repairing our front-loading washing machine

broken shock absorber

We've generally loved our front-loading Kenmore/Sears washing machine. It doesn't use much water or electricity, gets clothes cleaner, and leaves clothes dryer than our old top-loading machine ever did.

But for a while, it's been behaving strangely. It was vibrating a lot during the final spin, occasionally spilling water from the hose, and sometimes making a whomping noise audible in the rest of the house. Still, it was getting clothes clean, so I didn't worry about it too much. Then last week it stopped in the middle of a cycle—it had tripped the GFCI breaker, and resetting that didn't do any good.

That meant I actually had to do something about it—at least after some hours at work, then taking the half-done laundry load to the nearest laundromat to wash. I took the front panel off and immediately noticed the broken shock absorber-type thingy that connects the drum to the frame. There wasn't a great puddle of water or anything else obviously wrong that I could see, so I let it sit while I got some replacement parts.

After it sat and dried for a couple of days, I tried it again, and it was ready to go. My theory is that it splashed itself during one of its violent episodes. So I unplugged the washer again, and set to replacing the shock absorbers. The old ones were challenging to remove, and the new ones almost as challenging to put in. Fortunately the parts came with instructions which helped, but it still involved a lot of awkward reaching, grunting and pushing and pulling pieces to get done. I ended up taking the back off, too, which helped get access to the plastic pins that hold each end of the shock absorber.

I also took the opportunity to clean out the water inlet filters. The hot water (which we don't use much) was pretty badly clogged. It was also interesting to note that there's a lot of empty space and some cement blocks (attached to the drum, to reduce vibration) inside the washer. And interesting to note that the replacement shock absorbers use a different design—I don't think we're the only ones to have this particular breakdown.

In any event, $35, some banged knuckles, and a test cycle later, the washing machine is back to its wonderful self.

Remodeling Really Fast

Imeant to post this a while back (say, back when I'd actually finished the work in early September), but didn't get around to unloading the pictures from the camera until today. In any event, here's a sped up version of process of renovating K's office. We tore out the drywall in the outer walls; ran new electrical, phone and Cat-5; straightened out the door; installed an exterior light outside the door; and insulated the walls. And of course repainted everything when we were done.

While the walls are open, you can see why blown in insulation as a retrofit would be more difficult. Not only are there diagonal braces between the studs, but there are some horizontal braces here and there, too. So it would mean at least 3 holes in some stud bays.

power usage: first observations from PowerMeter

We've started getting data from the TED 5000 and Google PowerMeter. They display the same data, but in different ways. The TED 5000 web page gives more detailed info, but PowerMeter makes it easier to compare your current usage with past usage.

First, let's look at a fairly typical day's usage in PowerMeter:

In the wee hours of the morning, you can see a regular spike about every hour or so. That's the refrigerator coming on. Around 6:30AM you can see the radiant heat in the bathroom coming on, lights, the coffee maker, etc.

The other thing of note is the darker green band at the bottom. That's the "always on" power consumption I mentioned last time. It's only about 85 watts, but since it's always on, that adds up -- over 2kWH per day, which is more than 20% of the 9.7kWH per day we averaged last billing cycle. With our other source of info, the Kill-a-Watt, I've found about 25 of the 85 watts so far. Unfortunately nothing in that 25 is easy to get rid of, but I'll keep checking to find the other 60 and see what I can eliminate.

Now let's move to a less typical day -- laundry day:

Note that the scale has been stretched from 0-1.5kW up to 0-5kW. That's because running an electric dryer causes a huge increase in power consumption. You can see the dryer running for two loads, plus a little secondary run after each to get rid of the last bit of dampness. This is a big vote for line drying your clothes to save energy. It takes longer than just throwing everything in the dryer, but clearly can save a bunch of power consumption since the sun is free.

For more detail about power consumption, you can also view the TED 5000 web page for your device:

There's a live dashboard that shows your current power consumption, power used since midnight, etc. You can also view historical data. But the most useful is the graphing tab, which lets you see your energy consumption in near real-time, with more detail than the PowerMeter gadget shows. You can click on the graph to show the power consumption at any given time on the graph; that's how I determined the "always on" power was about 85 watts. The fourth tab allows you to set up load profiles when certain equipment comes on. My first trial with that wasn't very successful, but I'm going to try again to profile the refrigerator and some other appliances.

