One step closer

I'm seldom -- I'm rarely --I've never been so excited about being able to do laundry, except maybe after a long trip overseas when laundry was difficult to do. Today I ran copper pipe to the cold water side of the laundry tub and to the hose spigot, and amazingly had no leaks after one pass. That was due in no small part to the use of a little inspection mirror, which my friend Jim showed me a while back for double-checking that a sweated joint had solder all the way around. A quick check after sweating a couple of joints allows you to go back and touch up things before moving on. Of course, this frequently doesn't work with a bronze fitting, only with copper-to-copper junctions, but that's most of the connections.

I also recently acquired a 4-in-1 brush for prepping copper pipe and fittings. I've had separate brushes for the insides, and sandcloth for the outsides before, because I'd acquired the different sizes over time instead of needing to do 1/2" and 3/4" all at once. I needed a new 3/4" inside brush because the existing one was getting smushed and rusty. I've still got a supply of sandcloth for dealing with tight spaces, but the 4-in-1 brush does an awesome job cleaning off the oxidation from the insides and outsides of 1/2" and 3/4" pipes, all in one tool instead of 3.

All that to say I was able to do a couple loads of laundry this evening, and I have the outside faucet working again, too. That just leaves running new pipes to the toilet and sink in the old bathroom. Woohoo!