Water

And I never followed up on that?  Wow.  Well, I was busy.

Hubby and I did get the stack fixed.  And the drain that we broke while fixing the stack.  Not too bad, actually.

But while I was on the water (and Daughter-allergic-to-home-repair was still in Hawaii), I kept going.

We now have an all-PEX house.  All water coming in through the house is now done in blue (cold) and red(hot) PEX pipe.

It was incredibly easy.  The hardest part was stringing it up through the walls, but hubby dropped a weight on a string down through, and we were able to pull it up.

With the gas pipe done in the spring and the water in the fall, I feel like there may be hope for this house after all.

I also got the 'new' furnace running, and it has been fine all winter.  It's not really big enough for the house.  When the temp is below freezing, I needed to have stove burners running, but we got through all right.

I need to be actually working on the duct system, but hesitate to actually make a supply plenum for it, because I think we need to eventually invest in a new furnace that is actually the right size.

Gas, heat, electricity, water ...

There's always something.

The weather is turning.  Unusually early for us, but with the extra-long summer we had last year, I suppose I can't really complain.  Anyhow, it's time to think about the furnace again.

Last year, Son was given a furnace that was coming out of a house being renovated.  Should be a good furnace.  Last furnace barely made it past March this year.  Running it again is not possible.  So, while I have meant all summer to get on it, there is no more room for procrastination.

Or is there?

Hubby and I get down to the cellar to move the 'new' furnace into it's 'new' position, and discover a small stream of water dripping from the ceiling, right next to the stack.  Aha!  Likely it's the stack!

Checking upstairs, this is what we find - The stack itself is leaking between the attic toilet and the upstairs toilette.  The stack, you understand.  Stacks almost never leak, because there isn't any water pressure behind them..

For the moment, we wrapped a towel around it and continued with the furnace, even though the ceiling of the cellar is very soaked, because ... well, because there is no water pressure behind a stack, therefore it can't be leaking all the time.  In fact it can't be leaking if there is no one in the attic using water.

And there isn't.  So where is it coming from?

I still have no answer to that.  We turned off the water to the attic.  It continued to leak.  In fact it kept getting worse, soaking up a towel every hour or two.  The only possible reason is if the toilet isn't seated right, but I don't really see how that can be the answer, with the water turned off.  I finally turned off all water to the upstairs, except the hot water to the shower, which has a direct lead.  And the leak finally stopped.

Next issue - how to fix it.  Now a stack is a straight pipe made of unbending material.  How do you take out a section, fix it, and put it back?  You don't.  Well, the actual solution is to get a rubber piece to insert into it and clamp tightly around the two ends.  It's a poor solution, and one which was already used lower down.  It tends to collapse a bit, leaving the inner hole too small and (yuk) toilet paper catches on the sides and clogs up.

(No matter how you look at it, it's going to be a dirty job.)

I think what we're going to have to do *sigh* is unseat the attic toilet, pull up the stack, repair the leaking section, and seat the toilet back down.

Time, money, and no upstairs toilet until done.