So we haven't saved any energy yet, but we've got a lot more data about how to go about doing that now. Some of it, like line drying clothes is even pretty easy to do (at least when the weather permits) -- no fancy gadgets required.

I got the power!

Google PowerMeter widget

Actually, we got the Google PowerMeter. K is a technical writer for Google and we're now the proud owners of a TED5000 and using PowerMeter.

There was a control period where we weren't seeing the data, but now that's passed we'll be able to use the PowerMeter to figure out more of our electrical usage. We haven't had data long enough to get much yet, but one thing is clear already: we should try to reduce our "always on" power. It's not super high, but well, it's always on, so it adds up. I was trying to think of everything that contributes to that:

• thermostat
• water heater thermostat
• various clocks
• DSL modem
• router
• microwave (clock)
• TV
• cordless phones
  
• assorted wall warts

The TV is EnergyStar rated so hopefully doesn't draw much when off, but it's probably non-zero. The water heater is a gas-fired on demand heater which has circuitry to decide when it needs to come on. In any event, between the PowerMeter and our Kill-A-Watt we should be able to figure out what's using power and cut back some.

Installing the TED5000 was fairly simple, but it does require opening your electrical service panel and attaching clamps over the main feed wires. It was a little tricky to get it to fit and still get the panel closed, but not too bad. Google and TED recommend hiring an electrician for the hookup, but given I've run most of the circuits in the house, I felt comfortable doing it myself.

TED dashboard

I'll be posting more as I figure things out. Much of it should be applicable to your electrical usage, too.

Holy Cow...

the kitchen

Somehow we went from a nice space to an actual kitchen today. I finished painting the wall behind where the stove will go, and with K's help installed the range hood. Hooking up the electrical for it was a snap.

Then I cleared a path from the refrigerator in the living room into the kitchen, and again with K's help moved the refrigerator into its slot. A bit of cleaning of the stove and lifting it onto some sliders, and K helped me slide that into place. I hooked up the gas, checked for leaks, et voilà!

Of course there's plenty left to do, like trim and flooring, not to mention the dining room, but today was a good day, ending with a fully functional kitchen.

crushed by the stove?

Fiat Lux

On Wednesday afternoon my neighbor helped me paint the kitchen, and I put a second coat on Wednesday evening. Since then I've been finishing up the electrical, putting down the plywood for the underlayment or flooring if we go that route, and getting ready to hang cabinets. Adding the main fluorescent light fixture made a huge difference. Now it feels like a real room. A room with a heck of a lot of outlets, to be sure, but a real room.

Inspection Passed!

Hugo, the inspector from the city, left a few minutes ago. I passed building, electrical and plumbing, so I'm good to go to cover the walls. He would have preferred I had all the plumbing done (right now I just have the vent stack), but was OK with deferring it to later. That's because I can't go into the wall and down, but have to go straight down, so more of it will be in the sink cabinet. The other comment upon inspecting the subpanel was that the bedroom breaker needs to be AFCI. That's relatively new to the building code, so I wasn't aware of the requirement. I'd seen AFCI breakers at Home Depot, but didn't know where they were required, and given the higher cost, wasn't going to go installing them in every circuit. In any event, I'm happy and K will be, too, because now I can cover the walls (and more importantly given the current weather, the ceiling.)

Pricing Puzzlers

We seem to be running a home for wayward deer. We spotted another pregnant doe today, along with what's probably one of her offspring from a previous year. More exciting was seeing four Cooper's hawks flying around, sometimes chasing and being chased by a crow.

