Day one home was fine, errands, some food in the fridge, etc.. Day 2, not so good. The shower backed up as Sweetie was taking his early morning shower and one of the toilets did some bubbling, but I chalked it up to early morning line maintenance. Later in the morning when shower backed up on its own and toilet bubbled with no house water running I knew we had a problem.
Mr. Plumber arrived in a timely manner, and they took the top off the pipe in the yard used for cleaning out said pipes. Things went downhill from there. First they bring out chunks of what looks like condensed paint, or grout or cement, followed by duct tape, followed by large roots. Then his roto- snake won't go any farther and all we're getting is dirt. Two large pine trees sit on top of this part of the yard and he's talking broken pipes. My stress level continues to rise. So, he goes to get a larger roto-snake, which of course takes a couple more hours. And when he comes back that won't go anywhere either. One direction (toward the street) , nothing. the other direction as far as the outside of the house.
Oh, yes, and its raining. It hasn't rained REAL rain here in WEEKS, but today it is. To the tune of 5 inches.
Since no progress is being made with the roto-snake thingy it is decided that he will return this morning and they will dig up the pipe, and dig up more pipe to see where the break is, and fix it. And they are going to have to hack through the mass of tree roots along the way, which will probably eventually kill the tree.
By now I am not too fond of these pine trees. Many of my neighbors have removed theirs--they shed needles constantly and fill roof gutters. But I'm pretty much opposed to randomly cutting down trees. With so much building going on it seems the bulldozers just come in and level things with no regard to trees or the wildlife living in them. However, I am rethinking these trees if they are going to cause damage to my house. They also sit next to the driveway so I am now expecting them to suddenly break through the concrete.
Needless to say, we did not have plumbing for the night . We had to go out to dinner in the rain, and since neither of us wanted to go far, and I hadn't gotten my shower that morning, we ended up at a chain Italian restaurant near home. It reaffirmed why I don't eat at chain restaurants except in emergencies. Adequate was about all I could give it. If I had been willing to drive a little farther and spend a small amount more, I could have had good food. But that would have required me to put on some makeup and change clothes. Next time I will.
Washing my face and brushing my teeth in minimum water in a plastic wash basin brought back memories of camping with my parents. Back then it was more fun. Sponge baths were in order--also not very satisfying.
I had hopes that Mr. Plumber would be here early this morning even though I knew he had a small job to take care of. When he wasn't here by 10 a.m. I began to panic, fearing he had decided that chopping through tree roots were not how he wanted to spend his Saturday. (Insert additional stress here.)
But he finally called and arrived an hour later . After chopping and digging for awhile he called me out to see...this!
This is a picture of a clean out pipe that goes-- NOWHERE!!!
To the left it goes as far as the house foundation and stops. To the right, where it would lead to the main sewer, there isn't even a pipe! No wonder the snake was pulling up roots. And the other debris were just junk thrown into the hole by the builder people.
Now, we have no idea where the clean out pipe is located, even if there is one. Maybe this is just some ugly builder person joke--"let them think they have sewer access".So they remove one of the toilets and run the roto-snake through there, hoping to find the clog or hear where it exits the building to give some idea to the location of the clean out pipe. Well, they heard what they were looking for, and found, under landscaping and several inches of pine needles a true clean out pipe--yeehaw! The snake did its job, we heard running water, everything flushed, everything drained, and the pipes weren't broken.
It was a lousy two days, though. When Hurricane Ike blew through we were without electricity for 2 weeks. It was like we were the forgotten area, we aren't close to the coast, just in the wrong convergence of power lines. Galveston got power before we did, and there wasn't anyone there to use it. But during that time we had hot water and plumbing. I could shower and I could flush.We cooked on the grill, made drip through coffee on a camp stove and went to bed early. This is why I say, when push comes to shove, I'll pick plumbing. First thing I did after Mr. Plumber left was take a really nice shower!
Spunky was even stressed, This is where I found him when the Orkin man came.
I don't think he was even sure how he got up there!
Oh, as a final note, a good tip the plumber left with me was, if you are building a house, take video of all the plumbing and wiring in the walls before the dry wall goes up. Things are not always where they should be and it can save you to know exactly where that pipe or wire is located in the wall.
I'll be back soon with nice, pretty pictures of our Oregon adventures.
