As my friend put it, this week was a hassle I didn't need. But at least it wasn't like that long-ago day the water pipe broke. That happened the day after we moved in to our "has potential" house.
The basement had boulders and soil and measly attempts at cement for a floor, and here and there thin, narrow slats covered the beams of the low ceiling. You could use two fingers to snap those slats. The basement needed work. We dived in with gusto, pulling down those slats as chore number one. One landed on the main water line coming into the house.
Crack.
Water everywhere.
A swift call to the city, and we had no water. Nope, not a drop. But not to fear, we had a plumber because of all the plumbing work we had planned on doing (just not replacing a rotten main water line). There was a bit of a problem with the plumber though. It wasn't that he wasn't available that day. It wasn't that he had to buy the parts. It wasn't that he didn't know how to replace the water line and connect it to the city line. Those were all givens, not problems. We had yet to learn the plumber's problem. We resigned ourselves to borrowing our neighbour's hose to fill buckets of water as our water supply and getting to know our local doughnut shop real well for the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, while we waited for the work to be done, we continued with the basement destruction in preparation for its reconstruction. Finally, I was told I could call the city to turn the water back on. Yay!
Not so fast.
That was the day I learnt the big problem the plumber had.
The two city guys and I approached the hole where the new connection lay exposed to our eyes. We blinked in disbelief. We looked at each other. One of them gamely said, "Maybe it'll work." I gamely replied, "Yes. Let's try." The second guy shook his head mournfully at our silly hope.
City water guy number one turned the water back on, and we went back to the hole and watched the expected happen.
Water spurted out from underneath all the duct tape wrapping the pipe connection. Yup. Duct tape. Only Red Green or a drunk plumber would've thought of using duct tape to secure our new pipe to the city's pipe. Since it wasn't Red Green, we had a very drunk plumber on our hands, well practiced in hiding his alcoholism.
Water guy number one turned off the water. And apologized. I nodded resignedly that it was not his fault. They left, not to be seen for another two weeks. We fired the plumber. We found a new plumber more sober than coffee.
The basement had boulders and soil and measly attempts at cement for a floor, and here and there thin, narrow slats covered the beams of the low ceiling. You could use two fingers to snap those slats. The basement needed work. We dived in with gusto, pulling down those slats as chore number one. One landed on the main water line coming into the house.
Crack.
Water everywhere.
A swift call to the city, and we had no water. Nope, not a drop. But not to fear, we had a plumber because of all the plumbing work we had planned on doing (just not replacing a rotten main water line). There was a bit of a problem with the plumber though. It wasn't that he wasn't available that day. It wasn't that he had to buy the parts. It wasn't that he didn't know how to replace the water line and connect it to the city line. Those were all givens, not problems. We had yet to learn the plumber's problem. We resigned ourselves to borrowing our neighbour's hose to fill buckets of water as our water supply and getting to know our local doughnut shop real well for the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, while we waited for the work to be done, we continued with the basement destruction in preparation for its reconstruction. Finally, I was told I could call the city to turn the water back on. Yay!
Not so fast.
That was the day I learnt the big problem the plumber had.
The two city guys and I approached the hole where the new connection lay exposed to our eyes. We blinked in disbelief. We looked at each other. One of them gamely said, "Maybe it'll work." I gamely replied, "Yes. Let's try." The second guy shook his head mournfully at our silly hope.
City water guy number one turned the water back on, and we went back to the hole and watched the expected happen.
Water spurted out from underneath all the duct tape wrapping the pipe connection. Yup. Duct tape. Only Red Green or a drunk plumber would've thought of using duct tape to secure our new pipe to the city's pipe. Since it wasn't Red Green, we had a very drunk plumber on our hands, well practiced in hiding his alcoholism.
Water guy number one turned off the water. And apologized. I nodded resignedly that it was not his fault. They left, not to be seen for another two weeks. We fired the plumber. We found a new plumber more sober than coffee.
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