On the subject of pipes

Last month, we finally got a new dishwasher. Ours had come with the house when Husband bought it with his first wife and it was definitely starting to fall apart. I arranged to have it delivered on my day off and we paid to have someone else install it.

It showed up and the installer got to work. About 5 minutes later, there was a problem. The valve running to the dishwasher was an older type. It's a type more commonly used with connecting gas hook-ups instead of water, so it would need to be replaced. Husband was, understandably, upset as it would be yet One More Thing that he wouldn't have time to do. The installer apologized (they don't do plumbing; they just install things) and suggested either hiring a handyman or doing it ourselves. As I had the day off, I decided to attempt to do it.

The installer was kind enough to leave a valve that was mostly correct. It only had one connection and we needed two but it gave me something to take to the store. The original plan had been to solder the piece on, especially after I couldn't remove the old one without cutting it. The lovely hard water had completely crusted the threading. The funny thing about being a woman in a hardware store is you can either have an employee assume you know what you're doing or assume that you have no clue. Thankfully, I had an employee who treated me like I had a brain and knew what I was doing, even though I had no idea. He kindly showed me to the valves and explained how a compression fitting worked (no soldering required) and then tried to help me find a cap for the side that would end up going to the dishwasher. They happened to be fresh out, so he told me that I would have better luck at a real hardware store.

I came home, started working on it and had rotten luck. Husband was very impressed that I didn't start cussing or screaming or anything else. I no longer remember the exact order of events but I do remember the following:

• the part inside that causes the compression got horribly beat up
• when asking Husband to measure a hose, it's also important to ask him to see if there is a label already on the hose so you don't buy the same size you already have
• turning the water on and trying to gently fix the fitting will always lead to water in the face and everyone will be upstairs so you'll be flooding the area under the sink and have to race downstairs to shut off the hot water valve
• the best way to not become a screaming, cussing, irritable mess is to walk away after getting sprayed in the face and go do something, anything else
• it's important to keep insisting that you will finish the project even if you have to go to work the next day before it is finished; this prevents Husband from getting crabby at having to finish a project he didn't want to do in the first place

Eventually, after a few more trips to the hardware store (a real one even), I did get it to not leak and to stay on. The next installer who showed up a week or so later was impressed with my handiwork. Husband gave me all the credit.

So why am I writing this in my crafting blog? One could argue that household repair (and plumbing in particular) is a craft. I could say that I'm simply fulfilling Husband's request that I write about it. The real reason is because working on this project reminded me a lot of my sewing and knitting projects. They often get frustrating and I want to throw them (and sometimes I have thrown them) but that I should probably just walk away and get a breather from it. I also had a huge sense of accomplishment of getting it to work, which I think is one of the reasons I craft as much as I do.

I started this blog to track and document my progress and there are several projects that I've been working on that haven't been written about. Sometimes working on something not at all related, I'm reminded about what I was starting to do. Over the last 12 months, I've struggled to write once a week about my knitting projects. If I'm truly going to be documenting things, I should be writing more often. I have cooked some very tasty things that I've not written about and am now no longer sure I could reproduce, even though I'd like to do so. It's hard to carve out the time to do it but that's something I want to change.