New Life in the Woods

The Repair Trip

At the start of November I had some more money (thanks Alexis!) and I had most of my bankruptcy papers done. I was just waiting on the credit counseling certificate to arrive before I could file them. I decided I could afford to take another trip up to the cabin and make some initial repairs. That way I would (hopefully) have electricity and running water when I moved my stuff in mid-November.

Most of my car was stuffed with boxes of food, so I wasn’t able to move a lot of belongings, but I brought my tools this time. The drive seemed to go even faster and I was prepared for the steep downslopes and curves in the mountains on I-5. I arrived near dusk again on Friday, November 2nd, planning to stay a similar amount of time and return Monday the 5th so I could file my papers on Tuesday.

Planning Phase

I spent most of Saturday planning and getting supplies. Susan had given me $300 cash for materials. As soon as it warmed up a bit I resurveyed the damage, pulled out wires and made sure that there were no shorts anywhere. Then I went into town and shopped for PEX plumbing supplies. Talking to a very helpful guy at Diamond Home Improvement, I realized I should probably alter my plans for the plumbing. I had planned to convert the PVC to 1/2″ pipe right above the valve (the same diameter as the copper pipe in the walls), but the guy at the store explained that it was better to convert to 3/4″ at first and then only convert to 1/2″ where the plumbing branches off to each room. That way, there would be ample supply to each appliance and turning on the water in the kitchen, for example, would not scald somebody taking a shower in the bathroom. Now I had to rethink things a bit.

Susan wanted to use PEX tubing in place of copper where the plumbing had been torn out. This is a kind of plastic tubing that can withstand high pressure and a lot of heating and contraction. It is also resistant to freezing. The other bonus was that any potential vandals would find skimpy rewards if they snooped around the cabin at some point in the future.

Diamond had two different types of PEX fittings, but one of them required an expensive crimping tool so I avoided that brand. Restricting myself to the other brand of fittings meant that they didn’t have all the fittings I would need, so I got directions to another store named Grover Electric & Plumbing Supply on the other side of town and bought another load of parts. They had still another type of PEX fitting there, but they had some of the sizes and types of fittings I was lacking. Another helpful man there demonstrated a fourth type of fitting that just slipped onto the end of the plastic PEX pipe, very easy to install but a bit more expensive. I now had 3 different brands of fittings, but altogether I thought I had what I needed.

Back at the cabin that afternoon I sat down to redraw my plans for the plumbing. It is important to think these things through carefully before-hand. Drawing pictures often helps. Several versions of the plan went into the fire before I had one I liked. It included 3/4″ pipes running up to just below the kitchen, over to the water heater (and back carrying hot water to the kitchen), over to the copper pipes hanging from the ceiling that led to the bathroom, and a couple of capped-off pipes hanging down from there for a utility sink that I would install outside at some later date. The pipes leading up to the kitchen, to the bathroom, and to the utility sink would all be 1/2″ from the point where they branched off.

It was a relatively small job, but I am relaying all of this in the hope that I am giving some sense of the complexity that can be involved even so. This was my first time attempting anything like this, with plumbing anyway.

As I was doing this, night had fallen and it was getting cold. In fact, it was supposed to get down near freezing and the prior night I had worn a ski cap all night and kept a blanket over my sleeping bag, even sleeping right next to the woodstove on a small futon I had found upstairs. I made a quick meal on my camp stove and decided to call it a night. I had realized I would have to make another trip back to the store anyway. It seems the small PVC conversion piece I had bought was the wrong size on the outside. With PVC you measure pipe from the inside diameter and I knew this, but I still got the wrong size the first time. I would have to start the repairs Sunday.

Starting Repairs

Sunday started out slow again. It was just too cold to think about working with metal tools for a bit. I walked around some more and went up to the construction trailer again to see what other supplies I might find up there… not much as it turns out. Along the way back I did find a piece of sheet steel that I thought I might be able to use to jerry-rig a door for the wood stove.

I went over all my plans to make sure I had thought of everything and then headed into town to exchange a few parts and buy some other things that my new plans called for. I also picked up a smoke alarm and a small fire extinguisher, because that wood stove without a door had scared me the night before when I burned a piece of resinous pine and it spat sparks for most of an hour.

Finally, back from the store at about noon, I glued the new (correctly sized) PVC conversion piece in place and left it so the glue would have a chance to “set” for a while before I worked with it more. Upstairs I cut out some sheetrock under the bathroom sink and began to “sweat” off the short damaged sections of copper pipe that had extended out of the wall. It was a lot harder than I thought. I had to pull on the pipes with pliers and twist them while heating with the torch to get the damaged sections out. I learned a good lesson too. Melted solder can sometimes run out of the end of the pipe you are working on. In fact, it ran right over the wrench I was pulling on the pipes with and into the cuff of my long-sleeved t-shirt. I was so intent on what I was doing that I hardly felt it, but I got a few nasty burns getting those pipes out. Under the house, in the utility closet, I stood on an over-turned bucket to do the same with the copper pipes sticking out of the ceiling.

