No pictures? What sort of slacker blog is this?

I'll get back to pictures, don't you worry your pretty head about it. I just have some things to say that don't involve pictures, and that means you'll have to enter the magical world of your imagination.

We had a cold weekend here in Colorado. Cold enough that we felt compelled to blow out the sprinkler system, lest it freeze. My dad and I have both sort of done it before, but not really, so we just kinda fiddled around with it until we eventually figured it out. I'm pretty sure we got it handled, though. Everything was just air coming out when we were done, so that's what matters. We may even have muddled our way into a repeatable process, which would be nice. Here's what we did (for my own reference next year):

1. Turn off the water supply at the street using the curb stop key.
2. Turn on the compressor and let the tank fill up at 120 psi.
3. Turn the valve from the supply line into the manifold all the way off. Turn the valve from the manifold into the sprinkler box all the way off. Open the top right valve on the manifold to let the water drain.
4. Attach the air nozzle to the top right port on the manifold. You have to use teflon tape or it will leak too much to achieve proper pressure.
5. Once the compressor tank is full, you can attach the hose to the nozzle. Use a screwdriver to turn the valve to the open position to pressurize the manifold.
6. If the pressure is high enough, the air should close the top safety valve thingy, and the manifold will pressurize and stay that way. You may have slight leaks, but as long as the pressure is enough that air isn't coming out the top valve, you're okay.
7. Slowly open the valve from the manifold to the sprinkler box. Now there is air pressure behind any water in the pipes leading down to the sprinkler box.
8. Go to the sprinkler control panel and manually start the sprinkler cycle. Allow each zone to run until only air is coming out of all nozzles.
9. Detach the air hose from the nozzle and remove the nozzle from the valve.
10. Turn all valves to 45º so they are half open. This will give any remaining water room to expand so it doesn't burst pipes. The only water left in the system should be between the manifold and the supply at the street. Unfortunately, there isn't any good way to get rid of that water, so it's just going to hang out.
11. Remove the top cap from the manifold and take out the plastic valve. Put a piece of duct tape over the hole that remains, to keep bugs or anything else from getting into the system. This will make sure you don't have to be one of the hundreds of people in your neighborhood who find out in the spring that their plastic valve broke, and that they need to go to the hardware store to get a new one. Put the valve pieces in a zip-lock bag and use a thumbtack to hold them to the wall next to your sprinkler panel in the garage. You don't lose them, they stay together and safe, and you remember that you need to put them back in before you turn on your system in the spring. Big win all around.
12. Last thing to do is to turn off the sprinkler system at the panel. If you don't, your valves will still open and close and nothing will happen because there's no pressure in the system. You wouldn't want that, would you?

I'm pretty sure that's it. Just empty your compressor tank, put away your tools, and you're good to go. No burst pipes for you! Make sure to unhook your hoses from the spigots and all as well.

So that was Friday night. Yesterday, we had another contractor come in to give us an estimate on the master bath. Or rather, he looked around and took notes and will get back to us in a week to give us an estimate. He's the second one we've had in there, but we don't have solid numbers from the first guy yet, either. We're hoping it's something reasonable so we can just pay someone to have the project all done for us. We want a beautiful bathroom, but we have to keep in mind that it's a tract home and a $50K master bathroom isn't a good investment. I do love the feeling of a solid gold toilet seat, though.

I'll keep you posted as we make more progress. Thanks for reading!