Installing the Drinking Fountain

One of the more unique and random features of the house we bought is none other than a drinking fountain in the backyard.


Cool, eh? That is, if it works. It has not made it to the top of Chris's fix-it list in the year that we've been living here--until this weekend. Finally, most other things were in good working order in the yard and Chris had a few minutes (ha) to devote to the drinking fountain.

When he first attached the spout at the end, this is what we got.


Yeah, that seems a little intense for a drinking fountain, don't you think? Maybe it'd be ok for a sprinkler, but that wasn't the idea. Let the adjusting commence.

That involved turning the water off in the yard using the water key. Then turning it back on. Then turning it off and on again.

Then it was too late in the evening so we all went to bed.

In the morning, Chris and I both noticed the sound of running water but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. In all the rush and hub-bub to get off to church on time, we both mostly forgot about it. Unfortunately.

Upon further investigation when reaching home, Chris discovered that the hole around the valve in the front yard was filling with water. That hole is only a few feet away from the house, meaning it wasn't far from flooding the basement if it kept going. So, let the digging commence.

Chris was really hoping it was the valve that had broken. It only took getting four feet down and turning the water back on to realize that it was, in fact, the water main itself that was leaking. Not wanting to risk replacing one small portion only to have to do this all over again in months to come, Chris opted instead to replace the entire water main from the water meter all the way into the house.

Let the serious digging commence.


Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came to help. Tony was here for hours and enlisted the help of his friends and brother. This project was huge--I can't imagine that it would have gone well if Chris was trying to do it himself.

Lucky us, the water main broke on Sunday afternoon, when it's almost a hundred degrees outside, when we're a week away from having a baby. Isn't that Murphy's Law or something? Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong?

By the end of Sunday, the hole looked like this:


For a little perspective on depth, here's Chris inside:


In all, the hole was 4 feet deep, 25 feet long, and just under two feet wide. That's a big hole.

Chris took Monday off of work and Christian came and spent most of the day helping him get the old pipe out, the new pipe in, and all the fittings and valves properly installed. Thank you, Christian! Tony joined them later to help fill the hole back in.

Just to add a little excitement, the kids all had their turn helping, too.




Even if they weren't terribly helpful.

The story has a happy ending! Our beautiful new water main works perfectly, all the way from the meter to the house. No leaks! And we were only without water for two days, not counting the night between when the jury-rigged a hose as a temporary solution.


The reason the pipe burst in the first place was from the water being turned on and off a few times so close together. The jarring from that broke loose a good chunk of rust that had eaten through the galvanized pipe. Turns out it was a really, really good thing that we replaced the entire pipe. Before they were done, at least three other places burst through and started leaking when the water was on, and Chris counted no less than half a dozen other places on the pipe that were only rust, waiting to break off. No rust worries now!

And it's done! Here is the yard today. Still need to replace the sod, but that's like nothing compared to everything that has been done up to now.


But really, all we wanted was the drinking fountain, right? Well, it works, too.

Good job, Christopher!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Britta!