I realized that it wouldn't be too hard (or so I thought) to get water
and a drain line up into the den from the basement. But when I stared
working on that, I found that the plumbing in the basement was a
bigger mess than I thought. Rather than tacking something on to it, I
decided to redo most of it. There don't seem to be many in-progress
pictures, so these shots of the final result will have to do. That's
the old pipe that I ripped out there on the floor.
I added a return line for the hot water. Now it only takes 15-20
seconds to get hot water in the master shower instead of over a
minute.
The return line is just a loop in the basement that runs from
the point where the supply line is farthest from the water heater.
That happens to be just under the master bath, but a full floor
apart. So there is still about 15-20 feet of 1/2-inch line from the
point where the return line comes off the supply to the master shower.
I hope to eventually get the return line up into the master bathroom
so that the circulation will be better and the delay will be shorter.
Here's a shot that shows the improved appearence of the phone lines.
Compare this view with what it looked like before. This shot also shows the conduit that
runs behind the furnace. That made it much easier to run wire across
the basement.
The electrical panel is looking better, with more new wire and fewer
old BX cables.
