Some good news and some bad

Kate's dad and I collaborated on some plumbing related work this weekend. We put a new dual-flush toilet in the first floor half-bath. We were able to save and almost completely rebuild the kitchen faucet - who knew that commercial faucets had such complete rebuild kits? We switched out the big dual tub cement sink in the laundry room for a much smaller/lighter/cheaper plastic single tub, freeing up some room. We also were not so fond of the electrical tape and caulk used to place the old cement sink's drain in place.
For the finale of good, removed a 6 foot section of galvanized (bad) pipe along with the main water shutoff to the house and put in a section of copper (good) pipe with new shutoffs and a whole house water filter. Didn't want to bite off too much for a weekend and go further with copper, but this lays a good foundation for future work.


And in bad news - we have a water leak between the street and our house. Buried in the yard and/or under the concrete walkway along the front and side of the house. F*CK! Odds are good that some of the plumbing mucking angered some of the 100 year old pipes - old house joy #34. Trying to see the good, at least we caught it before we got a monster water bill and/or had a yard pool or water damage in the basement. That's not saying that each of those won't happen, but we're not there yet. For now the water is off at the street (and therefore not on in the house), Kate and I are each showering at work, at we're calling recommended local plumbers for estimates. The fun and mounting expense are pretty exciting.