Shoveling Sand, Cutting Pipes

We spent Sunday working on the house again. In the first part of the day, Liz and I worked on getting the remaining sand back in the ground. We still have a mound outside, but it remains to be seen how much more of that we’ll need to haul back in.

The second part of my day involved cutting away a ton of the second floor bathroom pipes. Using a Sawzall, I was removing most everything (save for the heavy cast iron, which Bob demo-ed).

Sawing the pipes was one of the more frustrating experiences I’ve had so far at the house. It seemed a fairly straightforward and simple task – chop these things up and remove them. But I found myself feeling fairly daunted, as I usually do when doing something I’m not familiar with.

There was a decent amount of dirty water (I was removing water pipes, and the shower had a trap/cleanout). So I got a few mini-showers of nasty water that left me smelling… well, not so fresh.

But honestly, that wasn’t all that bad. Getting the water sprayed all over me was fine, as it gave me an indication I was making headway through the pipes.

When the water pipes got more nested together, I found myself stuck and needing to get Bob’s help. For a long while, I tried tackling these pipes on my own, but ended up feeling like I was carving up the walls nearby. The dirtiness of the job didn’t bother me. What bothered me were the moments where I found myself unable to cut pipe – it was the moments in between that got me frustrated.

I have this really bad habit – something I’ve noticed in myself, over the years. When doing something new, if I don’t do it correct or perfect the first time, I get very frustrated. Naturally, it takes repetition and practice. But I notice that I want to be good at something, right out of the game.

I need to work on this aspect of myself, I think. Part of me needs to become more comfortable with tackling newer tasks/challenges, and a large part of me needs to become more patient – and realizing I’m not going to be good at these newer tasks/challenges, at least at the start.

Outside, Liz and Julie filled up several bags worth of yard waste, and cleared out a lot of the day lilies growing in the parkway. They even discovered a few paths connecting the sidewalk to the street that had been covered up!

We had a late start, and didn’t get going until around noon (but finished up around 9:30 PM). Not a lot of photos from today, despite there being a ton of work done.

Related:
Filling a Very Large Hole in the Basement