My wife had a simple request today: Could you install the kitchen boiler? I've been too scared to start this project because I don't have any experience yet with DIY plumbing. She helped me by making a diagram. What needs to happen is that the cold water line must be diverted to the boiler with a T split. Then the hot water line from the central heating needs to be plugged, and the hot water for the tap comes from the boiler. Finally, the boiler needs to be connected to the drain. Now, while I don't have experience with plumbing, I do know project management. And if you start by cutting the cold water, hot water, and drainage, you'll end up with none of them functional at the end of the day. So I focused on cold water only. And it was still an epic fail.
The supplies I bought for this project were all for 15mm copper pipes, which are standard here in the Netherlands. But what I found in my house were pipes that appeared to be 16mm, and that is just enough of a difference that it doesn't connect properly. Off to the hardware store I went, by bike of course. I found out that this pipe is an older standard that requires an expensive 16mm to 15mm connector. Because I wanted to reuse the old hardware as much as possible, I bought three of them.
Installing this was a complete fucking nightmare. Cutting pipes went fine, but the convertors just wouldn't stay in place. And I had three of them. One for the water coming up from the crawl space, one for the tap connected to the dishwasher, and finally one for the tap itself. I ended up with this crazy magic wand looking thing made of copper and brass. And it was so heavy that it pulled the water line connection out of alignment.
My wife, who is very smart and gracious, chimed in at 6 PM that it was perhaps time to cut my losses. At this point the water main had been turned off for over six hours, which means no dishwasher, no laundry machine, and no flushing the toilet. Let's put a stop on the water line and try again in the morning. I agreed that she was right, and I wanted to give it one more try. She turned on the water main and the magic wand thing immediately sprung a million leaks.
I should also mention that I lost a connector ring at one point when it rolled into the hole to the crawl space. So I had to crawl into the fucking crawl space to retrieve it!! Protip: Put a towel over the hole before you start your work, dumbass!
Back to the hardware store I went, this time in the pouring rain. I hatched a new and much better plan for tomorrow and had dinner at McDonald's (They also had working toilets.) At home, the plug worked perfectly, although the Mrs is still a bit wary. I don't blame her one bit. We'll see how it goes in the morning.