Tom's Thoughts and Nancy's Notes

We've lived in our nice Murphy home just over two years now. There aren't many things to complain about how this structure is laid out and the building construction that was done. However, its one fatal design "flaw" has always been the poor placement of the external water faucets. There are but two, one near the front corner on the northwest, and one on the east side about halfway down the driveway, before reaching the garage doors. You have to drag out a 100' garden hose from either faucet through a gate in order to get all the way around to the back and water plants on the back porch.

Fortunately, our water heaters are located on a platform in a back corner of the garage. Just on the other side of the garage back wall from the water heaters is our back porch. I'd decided long ago it should be quite easy to tap into the cold water line feeding the hot water heaters and install a faucet through that garage back wall to service the porch and back yard. Yesterday was the day to get 'er done!

After measuring and re-measuring several times, I finally decided I was in just the right spot to make the breach through the wall. I began by using a 1" diameter hole saw. I didn't have one made to go through brick - my Lowe's was out of that particular item - so it was pretty hard going. I ended up grounding down the teeth of the hole saw about the time I had made it through the front half of the brick. So, I then switched to a regular masonry bit and proceeded to drill holes through the back half of the brick until we were all the way through...


Once I had drilled multiple holes in the back side of the brick, it was just a matter of using a cold chisel and tapping out the rest of the brick on the back half.


Back in the garage, it was very convenient that the plumbers who installed all this placed cutoff valves for the cold water pipes feeding the water heaters. I didn't have to cut off water to the whole house while I worked - just right here at the water heaters. I've used a torch to remove a pressure relief tank (not pictured here) from the existing piping, and inserted a "tee" inline where I connected the feeder line going down to the faucet end which comes through the garage wall.



Here I'm soldering the line coming off the "tee" joint. This project was the FIRST time to ever solder copper joints - but I've seen it done many times on TV so I decided I could handle this!



Here's a picture of the completed plumbing connections. At the very tip-top you see the expansion canister re-installed as well. And most importantly - no leaks!


Installed a hose hanger and now you see the final product on the exterior...

Nancy is very pleased - now she doesn't have to make numerous trips between the porch and kitchen to fill milk jugs to water her potted flowers on the back porch. I'm pleased because I'm now experienced at a new skill. And, I'm pleased it only took one trip more to the plumbing store than the minimum 3-trip quota required whenever doing plumbing!

Cheers,
Tom

We made our way to downtown Oklahoma City and found the site. Sure glad my nephew was with us! Don't know if we would have found it. I got totally turned around.

Above is the entrance.

To the left of the entrance is a fence where people leave little memorials.

Above the entrance is the inscription, "We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope, and serenity."

This is the first thing you see as you enter. It is immediately ahead. It has the time of 9:01 inscribed on it. When you walk down to that end and turn around and see where you came in, you realize 9:03 is inscribed over the entry way. The bomb went off at 9:02 and is represented by the reflection pool...

Above is the entrance with 9:03 on it.

This gives you a good understanding.

Above is the "before" picture that depicts where the building and street were.

And this one the memorial site.
After you pass through the entrance, immediately on your right are the "chairs" that represent the victims. One chair for each victim.


This is the entrance to the museum.

And, this is the wall you see as you exit the museum.
This is the opposite end of the fence with the memorials that was first seen at the entrance.
We thought it was an excellent museum and worth the entry price. It helped us remember things we'd forgotten and informed us of things we hadn't realized.

~Nancy~