My sister-in-law is still improving. The plumbers putty worked. "What plumbers putty" you ask? The putty that Bill had to hurry to buy at Home Depot ten minutes before closing last night. The plumber had just left when Bill discovered that the main clean out (also buried in a cabinet) was leaking. The threads had rusted through.
At 10:00 he cleaned and dried the pipe. He kneaded the putty per directions and applied it. He set up an old hair dryer in the area to help dry out the mess behind the cabinet and dishwasher. Somewhere around 11:15 we tried running water in the sink. No problem. We ran the disposal. Still no problem. I loaded the dishwasher with dishes and ran it. When it looked like it was going to be ok, I went upstairs to get ready for bed. Bill wanted to wait until the cycle was complete. Thankfully, all went well.
I must have fallen instantly asleep. I had the TV on, my glasses were still on and the reading lamp clipped to my headboard was on. When all went off, I woke up with a start. We had just lost power. No storm, just poof! Bill said there was a brown out a few minutes earlier which is why he was still awake downstairs wondering what would happen next.
* sigh *
He set the travel alarm (wind up clock) and we eventually got to sleep. At 5:00 he got the generator hooked up the refrigerator. He showered and was getting dressed when the power came back on at 5:20 this morning. The TV and my reading lamp that had startled me awake when they went off now startled me awake by coming back on.
Bill went downstairs to disconnect the generator and plug the fridge back into the electrical outlet. What next you ask? The smoke detector upstairs went off. Bill fanned the air in front of it to quiet it. Steam from the shower sometimes sets it off now. Back downstairs to finish pushing the refrigerator in place until the smoke detector went off again, signaling the others to blare.
Thinking "shut the hell up" (as I was doing while covering my ears) is an ineffective way to remedy this. Bill shut the bathroom door, fanned the air by the smoke detector, kissed me goodbye and left.
I can only hope he comes back tonight.
This sitcom is brought to you by DTE which does not stand for Detroit Edison. It stands for Doesn't Transport Electricity. It also brought to you by Long Gone, maker of the five networked smoke detectors in our house. The manufacturer is long gone and one single detector cannot be replaced and work with the others. Lastly, in the manner of Sesame Street which is sponsored by letters and numbers, this sitcom is brought to you by the number 159.95 which is the dollar amount of last night's check to the plumber.
Showing posts with label Plumbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plumbing. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
More advice and a Sis-in-law update
My sister-in-law is doing well. She is in and out of it due to medication, and still on a ventilator, but the pacemaker has been removed as they determined she didn't it. It was inserted as a precautionary measure. Hopefully she will be off the ventilator and they will attempt to have her up and walking a bit tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes.
Are you ready for today's advice?
Don't put more than a few scrapings from a dinner plate down your garbage disposal.
I know better. Honest, I do. But for some reason last night I put a larger quantity of too old leftovers down the disposal. I ran it for a long time, thinking that would do the trick. Today I ran the dishwasher while at a meeting. I came home to water standing in both sides of my double sink. Uh-oh.
The disposal ran fine but the water didn't go down. I tried plunging without success. My oldest son stopped by. He tried plunging also. Still no luck. I called Bill and broke the news to him. He came home with a snake. Bless his heart, he never said anything harsh to me over this. I guess he knew I felt bad and I don't typically cause these problems. The last time was 20 years ago and carrot peelings were the culprit.
He ran the snake, and in dismantling the pipes under the sink found one that had corroded and broke off into the U shaped pipe. After believing the snaking effort a success, he left to buy a replacement T shaped pipe. Checking once more for a blockage before assembling the new pipe, he used the garden hose fed through the kitchen window. My job was to turn the faucet on and then off. When he mumbled that he didn't know why such and such was occurring, I came in. I heard water dripping and looked up. Water was dripping from the trim molding at the ceiling over the cabinets to the right of the sink.
Big uh-oh.