I've pulled all the wire except for the new range fixture, and that I got pulled into the kitchen wall and started running up towards the main panel. Another couple hours of work and I'll be ready for an inspection. I might have been done today, but I ran out of 12-2 Romex on Wednesday and had to get more yesterday. In a curious bit of pricing at Home Depot, 100 ft. was about $30. A 250 ft. roll, rather than 2.5X as much, was $39. The 6-3 cable for the range (8-3 would have done, I think, but they didn't have any) had a similarly puzzling pricing scale: 50 ft. cut off a spool was the same price as a 125 ft. roll. I wasn't sure exactly how much 12-2 I'd need so that was a no-brainer. The 6-3 I pondered for a bit, but I figure the good folks at Casa Decrepit will be able to use the leftovers when the move their kitchen into what's currently the dining room.

During the week I plugged the DWV stack and left it filled with water for a couple days, so that's good to go, too. Thank goodness for trade-specific stores like Moran Plumbing Supply. They not only had the riser clamp I needed a couple weeks back, but they knew what I was talking about and had an extension hose for my test plug.

But any inspection will have to wait until next week. Saturday through Tuesday I'll be at the Habitat build-a-thon, all day and then some since I'll be a crew leader. Not only will this be the biggest build-a-thon that East Bay has done, but I think it will be the best organized I've seen, too. Hopefully that'll be the case...

Kids! Kids! The Slugs Are Back!

one slug, two slug, green slug, ewww slug

The slugs are back, and the deer are gone. The doe has been very vigilant, and our neighbor reported last seeing them yesterday afternoon. I didn't see them at all today, though I was down into the basement and around the other side of the house to the main electrical panel several times. On one of the last trips I spotted this handsome fellow oozing along.

I made a lot of trips between the kitchen, the basement and the main panel. That was because after wrestling to get the exceptionally large wires into the new range outlet, I tested things, and got nothing. I went to the main panel, shut off the power, and noticed that the wires at the panel end were smaller than the wires I'd been wrestling with. So I went into the basement and under the house and traced things, and discovered that there was a one junction box where the fat copper wires were joined to some other fat wires (probably 4 AWG) with cool bronze screw clips. And from there it lead to the mystery subpanel on the other side of the house. There it joined to the smaller wires with some huge wire nuts, and then up to the main panel. The mystery subpanel on the side of the house is also where the old dryer circuit of very dubious merit ran through. The thing is, the 4 AWG wire doesn't appear to be copper, and is in the old cloth insulation. Regardless, there's a problem somewhere along the line between the mystery subpanel and the kitchen. So even though we won't be using it any time soon (our antique stove is gas), I'll be pulling new wire for the range outlet. Sigh. I'd been hoping to just hook that back up and be done with it.

The Week So Far...

Monday I ran the new supply lines for the kitchen sink. The process re-emphasized my love of the headlamp I bought last year. When sweating copper pipes, you generally feel like you need a third hand anyway, and if you're in a tight space under the house it's doubly so because even if you had a third hand, you'd be in the way of the light when you held it. The headlamp has no such problems.

blob-o-tape

The rest of the week I've been pulling wire for the various kitchen circuits. Mostly an easy task, as it's in the ceiling and walls, but it has required a number of trips under the house for the home runs, too. One unplanned for task was moving a switch for an outlet in the living room over to make room for the kitchen light switch (a 3-way switch outside one door; the other is on the half height wall by the other entrance). Because the existing wires from one side weren't long enough to reach the new location, I decided it was time to start a new circuit. I hadn't planned on doing any work on the living room until the far distant future (e.g., after the kitchen is done and the lengthy list of other tasks is completed), but with the wall open, it's a lot easier now. When I pulled the old switch out of the box, I was afraid I was going to find some dodgy wiring job with things just twisted together like I've read about on other blogs, but they'd actually soldered the splice before smothering it in tape, so it wasn't too bad. But now the living room has its very own 15 amp circuit, though only the newly replaced outlet has a proper ground. That leaves...um...the short hall in the middle of the house as the only thing on the old house-wide circuit? Maybe the closets? With this house, you can never be sure.

Today I was out to Habitat, and for a change I wasn't cutting stair stringers, or even doing anything related to stairs. Instead I was helping inventory the beams for the different house models, making sure each had the correct set in its pile. That meant pulling out a few that were too short and cutting new ones, and pulling out a few that were too long and cutting them down to size. In case you're wondering, 4x12 LVL beams are heavy. We also ran some temporary electrical for the speechifying and such that will go on during the build-a-thon. Finally, we repaired an extension ladder that had been smooshed on one end. It's now in better shape than it's been for a while, though it is about 4' shorter.