I decided that was about all I could do with the existing pipes for now. Until we decided whether we were using the existing water heater or a new one, it didn’t make sense to run all the pipes just yet. Besides that, the bathroom faucet was a lost cause, which I hadn’t realized before. Susan and I were still going back and forth on whether to replace the old propane water heater with a modern, energy-efficient, electric one. She was nervous about using gas up at that remote cabin anyway. Meanwhile, the PVC fitting would only get stronger the longer I let the glue set, so I turned to the electrical system.

Let There Be Light!

I cut out a section of sheetrock from the corner of the kitchen to pull up the cut wires, installed 3 junction boxes in the wall, and ran a single length of new Romex wire down through one of the holes. Underneath the house, I pulled enough length through to run it over to the fuse box, with enough slack to make the connections there easily. Back in the kitchen, I pulled that wire all the way back inside and used it to measure out four more lengths so I could connect all 5 wires that had been cut in that corner of the kitchen. I fed the five wires through the holes and went under the house to connect them to the fuse box.

It took me a while thinking out how and where to string the wires. They had previously been run at the top of the wall, but I initially started stapling them to the underside of the floor, thinking they would be more isolated from the plumbing there. Then I realized that this was the only section of the floor without insulation and plywood on the underside and that we might want to put some up later, at which point the wires would be in the way. So, I took them all down and re-stapled them where they had been run before, at the top of the wall.

I connected two of those circuits, leaving the other three wires loose since there were no clamps to hold them at the top of the fuse box. I then went outside to the front of the house and repaired the wires that were cut at the main service panel (just the ground wire and some wires leading to a Spring Pump up the hill a ways – I’ll get that working later). I didn’t want evidence of the vandalism to show at the meter if someone from the power company came by when I switched the electricity over to my own account. Those wires were thick, heavy-gage wires though, and this took me almost two hours to do (plus digging to find the old ground wire and reconnect that).

Daylight Savings Time

Having finished with the main circuit box, I looked up to find that it was getting dark again and colder. It was daylight savings time, and, since I had already reset my watch that morning, darkness came an hour earlier that day. Tired and dirty, I went inside and made some dinner. Now it was really dark and I hadn’t managed to do much plumbing or even connect a single circuit all the way, although the wires were all in place and stapled up.

I went back to the corner of the kitchen and, with a small flashlight held between my teeth, fed the wires into the junction boxes, stripped them, and spliced them together using wirenuts. Along the way, I also got a good slice in my left index finger and spent a few minutes bandaging that up. Once the wires were connected I collapsed by the fire. It was a good hour before I thought to check if there was still power running to the cabin. I went outside and flipped the circuit breakers at both the main fuse box by the meter and at the subsidiary fuse box under the house. Upstairs I plugged in a small night light I had brought to test plugs and it worked. I had power!

I still didn’t hook up a lamp, since I was enjoying the fire, oil lamps, and candles I had been using so far. The steel door I had bent into shape to cover the opening of the wood stove was sort of working. The cabin was a lot warmer, even if I couldn’t see the fire anymore. I put some water on top of the wood stove to heat up for a sponge bath before bed. I had bought toothpaste, a new toothbrush, soap, disposable razors, and shaving cream along with my food supplies. So I brought a big wide bowl in from the kitchen and got as clean as I could in the circumstances. It was still chilly washing up that way, but kinda fun!

The Final Push

I had to leave by noon. Time to wrap things up! Monday morning I fairly quickly got a 3/4″ line of PEX tubing attached to the new PVC fitting. I attached a right-angle 3/4″ to 1/2″ adapter to that and ran a 1/2″ tub up to the kitchen sink. At that end, I put on a threaded fitting and attached a short, flexible tube between the sink and that pipe. I turned on the faucet and water came out! It was brown and smelly, but it was flowing! I let it run for a while and started cleaning up in preparation for leaving that afternoon. It turned out that the water was also turned off somewhere up near the water tanks, and it trickled out after a while. I wasn’t able to find that valve before I left, however, so that would have to wait for the next trip.

What Next?

Once we get the new water heater, I think it will take me 1-2 days worth of work to get hot and cold water to the bathroom and the kitchen. Some of the circuits throughout the house may take longer to repair, as I may have to take down some sheetrock to do the job properly, but I won’t need lights everywhere at first. I’ll have heat, power where I need it, and running water. Well, I will have running water once I figure out where the other valve is….

I am back “home” now in my old apartment, sitting amidst the mess left behind from my move (I’ll get to it, eventually). I have more bankruptcy paperwork to complete (new letters arrived in the mail during the big move), the apartment to clean and finish packing, Thanksgiving coming up, panels to build for my mom (for painting), and of course many blog entries to write. I will have to stay down here until December 5th to attend the Creditors’ Meeting, but that should wrap up my responsibilities down here and then I can move up to the cabin full-time. I’ll have to bunk somewhere the first few days of December, but I am not too worried about that.

I wish I was back up there now though, getting burns and cuts and skinned knuckles while fixing up the place, and having fun. I just lit a candle and I think I’ll turn out all the lights for a while and dream about the cabin in the woods.