Twenty three years ago we had the kitchen remodeled. A wall was removed. The plumbing vent ran through the wall that was removed. The vent was recessed between studs on the outer wall but had to elbow in just before the ceiling. Don't ask me why, and pardon me if you know plumbing and I am using incorrect terminology. The bottom line is that water backed up the vent pipe which normally is just air. When the water couldn't go anywhere else, it came out the top...into the upper part of the cabinet...and dripped down through four shelves of dishes and some seldom used glasses.
Since our snake is either not long enough or for another reason is incapable of solving this problem, we called a plumber. We were told he would be here by 6:30. It is 8:17 and he just arrived. I hope he will be able to take care of this without deconstructing something. To say I am sick over this would be an understatement. Once this is taken care of, I have dishes to wash. Lots of dishes. Today is not a good day to be a dishaholic.
I have hopes of looking back on this day at some point, and turning a funny spin on things. Right now my humor is hiding under a dark cloud.
Still, things could be worse. One cabinet over and it would be food that had dripping water all over it. Also, I could have a husband who likes to yell and I would be reduced to tears by now. As I type this, I am listening to him and the plumber actually laugh over how convoluted our problem is.
With luck, I will be posting tomorrow as 4 or 5 loads of dishes go through the dishwasher and I will be bringing even better news about my sister-in-law.
If not, feel free to send prayers and maybe a bottle of Scotch.
Are you ready for today's advice?
Don't put more than a few scrapings from a dinner plate down your garbage disposal.
I know better. Honest, I do. But for some reason last night I put a larger quantity of too old leftovers down the disposal. I ran it for a long time, thinking that would do the trick. Today I ran the dishwasher while at a meeting. I came home to water standing in both sides of my double sink. Uh-oh.
The disposal ran fine but the water didn't go down. I tried plunging without success. My oldest son stopped by. He tried plunging also. Still no luck. I called Bill and broke the news to him. He came home with a snake. Bless his heart, he never said anything harsh to me over this. I guess he knew I felt bad and I don't typically cause these problems. The last time was 20 years ago and carrot peelings were the culprit.
He ran the snake, and in dismantling the pipes under the sink found one that had corroded and broke off into the U shaped pipe. After believing the snaking effort a success, he left to buy a replacement T shaped pipe. Checking once more for a blockage before assembling the new pipe, he used the garden hose fed through the kitchen window. My job was to turn the faucet on and then off. When he mumbled that he didn't know why such and such was occurring, I came in. I heard water dripping and looked up. Water was dripping from the trim molding at the ceiling over the cabinets to the right of the sink.
Big uh-oh.
Twenty three years ago we had the kitchen remodeled. A wall was removed. The plumbing vent ran through the wall that was removed. The vent was recessed between studs on the outer wall but had to elbow in just before the ceiling. Don't ask me why, and pardon me if you know plumbing and I am using incorrect terminology. The bottom line is that water backed up the vent pipe which normally is just air. When the water couldn't go anywhere else, it came out the top...into the upper part of the cabinet...and dripped down through four shelves of dishes and some seldom used glasses.
Since our snake is either not long enough or for another reason is incapable of solving this problem, we called a plumber. We were told he would be here by 6:30. It is 8:17 and he just arrived. I hope he will be able to take care of this without deconstructing something. To say I am sick over this would be an understatement. Once this is taken care of, I have dishes to wash. Lots of dishes. Today is not a good day to be a dishaholic.
I have hopes of looking back on this day at some point, and turning a funny spin on things. Right now my humor is hiding under a dark cloud.
Still, things could be worse. One cabinet over and it would be food that had dripping water all over it. Also, I could have a husband who likes to yell and I would be reduced to tears by now. As I type this, I am listening to him and the plumber actually laugh over how convoluted our problem is.
With luck, I will be posting tomorrow as 4 or 5 loads of dishes go through the dishwasher and I will be bringing even better news about my sister-in-law.
If not, feel free to send prayers and maybe a bottle of Scotch.
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