Little Blue Boxes

This week I worked on the kitchen, and actually moved forward with things. I finished placing the boxes and fixtures for electrical, which if you've ever looked at the code requirements for a kitchen, are substantial. Two small appliance circuits, dishwasher, disposal, lighting, and a 240v range circuit, and it all adds up. Plus there's the refrigerator, a 120v outlet for a newer gas stove (we don't need it, but it's easier to add now than later), range hood, under cabinet lights, and for good measure, we have a couple of recessed fluorescents above the sink and the adjacent countertop.

I ran the pipes for the vent stack for the kitchen sink. After puzzling over it repeatedly, as I was doing it I figured out how to run it using more of the fittings and pipe I already had on hand. So I returned one riser clamp and $25 worth of fittings, which is always a nice thing. And for good measure, I added a holder bracket for the pipe to the shower in the bathroom that I'd neglected to include back when I redid the shower a couple of years ago.

When I was at Home Depot to return the fittings and pick up a few other things, I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the service has gotten. Maybe they're training them better, maybe they're just afraid of losing their jobs, but whatever the cause, I'm liking the results. It was even quick and painless at the returns desk.

many stringers

I don't have any interesting pictures of the progress on the house to show you (wanna see a bunch of blue boxes nailed to studs?), so I'll include a picture from today's work at Habitat. I once again cut stringers for stairs. That means a lot of very careful identical cuts. "Sloop" John B. is the Americorps member who's been doing this week in and week out in preparation for the upcoming build-a-thon, so once a week isn't so bad. There's a lot to do -- 20 houses * 3 stringers per stair section * 2-3 stories per house adds up.

Huh?

I shouldn't be surprised anymore by the way I find stuff done in this house anymore, but I am. Yesterday I worked on one of the few remaining "should be done before the kitchen demolition and remodel" projects, namely updating the electrical in the original bathroom. The kitchen (i.e., former front hall and porch) shares a wall with the bathroom, so with the back side open, it's a fine time to get the electrical up to date.

So yesterday I turned off the power to that circuit, went into the attic space, and started pulling out the old wire. Based on previous experience, I figured something important (like the kitchen) might be downstream of it, like when disconnecting some of the wiring in the hall lead to no power in the old outlets in K's office. But after pulling the old stuff, I restored power, then flipped on the kitchen light, et voila! So I didn't think any more about it.

Then K made coffee this morning, and when I got up, I asked where it was, and she said it was brewing in the living room. Uh-oh. Seems the kitchen lights were not downstream of the bathroom lights, but the outlets are. Well, it's all going to be redone anyway, but that accelerates the steps towards demolition. It kind of gives me the impression they wired the rooms and outlets in alphabetical order. Maybe organized in a non-Latin based language. Like Klingon.

Today I went over to the building department and got updated permits, as well as trying to do my part to support Oakland businesses that were vandalized by some yahoos in the wake of the Oscar Grant killing. I ran into an old friend I used to work with, who was in downtown Oakland to...go to the building department. He and his wife are considering buying a house here in Oakland, but it's had a fair amount of unpermitted work done, including a garage to family room conversion, major kitchen work, and more. They're nervous enough because it's their first house, but this might be enough to kill the deal.

Back to work

Today I worked on the house again. Not cleaning, not moving stuff, but actual home improvementy-type stuff.

Actually I did some yesterday, too, putting up radiant barrier insulation under the addition. But mostly I rearranged some of my computer gear (to put the wireless router up higher, amongst other things, for better reception around the house) and cleaned up my office a bit, so it didn't really feel like working on the house, because it mostly wasn't.

But today there was no cleaning. I rerouted the circuit for our offices (bedrooms #2 and #3) from one subpanel to the other. I'd originally run it to the subpanel I added for the addition and kitchen, because there wasn't room on the main panel and I hadn't added the other subpanel yet. But it makes a lot more sense location-wise on the 2nd subpanel, and frees up a slot for the myriad circuits that will be needed for the kitchen. I also pulled out the last of the old electrical runs that I replaced with new, up to code runs back in November.

