Wolf Creek

Bought this old place in 1997 when I was transferred to Virginia. Lived in it three years before I got called away someplace else. I had a string of oafs live in it over the past seven years, just trying not to let it burn to the ground. I'm 50 now, and told I have to retire from the Coast Guard so I am trying to adjust to being home fulltime. Got a lot of work to do and so let me get started ...

My ugly pink bathroom.

My water was rusty colored and there were some soggy spots in the yard, then one month my water bill shot up over $100. The place was plumbed in the 1950's when the old black family who owned this place embraced indoor plumbing and abandoned their outhouse. I know this because I found newspapers stuffed into the joists over the bath when I was tearing into some wiring. Daily Press, 1955 The expected lifespan of galvanized pipes is about fifty years.

So, I tried to get someone to give me estimates on the job. Peculiar thing around Tidewater is that the custom McMansions make so much more money than the miscellaneous $2,000 small job that it is near impossible to get a tradesman to stop by. So when Phil Moore of Moore's Plumbing said he would replace my water main with 3/4" copper and terminate it to a manifold under my kitchen sink like I wanted, and he could start Thursday, I just said "go ahead." I was afraid I wouldn't get another offer.

Now it's the hottest part of the Summer and I don't have a shower. I got the kitchen back in service but there is a little work between now and then. I'll keep you posted.