Who Needs A Plumber?

In October, I took a 9 week plumbing course at Central Tech. Looking back at my blog entry after the class, I see that I barely mentioned the kitchen, except for the installation of a dishwasher. Yet here I am, under the kitchen cabinet, installing the faucets and drain. Good thing that I can fit under there.

Plumbing itself is not necessarily that difficult. Working in a small space with bulky tools, that's often the biggest challenge. How do you get your hands in there? Not to mention firing up the propane torch under your newly installed counter top. Well, I decided to go with compression fittings so I left the torch in the basement, and the counter top is still intact. But I must admit that there was a considerable amount of cursing as Dan can testify.

In the class, our teacher Paul was very encouraging and often told us to just do stuff. I would take him photos of various plumbing questions and he would tell me what parts I needed and an overview of how to do it. We also did two projects: copper soldering and ABS waste plumbing. So I do have about 2 or 3 hours of hands on practice, so why shouldn't I be able to do this project myself? Paul did discourage me from doing the rough in plumbing myself, so I did hire him to do that portion. But the finishing was all up to me.

Yesterday I went to the library en route to Home Hardware. I picked up the Illustrated Guide to Plumbing (which I had previously borrowed for 9 weeks) and then re-read that section for the fifth time. But as my friend Matthew says: the only way to really know how to do something is to try it yourself. So by following the directions in the book and on the various product packages, I put the sink, faucet and drain together. We turned on the water and alas, only a minor leak on the hot water supply. So I got out the wrenches and tightened it up, and no more leak. And better than that - running water in the kitchen. Oh joy. You know, it really is the little things that can give you so much joy.