On the less fun end of the spectrum was pulling out some of the insulation the POs had installed incorrectly. What part of "do not leave facing exposed" was unclear? The unfun part was playing Russian roulette, and hoping the next piece I pulled down wasn't covered in mouse droppings. Urgh. Anyways, I pulled it down where I was running electrical, installed some radiant barrier insulation, and reinstalled the unsoiled insulation the right way around.

So at the end of the day, nothing looks different. But it will simplify running electrical for some new outlets in K's office, and will simplify things later.

Still my favorite

Nothing too exciting with regards to progress on the house, but the new headlamp is still awesome. I've been continuing to update electrical (the carport light works again, though I still need to replace the run from under the house up to the carport), remove old electrical, and install insulation. One nice thing about my new headlamp that some of the cheaper options didn't have is that it can be turned upward slightly. When you're looking down, the normal setting is great. When you're looking up (such as between some floor joists), the little bit of adjustment is perfect.

The house is still lacking insulation in a lot of places, but at least there's now a radiant barrier under the areas where there's nothing but subfloor. It stops the worst of the drafts, as well as reducing heat transmission. I'll add batt insulation after the kitchen is done, and I'm done pulling wire and extending the pipes for the new sink location. The slight bit of additional insulation is just in time, too. The forecast calls for highs in the high 40s (versus the high 60s / low 70s we've got now) and rain in the coming days.

Ding-dong

No, not that kind (besides, when I grew up in Michigan, they were known as King-Dongs -- didn't you ever wonder why the associated character was a king? Though I never figured out Fruit Pie the Magician). The push-the-button-and-a-chime-sounds kind. Our house has never had one. The old front door had a knocker to scare the bejeebers out of the cats and us. The new front door is much farther from the bedrooms we use as offices, and we were none too fond of the knocker, so we decided on having a doorbell instead. It's been sitting in its box for who knows how long, but the other day I finally got around to adding an outlet for the transformer to attach to, and running the bell wire from the transformer and button to the chimes.

And today it got used for real (i.e., not K or I pressing the button because of the novelty of having a doorbell for the first time). I had not one but two visitors, both expected (one a freecycler coming to pick up an item). Unexpected visitors are generally unwelcome visitors, and so elicit a different response.

Ding-dong.
This is a test of the there's-a-visitor-at-the-door system.
If this had been an unexpected visitor, you would been instructed to turn out the lights, be very, very quiet, and pretend no one is home.
This concludes the test of the there's-a-visitor-at-the-door system.
This is only a test.

P.S. Go Duke women's volleyball! One of Katarina's nieces plays for Duke, and the team is co-ACC champs and is headed for the NCAA tournament! Woohoo!

Spaghettiful Electrical

me fighting with the 1 1/4" conduit

One more quick trip to Home Depot (the nearest hardware stores don't carry the larger size conduit or fittings), and then with K's help I pulled the fat wire from the main panel to the new sub-panel. I hadn't done much with conduit before, metal or PVC, and I learned why people love the flexible armored cable so much. Working with conduit is more difficult than working with cable, and the PITA factor goes up with the diameter of the conduit because there's less give when lining things up. Because I was running 4-3 wire (which doesn't bend very easily) to the sub-panel, I needed a larger conduit. For comparison, the Romex you normally pull is at most 12-3 for two 20 amp circuits; 4-3 is quite a bit larger and less flexible. But with both of us pushing and pulling and temporarily undoing a few things to get a bit more flex, we managed to get it pulled. Then I fed the end up to the main panel outside the house, hooked it up, and it was time to test!

