Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Water...

We're really enjoying our stay at my sister-in-law's place here on the Outer Banks It's been nice seeing my oldest brother and his wife, my sister-in-law, her son, daughter, and son-in-law. Sis has always been generous. The beach house is no exception.

Now one thing to remember, beach house is still a house. As such, there are always small repairs to do.

My oldest brother Kev and I had a small project to tend to yesterday. There is an outside shower downstairs. The lines had not been drained and the cold water line had ruptured.

Seeing as how most hardware stores would be closed for the holiday, Kev and I went out Friday to get the things we needed. The young man at the hardware store knew exactly what we needed for the project. Moving at a break neck clip, he had our parts gathered up in no time. We paid up and headed out to the grocery store.

Yesterday morning we sorted out the parts in preparation of the project. It took all of three seconds to realize one of the parts was wrong.

Grumbling ensued.

With the grumbling out of the way, we made some calls to find out which, if any, hardware stores were open. We were lucky. Home Depot was open for regular hours. They were also on the north end of the island, twenty miles away.

With limited options, we headed up the road.

It took a bit to get there, but we felt fortunate that they had all the parts we needed. Once again, parts in hand and confidence brimming, we headed down the highway to the house.

The repair went well and without incident. We had to replace both lines and the shower fixture. It looked great. I slowly opened the cut off valves. Remarkably, no leaks. Kev opened the water valves on the shower assembly.

Perfection.

A thing of beauty.

We were both enjoying that warm glow that comes over folks after a project is over and done.

I was ready to suggest a celebratory beer.

Then we looked down.

On the old assembly there was a line that ran down to a hose nozzle. The hose nozzle allows whoever is staying here to rinse sand out of the shower and off the concrete slab below the house.

I was about to say something, but Kev summed it up best when he said,"Shit.".

I went back to the cut off valves, head hanging low, and slowly closed them. Kev was already sizing up the parts we'd need to run another line to the now inoperable water hose nozzle.

The twenty minute project that had turned into a two hour project had now turned into a three and a half hour project.

Back into the AirTrafficMobile and up the highway we went. I had to laugh a little. We were about to set a new record for miles covered in a parts run for any project we had ever done.

Eighty four miles in parts run for the project. Two round trips at 22 miles each.

On the way home I made a command decision. There's a nice brew pub, the Outer Banks Brewing Station, on the way. Great food, great beers, and I was in the mood to see some plumbing that worked.

We pulled in the parking lot, only to be greeted by this:


Nothing says "Happy New Year" like, "I just wrecked my boat.".

Whenever I'm feeling down, nothing cheers me up like a tall order of "Gee.......I'm glad I'm not that guy.".

Kev and I both immediately felt better.

A beer break was just the thing.




"Santa's Little Sledgehammer" red ale. A one half litre bottle of 10% alcohol content by weight happy.


In order to soak up the "Sledgehammer", an order of spicy fried tuna bites was called for.


In order to wash the tuna bites down, a "flight" order of microbrews was called for.

Soon enough it was time to put our plumbing hats back on. We returned to the beach house, additional parts in tow.

Kev cut the line, inserted the "T" joint, hooked up all the parts and clamped the plastic lines in place.

I dutifully opened the cut off valves.

The fountains of Rome had nothing on the beautiful spraying water escaping from the leaks in the lines. It seems the brass fittings were not made to fit the two different types of plastic lines in use.

Epic fail.......the holiday version.

By this time we had no more passion, nor patience, for the project. I was not about to put another 42 mile round trip to the hardware store on the AirTrafficMobile.

Besides, the original, closest hardware store would be open today.

This morning Kev got up early and got there when they opened up. He returned with the correct fittings.

The final installation went off without a hitch.

The project in review:

Three days.

$60.00+ in parts.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 90 miles travelled gathering various parts.

Less than one hour of actual hands on labor.

Another story in a long history of stories between brothers.

I wouldn't trade any of them for the world.

Hope you folks had a safe and happy New Year's Day.

We did.

Until the next time, all y'all take care of yourselves.

Air Traffic Mike, ret.