POSTS
Welcome to Home Ownership
Wow, what a weekend! My dad came over to help me install a whole house water softener on Saturday. I underestimated the scope, but any project has its share of roadblocks, or fractured water main fittings that causes flooding, right?
I have a tendency to think I can do anything, especially when it comes to installing, repairing, or modifying things. I put a supercharger in our old 3rd generation 4Runner because, why not? It’s a mixed-blessing really. It means I can’t leave well enough alone, or leave tasks to the subject experts. Is it because I’m eternally frugal (or probably more accurately: pennywise and poundfoolish) or is it because of the overconfidence that can develop out of being a software engineer?
I know this is not always the case with building complex software systems, but sometimes it seems our job is easy because when small mistakes are made, they’re quickly correctable. It’s easier than ever to experiment with software; for instance, being able to snapshot and restore linux instances is a dream nowadays. With version control, if you broke your application, it’s practically free to “go back” to the state your project was before you introduced failure. This removes some element of fear or “paralysis by analysis” for me.
So, if you spend enough time on the keyboard, I argue that your confidence with problem-solving increases while at the same time your experience with all other fields decreases, which seems to amplify the Dunning-Kruger effect. Hello advanced home-plumbing project, here I come! I mean, plumbing has inputs and outputs too, just like computers. And besides, I can’t pass up an opportunity to show off my best plumber butt!

Our area has some of the hardest water in the country. And while municipal water treatment does a decent job of bacterial decontamination the byproduct is that the water has chlorine, chloramines, and other organic matter that you don’t want on your skin, or in your food, or in your appliances. These are not things you want to long-term exposure to. THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Seriously. With it came a Reverse Osmosis system (yet to be installed) to further eliminate heavy metals like fluoride, which can for instance negatively affect things like your pineal gland. I opted for the remineralization cartridge to get some of the good minerals back into the water.
The filtration system was delivered by freight. It sat in the corner of our garage for a couple weeks before I had the courage to install it. Luckily I was able to solicit help from my Dad. I have NO experience welding copper fittings. That turned out to be the easy part though. I have a new appreciation for plumbers. It’s a dirty job. More of an art really. And like most things it requires some skill and experience. After 5 trips to the hardware store and numerous small leaks, we had the filtration system hooked up with the bypass valve enabled, and the drain pipe was almost fully plumbed to the laundry drain.
My dad was a trooper. We worked late, until the house had water again. Everything was water tight.. until 3:30am. Luckily my wife woke up and checked on the garage.
Her: Hey, wake up. The garage is flooding!
Me: (Air-Gasp)!!!
We shut off the water and surveyed the damage. The garage had an inch of water on the floor. Everything in the center of the garage was soaked. The water was spraying full-blast but at least it wasn’t spraying directly into the drywall. It had been leaking for at least 30 minutes, maybe an hour. Even things that weren’t directly sprayed were still wet from the sheer amount of moisture in the garage. We spent the early morning hours cleaning it up before our daughter awoke. We’re lucky that the damage was pretty minimal given the amount of water.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “welcome to home ownership” this year, we’d have enough money to fix our roof. We ended up over-tightening a PVC fitting on the copper threads of the inlet on the main. We also reused the fitting so the integrity was diminished. I think this is where industry experience comes in. Don’t reuse pieces that have been torqued. Don’t over-tighten.

I took a breakfast break after remediation and re-plumbed half of the system. With several more trips to the hardware store (I lost count after 7) our house now has a working whole-house water softener and filtration system. We decided to use potassium-chloride instead of sodium-chloride in our brine tank. I don’t have any experience with either, but I already get a ton of sodium in my diet.

We’ve had other more serious issues related to our house, so cleaning up a wet garage wasn’t too bad relatively. I think the end result is fairly professional. And the water is so much better. I still need to clean out the mineral deposits in the water heater, replumb the kitchen sink, and install the reverse osmosis filter. We’re so CLOSE to having amazing drinking water on tap!
I’m not sure if I have more or less confidence now in my next plumbing task. I felt like I underestimated this one but I know so much more now! Maybe I should refer back to the graph above. It’s true that mistakes can be corrected in the physical world but in my experience they cost more time and resources, maybe a limb or digit, and yet another trip to the hardware store.