I was mostly replacing existing circuits, but the one for the water heater had failed a while ago with a bad neutral. Circuit for the water heater (it's a gas-fired tankless, but requires electricity for its brains and to ignite) -- check. Circuit for the furnace (it's gas-fired, but we have an electrostatic filter) -- check. 240V circuit for the dryer -- check. New outlet for the washer -- hmm. OK, I mis-wired the GFCI. Hey, it was dark in the basement! A quick re-wire -- check. I still need to pull armored cable for a new circuit for the lights and some outlets along my work bench, but we're back to having a working laundry room, and heat when we need it.

a lovely sunset over the bay viewed
from our chairs on the hillside

Lately it's been much warmer than than normal. So fortunately it wasn't a big deal to not have heat for a day. Unfortunately we need a lot of rain (and snow in the mountains) to make up for the last two drought years.

In any event, I was pleased to get that work done. I then proceeded to start removing some of the old wiring. The water heater and furnace circuits are just a few years old, so mostly what I did was shorten the runs to go to the sub-panel instead of the main panel. But the washer had never had its own circuit, and it wasn't GFCI protected although it was right next to the laundry tub, so I was pleased to fix that.

scare!

The real scare was with the old dryer outlet. I'd always known it was a bit funky, i.e., right next to the laundry tub, outlet a bit loose, runs from the panel, through a fuse box(!), then behind the laundry sink. When I started removing it, I realized just how bad it was. There was no clamp on the box to hold the flex cable in, so it was relying on the wire and screws to hold it. No clamp also meant that any movement of the cable would rub at the wires themselves. But the crowning glory was when I went to remove the plug. There were no slots in the screws! Closer inspection revealed that they weren't screws, but a pair of 16p nails (galvanized, thankyouverymuch) holding the outlet and the box in place. No wonder the thing was a bit loose! I was very pleased to get rid of that.

Star was again unimpressed.

Zeppeliny Goodness!

I've been working on the electrical again. I made a trip to Home Depot to get some conduit fittings, and was surprised to see floating overhead...a zeppelin. I'd heard they were starting to give rides in the SF Bay Area, but hadn't thought twice about it until today.

the German cousin of the zeppelin I saw

I wasn't the only one who was surprised to see it. Two cars in front of me at a traffic light had cameras pointed out their windows, and a variety of people in the Home Depot lot were staring up at it.

Unlike blimps, which are a dime a dozen these days, zeppelins have a rigid frame inside. Unlike The Hindenburg, these are filled with helium, and don't have an aluminized skin (which is what made that burn so fiercely, not the hydrogen, which burned off quickly).

DIY Insanity...now with 10% more Zeppeliny Goodness!

Oh My!

There was much excitement here at DIY Insanity. No, not putting in the plastic, filter cloth and gravel into the drainage near the path I'd worked on before (the only thing less exciting than a trench is a filled-in trench). No, not installing conduit and wire in the basement.

Instead, we had excitement for the whole neighborhood. While watching the Giants vs. the Eagles on Sunday Night Football (gotta love John Madden), we heard heavy trucks go rumbling by and saw some flashing lights. A short time later we heard some more; I figured it had been a false alarm and they were going back to the station up the hill. K could still hear rumbling, though, so she went to investigate. She quickly returned and reported there were multiple fire engines up a few houses. We went out to investigate, and found out that it was a house fire in the next block.

We couldn't walk up our street, so we walked around the other way, and saw a whole bunch of fire equipment. K counted 9 or 10 fire engines, 2 ladder trucks (the big ones with the 2nd steering wheel in back), 2 police cars, and an ambulance. And a PG&E truck for good measure. I saw a friend from Oakland Firefighters Random Acts who's in the department said it had gone to a second alarm in part because the residents were pack rats and the house was literally full of stuff. When it went to a second alarm, and in anticipation of a long night, they were dispatched with the department's O₂ truck to refill air tanks as needed. So there were crews from at least 3 stations there. Fortunately no one was injured; the owners weren't at home when the fire broke out.

When I walked by this morning, the lower floor looked completely scorched, and the windows were knocked out (common when fighting fires to clear the debris and the smoke out.) The upper entrance floor (common here in the hills) looked OK, but based on how much smoke had come out the lower floor, I imagine there was a fair amount of smoke damage up there, too. Oy. I'm just glad no one was injured.

Happy People

No, not this happy person, but lots of happy people at, of all places, Home Depot.

