Pictures to come soon. Toilet almost ready for use.

So, the plumbing in the upstairs is almost finished. By almost, I really mean its finished, save for a few cosmetic things.

Last Sunday, my father and I finished grounding the toilet to the newly secured closet flange. This baby ain't moving anytime soon. We lifted the original flange to be flush (no pun intended) with the marble floor, so when we secured the toilet, the wax ring that goes underneath would be level with everything else.

However, before any of the toilet fun could happen, we replaced the shut off valve and changed its location. Originally, the valve was inside the wall. Well, my father instructed me in the art of sweating copper tubing so we could extend the piping so the valve would be outside the wall. Sweating piping is a interesting, if not dangerous, endeavor. It involves tubes, flux, a blow torch, and solder.

First, before any fitting, you must shut off your water. Next, you clean every pipe end you are connecting. You clean it and sand it, so the copper is shiny. This is important for a good seal. Moving on, you need to make sure the pipe is dry inside. Otherwise, you cannot heat the solder up hot enough for it to work. My father told me an interesting tip. To make sure your pipe is dry, jam white bread in the plumbing. It not only blocks any water from seeping forward, it dries the pipe and disintegrates in water when you are finished with your work. Bread has been a trade tool for ages. Clever, no?

We, unfortunately, did not have any white bread at our disposal. So, we created a heat shield out of tin. The heat shield worked for the most part... Let's say, for now, that the valve was sweated properly. When you are sweating, you apply flux to the ends you want to connect. Then, after fitting the pipes together, you place the blow torch at the connection point of both pipes. You place the solder opposite the blow torch, so the solder is only touching the heated pipe, not the fire directly. As soon as the pipe reaches a certain temperature, the solder melts and spreads quickly into the gap, where the flux is. Then, you're done. The pipes are sealed together, and no water's going to be leaking out.

However, with a blow torch near the wall, things heated up. I noticed smoke coming from other wall openings near where we were sweating the pipe. Uh, oh... perhaps the heat shield didn't work so well after all... My dad and I quickly ran to the laundry room (adjecant the bathroom) and ripped down the latace work on the wall (for viewing the bathroom pipes, I assume). We looked. And we were releived. There was no insulation in this wall, and the smoke was coming from some charred paper on the dry wall. Dry wall is mostly chaulk, and does not burn so easily. We were saved... from almost having to battle a fire.

With one scare only comes another. When my father was moving the toilet, he injured his back. He was hurting pretty bad Monday... but today says he's feeling a little better. With all the help my parents (and Hilary's parents, and Tammy, and her brothers, and Sean), I would like to say thank you right now. Hilary and I are very blessed to have such supportive family and friends. My father will be better sooner than later, but with this set back, we'll be sure to be all around more careful from now on.

Despite these two shocks, we in fact have a toilet upstairs. Unfortantely, it is not fully finished. We attached the toilet, shimmed it so it was rock solid, and installed a new flusher, but the flusher was an out-of-box failure and we need to chaulk around the edge of the toilet to keep the shims in place. As soon as those two things are finished, the bathroom upstairs will be in better working order than when Hilary and I first arrived to Winifred Manor.

Though, to celebrate the flange and toilet placement, my father and I did a ceremonial first flush. Just because we could.