Coming and Going

Water seeks or carves paths and places to keep going. Our job is to corral and channel it where we want it to flow (or away from where we don’t).

Photo by author

Bath, Maine

November 8, 2025

(NB: Prior installments in this series are here, here, here, here, and here).

The most important person in any army is the Latrine Officer. No one makes a move without him.

The same is true of a plumber in a house. One thing that never stops is water. The most marvelous and merciless substance on earth is like Michael Jordan in his prime: you can’t stop it; you can only hope to contain it.

Water seeks or carves paths and places to keep going. Our job is to corral and channel it where we want it to flow (or away from where we don’t).

Throughout the week, our Shelter Institute instructors have stressed water’s blessings and burdens on and in any building. It must be brought in and kept away. We’ve assessed several ways to control it outside the building. Yesterday we discussed how to convey it to, thru, and from the inside.

Preparation and Patience

Most of Maine isn’t on municipal water, and many people taking this course plan to build in remote places, so much discussion related to wells, pumps, and septic systems.

That’s OK. We also spent considerable time within the walls, where pipes, drains, and vents are indifferent to preliminary or ultimate systems that carry, impel, or collect their contents.

As emphasized throughout the week, the Shelter Institute teaches people to be independent. Building a house is difficult. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable, nor that anyone is incapable of doing it.

That’s especially true of particular components. Without flinching, Blueberry Hennin assured us that all of us can plumb a house by ourselves.

As she put it, what’s needed is preparation and patience: “Plan ahead and take your time.”

That means knowing when to install each component and how it fits into the rest of the build.

Plumbing should be considered early… before deciding to buy a site. Especially in recent years of buying property “sight unseen”, many purchasers didn’t even know whether they could dig a well or release waste.

Usually they can. But it may entail costly creativity or tedious tangling with regulators. A dream home becomes a money pit before a dozer moves any dirt.

To avert such agony, soil inspections should precede purchase, with analysis as to whether and where wells, septic systems should sit.

“Christmas Miracle”

When that’s determined, potential drill holes, pipe paths, tank pits, and leach pads should be located. We discussed whether a well should be dug before or after the foundation was finished.

As with most questions when building, it depends. Gaius Hennin acknowledged how nice it is to have water on the work site, describing the ability to easily wash hands and tools as a “Christmas Miracle”. But he also offered reasons to wait.

Regarding piping, departures should be scheduled before arrivals are set. Gravity governs outgoing waste. Yet a home welcomes water that’s pushed by pumps.

It can enter the body of the building anywhere, with arteries arranged however we like. But it must flow away on a descending flight. Sewage rides the same force that felled Newton’s apple. We just need it to follow the prescribed path, and to avoid round-trips.

On several occasions (including this one and this one), our own home taught us that lesson. With several cautionary tales, Blueberry reinforced them. She offered numerous options for conveying and capturing effluence, and unwelcome consequences for doing so incorrectly.

Soothing Cocktail

We’ve reached the weekend. Halfway thru this course, I’m enthused and overwhelmed. I hope (and think) that’s the intent. The class offers a mansion of information in a tiny house of time. But big pictures can fit small frames.

I’m not here to learn everything. That’s not possible in two weeks. What Shelter offers is an in-depth impression that inspires viewers to keep looking. I wouldn’t be Leonardo after two weeks locked in the Louvre. But I might be interested in picking up a brush.

As impressive as the lessons have been, the teachers are even more admirable. The Hennins remind me of my winemaking Walla Walla cousins. They welcome risk, embrace error, and treat challenges as an opportunity to improve. And they include their kids in everything they do.

They also provide for those who can’t fend for themselves. Much as my cousin, Ashley, started Vital Wines to help winemakers receive medical coverage, the Hennins made healthcare available for many in Maine.

About the time Patsy Hennin was diagnosed with breast cancer, she and her husband helped enhance Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, one of the best hospitals in the United States. That was when Gaius and Blueberry became involved in the business.

Like a soothing cocktail with an enlivening kick, they make a good mix. There’s nothing about it we’d wash down the drain.

JD