A couple of years ago, I built the device shown in the photo on the right. It’s an extension to our back yard garden hose, which is down 15 stairs, up to the deck. That project didn’t take any time at all, and has worked nicely. This year, my wife wanted a similar device in the front yard. The reason it was necessary can be seen in figures 2 and 3. We have some unruly bushes that make it extremely difficult to get to the spigot. I decided to create another of my satellite spigots right next to the stairs on the front porch, which would make it very easy to use the hose.

This project started about two months ago. I went to Lowe’s to get the parts, but didn’t feel like building it that day, so I put it of for a few weeks. When I finally did get around to building it, it was one problem after another. First, there was a problem with the coupling between the hose and the galvanized pipe. That allowed me to procrastinate another couple of weeks. This past Saturday, I went to Lowe’s again to get a new coupling. I brought it home, re-taped the galvanized pipe’s threads and attached the coupling. I then attached the hose to the coupling and turned on the water. Immediately it began spewing from somewhere around the coupling. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the leak was actually in the hose. It turns out that the brass end of the hose is not a single piece of metal. It’s actually two pieces crimped together, and in my zeal to make the connections as tight as possible, I had broken that seal.

Sunday, I went to Lowe’s, again, to get a new male hose-end to fix it. I also had to re-buy the metal straps I had bought to attach it to its pole, because in the weeks since my last attempt I had lost them. (And those were not the original metal straps, either. The first ones I bought were far too large…) After I got home, I cut off the last 2 inches or so of the hose with a serrated bread knife attached the new male end, screwed it into the coupling; tight, but not too tight. Then it was time to test it out. Again.

Huzzah! It works! No leaks!

After getting the seals right, all that was left was to attach it to the metal pole I had driven into the ground. That went quickly, and the project was finally complete.