Only in my case it would be the
veterinarian, the plumber, and the HVAC guy—doesn’t have quite the same ring,
does it? Trust me, it has more pain to the pocketbook. Yesterday, Sophie spent
several hours at the vet for treatment of an abscess—I won’t go into detail,
but it involved several procedures, none of which are cheap. Now, she’s home,
with medication, and snapping at those who give
The old house we all love but which is now
causing us maintenance problems
her an insulin shot (Jordan
and Christian). And also yesterday, for the Burtons, they took their new-ish
male kitten to be neutered. A traumatic pet day all around. And, my older
brother was hospitalized. It was a medically oriented day.
But things are never dull around the
Burton/Alter compound. Today it was plumbing and air conditioning. The plumbing
problem seemed simple enough—the bobber on my toilet wouldn’t bob, and it was
running all the time. The plumber I have sworn by for almost twenty-five years has
retired, so I called a new company, recommended in our neighborhood list of
vendors. The main house had a leaking sewage problem, but we planned to call a
contract company about that. Then I suggested we ask the plumbers to look since
they were on site. They diagnosed a severe problem, with water gushing out of a
leaky sewage pipe. After an early afternoon call, they left, and said they’d be
back either late afternoon or tomorrow. They came back late afternoon with the
smallest, thinnest guy in their crew because part of the problem is that the
deck is built over the sewage pipe. At first they said they’d have to shut the
water off overnight, but then they recanted—after Jordan and Christian had
filled pitchers and ice buckets and everything they could think of. The
plumbers got the gushing slowed to a trickle, said they wanted to sleep on the
solution, and went away.
Before I bought this property thirty years
ago, an addition had been added on to the back and that’s apparently where the
problem is—what should be two separate pipes for water and sewage is not (no,
that does not mean we’ve been drinking sewage water—I don’t quite understand
the whole thing, but the reason they didn’t cut the water at the curb is that
they were afraid of backflow when it came back on). I had happily been thinking
if the main house didn’t have water, they could have access to mine. Another
no: it’s all one pipe which it shouldn’t be.
All of this meant Jordan and Christian
were in and out of the cottage every five minutes around five o’clock, just
when Donald from Rhinefort A/C was working to fix my heating/cooling units. He
got them working and promptly got it so cool I needed a sweater. So there I
was, wearing my sweater, trying to write my thousand words for a day with
Jordan, Christian, and Donald coming and going and giving me updates. Proud to
say that I did it.
But it’s not over. The plumbers had to cut
a larger hole in the deck for their small guy to get down into that gosh-awful
mess. Now they think they will have to come inside to the add-on back room,
move the washer and dryer, cut the floor under them and locate the pipe that
should have a Y and doesn’t. I told Jordan to ask for an estimate; she did, and
the guy apparently in charge said, “I have no idea.” Not words to lull me to
sleep tonight. And as plumbers, they won’t be repairing the floor where the
washer and dryer go. Christian pointed out we will be without laundry services
for a while, and I asked how he feels about the laundromat. If there was
anything that made me grateful to be a homeowner, all those years ago, it was
giving up the laundromat.
At least, as the sun goes down tonight,
the dog and cat are healthy, my toilet isn’t running and my a/c works. The huge
shadow looming over us is the plumbing problem. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.
My brother is still in the hospital, and he has one thing in common with our
plumbing: they aren’t sure what’s wrong (except maybe age—he’s almost 92 and our
plumbing is a hundred in some parts of the house) and they don’t have a plan. He
remains in fairly good spirits and his mind is sharp for which we are grateful.
I do so much appreciate those of you who have sent good thoughts for his
treatment.
Maybe it’s true that trouble always goes
in threes. People caution that old houses are maintenance problems, but todays’
trouble spots are in mhy cottage which is a new construction except for the
shell. I’m waiting for the plumber—the bobber in my toilet doesn’t bob, which
means the toilet softly and gently runs all the time! Plumbers are never
inexpensive—and the main house has a major sewage problem we’ll ask them to
look at and give an estimate (that’s an old house problem, although that
kitchen was redone less than ten years ago). And I’m also waiting for Donald,
the faithful HVAC repairman. I discovered late last night that neither of my
ceiling-hung units will open to operate. When I use the remote a light goes on
and the thing beeps, but nothing else happens. It’s a lovely day today and will
be okay, but it was stuffy and hot at midnight last night.
