So when I left off, the pump house foundation and frame was in place. Plumbing required the solar to be in place, solar required a thing to be put on, so the next step was roofing. It was all pretty straightforward: flush the tiles up to the features below, nail on the line, etc.


One future subtask will be to put rebar guards up over the panels in case a heavy branch comes down.


Now piping could proceed. Since I had in-ground posts as well as decades-old pvc coming out of the concrete, I decided to clean off the area (muriatic acid ftw) and lay down some epoxy to fill any cracks. Then there was quite a bit of pvc work.


I'm hoping for the best with the new DE filter, but I can say the valve is a huge improvement on the previous setup. As I mentioned previously, the fact that it is not integrated with the filter canister is very nice. And in comparison to the two flow options (return/backwash), this one has:

• Return
• Backwash (with a window so you can see when it's clear)
• Rinse (some post-backwash step)
• Dump straight to the waste pipe
• Bypass the filter (great for testing new pvc work)
• And I can't remember the sixth, ummm let's just say self-destruct

The next step was to re-enclose the yard using something other than the plywood seen above. Though I haven't completely figured this one out, the first step is to put up sliding door hardware. The master plan is to have two sliding panels, a solid one to enclose the pump house and a fence-y one to gate the hill behind the yard.

I found good sliding track options at McMaster-Carr. Even the lightest-duty models feel industrial-grade and are the right materials to handle the outdoors. Now to find doors for them.

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