jill-of-all-trades
New Member
Hi! I am a Family Nurse Practitioner by day, and a stubborn DIYer on the weekends and whenever I can get time off. I am proud to be the daughter of a union Pipe-fitter (Local 597 in IL) who raised me and my siblings. Throughout my life, I observed him welding, bricklaying, doing roof repair, and generally DIYing any and everything in our home and in the driveway. I was his gofer - getting and learning the correct names of his tools - while he was working on projects. I was climbing up extension ladders and onto the roof at a very young age and now, at 60, have no fear of doing the same on my two story home. I've remodeled a kitchen and bathroom on my own with his guidance (by telephone) 20 years ago. I have confidence in my abilities, thanks to him, and almost this sense that I inherited some plumbing abilities. Now I am in the midst of renovating a bathroom and going against all I read advising NOT to relocate a toilet - I relocated my toilet. In the process of plumbing all the fixtures and connecting to the main drain in the crawlspace going to our septic tank, I am finding myself with very little room to work. (I am doing everything to UPC code and have been measuring and maintaining slope on the drain line). In the midst of all of this, I finally realized something. Plumbing is HARD! (Go ahead, pros, have a good laugh!) There is math and science coming at me from all different angles. As I read elsewhere and may have been guilty of thinking when I began this odyssey, plumbing IS more than just gluing some pipes together. (That, by the way, was the easy part - but I glued too soon and had to buy more pipes to glue together). Once I realized how complex plumbing is, and thought about how my father attended Washburn trade school for 2 years to learn his craft, I thought, "I tip my hat to all the plumbing professionals!" So, here I am, tipping my hat to all you professionals and giving you all a HUGE thank you for helping me and others like me who realize we need help if we are going to DIY this right. As for me, I kind of think of you all as surrogates, stepping in to help since my father passed away in 2014. Kudos and thanks again!
