Sump Pump is Done!

I took Friday off as a vacation day, so I had a nice 3-day weekend to work in the basement getting the sump pump plumbed in and wired. The system went together pretty well, although a few of the items were challenging since I was doing everything solo. The first thing I saw when getting back into the project was the 14" of water in the basin, resulting from the 1.5" of rain we had on Tues/Wed of last week. This means that the water table was only 12-16" below the basement floor. Seeing this only reinforced the need we have for this system. If we get drenching rains this Spring like we had in the past, this system will pay for itself the first day it kicks on.

The plumbing is all PVC, with the piping running through the ledger board and meeting up with the downspout drain we had installed when the footing drains were also done. Here's what the system looks like (inside & outside):

I was initially planning to run the piping straight out the wall, but that would have include digging a new ditch through the trees to the right, which didn't thrill me. Jason (the friend who helped dig the hole) suggested tying into the downspout drain since the PVC piping is already in place and runs to daylight out by the street. This solution took a bit more plumbing work, but it was well worth it. All it took was re-directing the downspout a bit around the other side of the wall (shown in third photo). I was also planning ahead a bit with this since the downspout would likely be in the way on the sunroom addition Beth has her eye on...(more on that later. Hopefully, much later).

Working Toward a Dry Basement (Forever)

Hey All. My plans for Sunday changed on Saturday night, when after a company dinner with a bunch of people from Beth's office, two of our friends turned to me and said "Guess we'll see you at 9 AM tomorrow." Given my short attention span, I had no idea what they were talking about. Turns out that a few weeks back, I mentioned in jest that they should come over and help me dig a sump pump pit in my basement. Well, they didn't forget. And being the opportunist that I am, changed whatever plans I may have had on Sunday to make sure I took advantage of their generosity.

For those of you who haven't been reading Beth's blog for the last few years, our basement has been the bane of our NY existence. We've had serious flooding down there at least 3 times since we moved in. Some serious enough to toast our old furnace and water heater. The new foundation and footing drains took care of most of the problem, but there's still a need for the sump, if nothing more than insurance policy.

As planned they showed up at 9 with shovels in hand. It took us about 3 hours to dig the 30" deep by 20" wide hole. This was due to the fact that the clay in the basement was as hard as rock. Once we got past 12" or so, we had to use a steel rod to cut the clay in pieces small enough to scoop out. This process got us down about an inch at a time, and led to frequent exhaustion that comes from ramming a steel rod into the ground repeatedly.

That's Matt, Jason, and me (left to right) with said steel bar leaning against the basement wall.

Here's the semi-finished product. I'm extremely glad the digging is done and the sump pit is in the hole. It will eventually have a lid with PVC piping coming out the top, all of which I hope to finish next weekend. I have grand plans to pour some concrete down there as well, but we'll see where that falls in the overall priority list.

Bathroom Chronicles, Vol. 6

Hello All. Long time since I posted about the new bathroom. It's mostly because I'm lazy, but also because the bathroom itself is done (well, 98% so anyway :-)).

One peripheral task that's been sitting out there is the wall on the other side of the new shower stall. I tore the wall out to allow the plumber's to run the new pex supply tubing and PVC drains and vent. Ever since, we've been looking at an open wall with framing and pipes. Well, no more! I decided to close it all in by extending the hallway to the attic doors and building a soffit to enclose the new heat register that was recently installed. Here's some photos of the work in progress:

Shower wall with new framing and first piece of drywall

Bare Soffit around register

funky view of the rear of the soffit

New wall with drywall installed

Finished rough-in of the soffit with drywall and tape

Rear-view after taping

What I have left to do is about a week's worth of mudding and sanding, followed by new paint. By the time Snarktoberfest, the Sequel comes about, it should look all spiffy. Here's hoping that comes true!

Beer Fridge !!

Wanna know how cool my wife is? She too thought that getting a beer fridge for the shop would be a good birthday present!! I must admit that there is a bit of back-story here, but the overall premise is still true.

The prospect of getting said fridge was borne out of our friends Russ & Roe, who have a similar fridge in their garage. The difference being that Russ has filled that fridge with beer and had 5 more cases sitting on the garage floor! You see, Russ is more of a beer collector than a beer drinker, so the rate with which he buys dwarfs the rate at which he consumes. It's rather said, actually, but he shares much of his bounty and I'm grateful for it.

When Roe threatened to take their fridge back, Russ was faced with a quandry... where to put all of the displaced beer? Well, like a good soldier who's willing to take one for the team, I stood up and said, "I'll Take It." :-) and Just like that, I had a full-size fridge delivered to the house to help my dear friend out. The photo below happens to show my two favorite additions to the shop: the fridge and my 16" Laguna bandsaw.

And this is what 5 cases of great micro- and foreign brews look like in the new fridge. It's OK, feel free to take a moment if you need to...

What I truly love about this one is there's no freezer and it's equipped with an internal heater so you can keep it outside in the winter without the contents freezing. This was key since I only heat my shop when I'm out there. The longer-term plan is to put a kegerator kit in the door so I can keg my homebrew. The bottom shelf should be just high enough to fit 5-gal corny kegs. Yeah, Baby!!