While waiting for things to dry out, I've been working slowly on cleaning out and organizing more stuff in the basement to make room to do more work on the electrical. Some of it could probably wait until after the kitchen work, but the outlet for the water heater failed (bad neutral; it was installed by the plumber who installed the tankless water heater a couple years back) and inspired me to move forward with some of the electrical work now. That and if the inspector looks at some the existing wiring, they'd probably stop work right there.

So after placing the new panel and figuring out the runs needed, I headed off today to Home Depot, with visions of conduit and heavy gauge wire running through my head. And despite all the work ahead for the incoming president and congress, despite the ongoing negativity, despite the continuing bad news about the economy, people seemed much more cheerful than I've ever seen in Home Depot before. Maybe it was because I wasn't in the line contractors are usually in, though that was surprisingly short. Maybe they only seemed happier was because I was happier, both because of the election and because I actually found someone to help me. Maybe it was because it was another beautiful day. But regardless of all the whys and wherefores, I actually saw people smile in Home Depot, and that's even more rare than finding an associate to help you when you need it.

Mayhem Managed

Today was a not particularly productive but very exciting day. I dropped my neighbor off at BART, then came back and worked on cleaning up the debris from building the last wall (not much) and tearing out the old front door (quite a bit, despite the fact I salvaged the longer 2x4s and most of the glass block). That in preparation for using a jackhammer on the part of the front walk that's going to come out. Which needs to happen before I pour the new, higher (and sloped away from the door) front walk. Which needs to happen before I put the siding on the new wall bit of wall (and bottom of the existing wall where it was rotted).

After cleaning up, I considered: Should I work on running new electrical under the house for the carport light? (the existing switch is on a kitchen wall that's going away, and the new switch is now by the new front door.) Or should I dig up the conduit for the carport light? (because it needs to be replaced, being badly rusted, and I want to have an always on outlet in the carport, too, for eventual plugging of an electric car or plug-in hybrid.) Since it was a lovely day (70-something and sunny), I decided on the digging since it was outdoors. I began by moving some rocks we'd piled nearby, and scraping away the pine needles and such that had accumulated. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Pssssh! Ruh-oh, Shaggy!

Water was now spurting into the air, quite energetically. The water supply comes in near the conduit, so I figured I must have hit that. I noted that the leak was before the old shut off valve (which is before the new shut off valve I'd added inside the basement), so turning that off would be futile. Damp, but still thinking quite calmly after the initial, secondary, and tertiary panic, I ran in and grabbed a wrench and some pliers, then up to the street where the meter is. I pulled off the cover, and stared at some dirt. I hurried down to the basement and returned with a trowel, and scraped out dirt until I could see the meter and something that must be the valve. But there was no obvious handle. So I ran back in, found the number for EBMUD, and called and explained the problem. They said they'd someone out.

While I was waiting, I looked at the meter some more, then looked around on the web, but I couldn't find anything quite like it. So I made sure the water from the leak was flowing away from the house as best I could, and looked at the leak some more.

Then it starting occurring to me. That pipe seemed too small for the main water line. And as messed up as many things are about this house, would they really have put the water line that close to the surface? So I scraped away dirt (well, now mud) and pine needles, and realized that I had nicked the line to the faucet near the carport, not the main water line. And that it was (surprisingly, given the general state of other stuff) after the old shut off valve. So I tentatively turned off the old shut off valve as best I could by hand, and lo, the water shooting out under the rocks and flower pot began to slow. I was just about to call EBMUD and cancel the service call when an EBMUD truck drove by, turned around, and came back. I told him I was just about to call and cancel, but he took a look at the meter anyways, and said, "Well, that's good, because I couldn't have done anything anyways. The shut-off valve here is broken." He put in an order to get that fixed, so his trip was not a total waste.

I went back and stared at the mud pit, scraped away some more dirt, and figured out what was OK and what was not so good. Fortunately I had a galvanized cap from when the water was off to the hot side of the old bathroom. So I cut off the line down with a sawzall, removed a connector with some pipe wrenches, and put the cap on. And was able to restore our water supply before Katarina got home from work.