Today I made a total rookie homeowner move. Imagine this: I’m feeling pretty smug – I’m jacked up on confidence from removing my shower tub floor. Only one phone call to my dad and 15 minutes on youtube to get the drain figured out and it’s out. What should I tackle next?

I eye the tiny little water pipe that fed my now non-existent toilet. (sidenote: I’ve gone waterless with a composting toilet!) It’s been my plan to remove this eyesore for a few weeks. Now is the perfect time while riding my freshman plumbing high. I take mental note that the valves to the pipe are shut off. This will be a quick and easy notch to add to my burgeoning plumbers belt.

The hacksaw blade slides effortlessly into the pvc pipe like a surgeon’s scalpel to skin when…wait,,, what… ack – water is spurting out of the new incision like a fresh artery! WHAT?? I’m clutching at it to staunch the flow… my other hand wildly trying to pick up the sander, piles of sand paper, drill and other tools littering the floor space. Water is going EVERYWHERE, on me, the floor, the walls – it’s like a summer sprinkler game only inside on a fall day. I leap to the sink and shut off a valve there – no change. I think about the main shut off outside and 50 feet away… no time – I’ve got the ark here and I can’t let it fill with water. I look down and see ground through the hole in the floor – this pipe needs to go down and out – that’s the fastest… but it’s got a clunky valve on it in the way. So I take the hacksaw and finish the job cutting the pipe straight off which unleashes a full fountain of water onto the floor. I’m shoving the pipe through the floor but my fingers aren’t long enough. I grab Ja-Ja’s trusty 1.5 foot long screwdriver and thrust that pipe to the outside world! I’ve saved the ark!

I’m dripping wet and laughing hysterically.

You know what I’m thinking??  I’m thinking “you know what being wrong feels like…. It feels like being right!” I heard that line in a TedTalk years ago and today I got it. The valves I thought went to this line were shut off. The water  line I thought went to this spot wasn’t actually the one. I didn’t need to check because I was sure. Well… now I know my simple plumbing system layout… and what valves I will shut off in the future. Sometimes knowledge is hard won. 

I’m actually grateful. 

Grateful you say? The under-workings of my tiny house are no longer a mystery. The hours I spent crawling around below my home, undoing the waterproof barrier to drain the pooled water from my charlie brown plumbing incident have helped me understand how things are put together. I’m actually cutting drain pipes, fitting them with couplings and troubleshooting where a winter freeze might burst a pipe. I’m also getting to learn about insulation while replacing some that got a little wet in the “rookie move” and why the water barrier layer is so darn important. 

Knowledge is power – right?

I laugh because the alternative isn’t inviting. I wish someone was there to witness this because they would have gotten their diaphragm workout for the day. Just one more of the adventures in this new journey.