WOW - what a day!

We got up a bit late, sat around, had breakfast, wondered what to do. When I finally got ready to work on the house, it was noon.

Today was the day to get rid of ALL the old pipes - an amalgamation of galvanized steel pipe and copper of various sorts.
The worst plumbing offences were committed in one corner of the basement - the 'corner of horrors', as we dubbed it when we moved in. In the same corner, the water supply enters the house, and the drain exits. The water comes in on some sort of brass pipe, then into a 1 inch shutoff valve, through the meter and to the rest of the system.
It appears that only the first connection past the meter was brass - the rest of it was ancient galvanized steel pipe. If you're not familiar with it, google 'galvanic action' to see why copper/brass and steel pipe should never be mixed without proper isolation.

The old pipes were alternately colored brown/rust and green, and if we could see that much rust on the outside, I wasn't thrilled about what was lurking inside.

Anyway, so I unscrewed the fitting from the meter to let the system drain

and then had to run back to the hardware store! I didn't have the part that would connect to the meter! Back from the hardware store, I then... went BACK to the hardware store - the part I had gotten was too small. I decided to also get a reducer with a 90 degree turn in it so that I wouldn't have to use a 3/4 PEX elbow. Just the three new bits to connect to the meter were over $20 - ouch.

With the right parts in hand, I connected the main 3/4 inch line to the meter

Then moved to the water heater. I removed the old top pipes

from it and installed the new copper PEX-compatible items. A couple of crimps later and I was able to pressurize the manifolds with hot and cold water!

On to the individual supply lines - The lines were already crimped to the manifolds, but I had to connect the kitchen and bathroom to the new lines.

The kitchen was dead simple, since I had already plumbed it with PEX when we put the new sink in. Cut the new supplies to length and crimp in a couple of unions.

The downstairs bathroom was nothing but headaches!
The supply for the toilet was not well supported and kept moving around as I tried to unscrew the pipes - I gave up and finally soldered on a PEX adapter to the existing copper line - I'll rip it out when I finally get sick of the gross, rusty flange next to the toilet.
The shower wasn't that hard, but took longer than it should. Again, I cut the existing copper pipes behind the shower, soldered in a couple of adapters and made the crimps. I actually did this one in stages and came back to it repeatedly when I got frustrated with other things.

The bathroom sink was a HUGE pain in the ass. First, I couldn't see where the pipes went so I had to jig-saw holes both in the back wall under the sink and in the cabinet floor. Once I could see what was back there, I discovered a second pair of shutoff valves, boxed into the wall!! Ridiculous! The shutoffs were just reachable if I stuck my arm in the wall, but there was no way I could unscrew the pipes connected to them, or cut them off and remove the old valves. They will stay in the wall until we next remodel! I did disconnect the old valves (all 4 of them...) and ran new valves on some sturdy copper stub-outs.

Once I got the 1/2 inch copper stubouts under the sink, I soldered on a couple of new valves and then my problems really began.

One valve (on the right) soldered perfectly the first time, but I had to solder the left one 3 times before it held with no leaks! I think my propane torch wasn't hot enough or I didn't wait long enough before applying the solder. I ended up pre-tinning the copper pipe before I slid the valve on, then adding more solder until it ran all over the place.
The cramped quarters upstairs under the sink, and in the basement above the foundation made it difficult to get anything done easily or without expletives, but it did eventually all come together.

I'm very proud of our new color-coded PEX pipes.
Maybe I can recycle some of the old stuff to make up for the ridiculous expense of everything.

I never thought I could spend $500 in a week on nothing but plumbing supplies. Ugh..

That's one week down and three to go before our new dryer arrives and our washing machine moves upstairs for good.
I think we're just on schedule - We've already built the washer/dryer enclosure, converted all the supply plumbing in the house, added about 25% of the washer drain. We still have to run water upstairs, replace all the gas lines including a new one for the dryer upstairs, finish the drain including adding a sewer vent through the roof, and connect the electrical circuits.

I'll keep you updated.

It never ends.