Wednesday

 

Today, the plumber came to replace all of our spigot shut offs. The old one was cracked making it difficult to thread the hose connection.

This one in the backyard leaked so badly that we ended up wasting lots of water whenever we used it. Now it has the newest shut-off valve, called a quarter turn handle. When the lever is horizontal, the water is off, when you turn the lever to the vertical position (1/4 turn), the water is on. Simple and easy to use.

The new one above is for the south side of the house. 

Each new valve comes with a code-required back flow suppressor. That's the attachment on the bottom. It prevents water from being sucked into the pipes in reverse of the usual flow. I think the idea is to prevent back flow into the water heater or other appliances.

This spigot exists in the sunroom, oddly enough. I guess when the porch was open, it made sense to be able to hose it out to clean. We went ahead and replaced the valve because it would not shut off immediately whenever it was turned on. It would drip for a few hours. Now all of the spigots are up-to-date and functioning properly.

Our next project is to replace our outdoor light fixtures. We have a bid for the work, but we have to find the fixtures before they can begin. We went to a lighting store this morning after searching online but were unable to find something that would work. But it was clarifying to see things in person. We'll keep looking.