meant we could hot-wire the pump to fill up the pressure tank so we could take showers and have water overnight, and we replaced the faulty control the next day.  As you can see, the old pump was a Sears model which (according to the serial number) was built in 1992; I’m definitely not complaining, because nearly 30 years is a pretty good operational life for any mechanical device run as hard as a well pump is.  But all the same, I’d have been happier if it had held on for just a few extra days.

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