A forceful shower, for a change

(Written Tuesday the 12th) Imagine that you've moved into a farmhouse which dates back to the 1850's.  It's all been re-done, probably 15 years ago or so.  There's drywall now instead of horse-hair and plaster (or maybe it was once a settler's cabin with rough-hewn beams and plaster for walls!).  There are still support beams in the old basement that are probably original to the house--over 100 years old and still holding strong! The original small 2 story dwelling was expanded at some point to include a one-story/no basement living room (probably was the kitchen, parlor, etc, etc, etc at some point) and has been expanded since then to include a spacious entry way, an amazingly large and inviting kitchen, a full-height basement room including a bathroom, and a roomy laundry room.   The house, garage and barn are attractive, renovated, just beautiful, although overgrown.  The trees on the property, the layout of everything, it all combines to make these 2 small acres a package deal of peacefulness and beauty.  Still, it's obvious that you'll be working hard to keep improving things and bringing everything back to really good shape. You've moved in, expecting things to fall apart without warning because it IS an old farm property after all, even though the renovations are very nice. The septic field and tank?  Unknown quality/installation and no idea how long it will last.  At least we have the permit info from the village/township from when the old tank was filled with gravel and the new(er) set-up was installed, and know where the tank is and where the pipes are laid (under the north half of the pasture!) The plumbing?  Re-done when the house was remodeled, but probably 20 years old.  Water pressure?  It's not enough to effectively run a sprinkler that relies on water pressure to re-set it to the starting point.  It's not enough to rinse your hair clean of conditioner without taking extra care to rinse twice. The furnace?  20 years old and still running unless ice forms just right in the air intake PVC pipe, and then you have no heat.  That was another story a month ago..... The radiant heat in the kitchen floor and basement floor?  Working, but the water tank gradually leaks out water and takes in air, and might be rusting out as well.  It wheezes and makes crazy noises if Jeff doesn't top it off with more water once in a while, but....it heats the kitchen, keeps the entry way fairly comfortable, and keeps the basement and laundry room floor bearable to walk on in sock-feet. The radiant heat in the garage floor?  Not winterized soon enough when the house was foreclosed on and sat vacant, and the pipes burst at floor level.  Not usable (no heat in the garage, sunroom, or office on the second floor of the garage) The barn?  In good shape, considering that it's from the 1920's, but the roof is leaking and parts of the main support beams are in need of bolstering.  It was drywalled and insulated, with a heater installed, which made a very nice workshop for the cabinet-maker who lived here.  It's not so good to have an airtight and insulated barn for livestock, though.  The drywall and insulation had become havens for coons, rats, and mice over the years, and are moldy because we don't run the heater to keep it dry.  (I'm pulling down old soggy stuff as I'm able to get to it, and the trash bags of ruined insulation or drywall are piling up.) Still, it's mainly dry inside and still standing, and housing our 2 cows and numerous chickens, ducks and geese. The well?  The pump turns out to be rather high-tech, surprisingly, and the well-shaft is smaller than the current wells would use.  The workings for the well, water pressure, and water pipes are at least 20 years old.  We don't know how long the pump will last, but at least we know (found out last week) that we can get a replacement pump on short notice when it's needed without ordering it from Denmark. And on....and on....and on.....  You could let yourself get very discouraged if you dwelt on too much of that or on the waiting for something to break down. When the water pressure in the house went down to nothing last week, it wasn't a huge surprise.  The guys from the well and water service came out, determined that the air bladder inside the pressure tank for the well might have a small leak, and gave us instructions for how to test it in the next few days. The water pressure in the house started going between OK and next-to-nothing, back and forth, and we put up with that for the weekend.  It seemed to work for a while, then the pipes would empty out, and slowly the pipes would fill back up with water and everything would work again....for a little while. Monday, the guys came back out and replaced the pressure tank after determining that it would not be fixable.  Then the water still wasn't running right, so they looked at everything connected to various water pipes and found another problem.  A small filter (suited to filtering drinking water but not intended for filtering the well-water coming into a whole house) was installed at some point on the pipe bringing water into the house.  The filter inside of it was nearly completely clogged.  They took out the clogged filter, letting the water flow directly through the empty filter canister and into the water softener and carbon filter.   The water pressure in the house improved dramatically.  The softener and carbon filter are able to do their jobs better now that the water flow is improved, and the sulfur smell and iron taste of the well-water are finally reduced like they're supposed to be. The water pressure improved so dramatically that Jeremy said (after his shower last night) that the force of the water was painful and left his feet bright red.  THAT's never been a problem before!!! Then Jeff confirmed that this morning before he left with the boys:  If you have the shower on at full-force, it stings!  What a novel idea!  We've gotten used to having it on "full-force" because that was the only way to have an actual semblance of a shower. Remember all the stuff I described before?  The septic tank and it's unknown status, the radiant heat boiler and its leaking, the barn and all the things needed to improve it.....?  The water pipes in the house?   We've lived with the low water pressure for a year and a half now and just figured we always would.  The water coming into the house has to travel through a pipe.....which replaces the original pipe.....but the original pipe is still in place.  The new(er) water pipe threads through the original pipe, and is smaller than the original.  So maybe instead of a 1 inch pipe it's 3/4 inches (just for example).   Low water pressure?  Comes with the territory, we thought. The older kids used to gripe about not wanting to shower here, because of water smell, water pressure, not feeling clean after showering here, lots of things.  Jeff used to shower back in Palatine on occasion, before we rented out that house.   Now....what a luxury to have a shower that actually stings if you don't tone it down.   And did I mention that it's my birthday?  I LOVED having a force-full shower to deal with on my birthday morning.  ;)   Laura http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/