Just when I thought I’ve seen it all with our house, I find more weirdness.

I’m working on relocating the clothes dryer circuit, in preparation for our new washer and dryer. In the process, I noticed some disconnected copper tubing hanging down the wall behind the dryer. It’s the standard 3/8″ stuff that you might see supplying a dishwasher or ice maker. I’d noticed it before, but I just kinda ignored it until last night. Last night, I figured I’d trace it to wherever it goes, and take it out, as it’s obviously not doing anything anymore. Well.. it goes up the wall, along the top of the foundation (oh yeah.. I forgot to mention this is all in the basement), then outside through the rim joist and siding, right near ground level. Then it goes into the ground. Except the ground at that spot is a concrete deck. The line actually goes into the concrete. Where it goes after that, is one of life’s great unsolved mysteries.

WTF?? Well, I know that at one point, the basement of the house was used as an in-law apartment. So it’s not inconceivable that our present-day laundry room used to serve as a kitchen, which would explain why there’s an ice maker line there. But that begs the question: There’s already plumbing right there in the room. Why not just tap the ice maker line off that, rather than running it outside, then underground?? This seems too obvious, so I could be completely wrong. Or it could be that some previous owner (or plumber) was just incredibly boneheaded. We may never know. But in any case, the mystery remains: where does the line go? Stay tuned!