There is an old plumbing maxim: Hot on the left, cold on the right, and sh*t runs down hill. Well, I gloriously proved that wrong…

Our toilet was leaking water the other night and was doing it in a way that made absolutely no sense.  After troubleshooting everything two times and not being able to come up with an answer a light bulb suddenly went off: what if the sewer is backing up in to the house.  I went outside in my slippers and popped off the lid of the drain clean out to be met with a geyser to rival Old Faithful.

Digging up our front yard the next morning, I thought I would trace the drainline to the sidewalk.  There was an old house on the property that was torn down before we bought the lot, so I just tied our pvc drain line into an old 4″ cast iron pipe that headed out into the street.  Last summer we inspected what I could see of the cast iron and it looked in great shape, so I decided to forgo the expense of running a new line into the street.

What I didn’t realize until I was sitting in a canal of my family’s waste was that after three feet, the cast iron switched over to terra cotta pipe, which was crushed.  (I think I have myself to blame on that one as we happen to run a vibrating plate tamper over that ground a few weeks back when compacting a little path a few weeks back.)

Anyway, never a dull moment at Latitude 38.  Next Friday, I hope to get up some photos of the new Riverbluff house as the exterior is really looking sharp.

Being in the land of Jefferson, we felt a certain obligation to at least give a nod to the old man when building our new house.  My favorite element of Monticello has always been his bed, which is built into a wall that divides his office from a sitting room.

We are big believers in great expansive common spaces for our homes, where the kitchen, dining and living areas all bleed together.  However, we thought a built-in day bed would be a great way to still separate the spaces while still maintaining interesting sight lines between the rooms.  

Of course, just a plain old day bed doesn’t really satisfy the inner kid in me.  So, we dropped the ceiling on the day bed and built a secret play loft above it for Eleanor, who checked it out for the first time this weekend.  There is also a trap door into the 2nd floor linen closet for quick getaways…

As the summer winds down, we are closing in on all of our framing and rough-in inspections.  We’ve been pretty much 95% ready for a good month or so, but it’s been hard to find the time to button up every last detail of the plumbing, electrical and hvac.

Normally, we sub out all the trades, but since this is my house, I wanted the satisfaction (and stress) of trying to do it all.  So, for me, it’s going to be a mile stone when we pass and can start insulating .

I keep meaning to write dedicated blog posts about some of the innovative things we are trying, but for now, a few photos will have to  suffice:  You can see Tom working on the last of our duct work, which includes a fully independent and ducted energy recovery ventilation system.  I’m stripping wires and wiring up the circuit breaker box, which will eventually have energy monitors on every circuit, so we can have a more accurate analysis of our energy usage.  And, Bryce is running all the water supply piping for the house including a mondo 36 port manifold system.  Hopefully, more details to follow.