Please forgive me

I know I really left you hanging on Tuesday. Came blazing in with the horrors of a broken drain line on the tub, and then ran off with nary an update. I've been busy, ok? REALLY FREAKING busy.

Hmm. So, let's see. Where was I? Where am I? What time is it anyway? I have no idea. I'm kind of awash in a sea of, well, I don't even know what. But I'm awash. And I may soon be able to wash my kids again. If I take them to the neighbor's house.

Anyway, enough of that. When I last left you, I had gotten a plumber over, who promptly ran away, insisting that he couldn't give me an estimate. He had to bring out the field manager because this wasn't your ordinary job. Fine. Whatever. Chicken.

So Wednesday morning, I had a couple of plumbers out to give me estimates and selected a plumber who started the one day job on Thursday. The bottom line was we needed new santees in the bathrooms (yes, plural...our bathrooms butt up against each other, so I had the santee for the masterbath sink exposed), a new connection for the pipe I broke and he was also going to rough in the bathroom for me (completely re-plumb the bathroom...toilet, sink, shower/tub). Fine.

One reason why I chose this plumber is that he didn't say he was going to jack hammer the foundation without even looking. He wanted to see if he could replace the connection without major rework, and he was successful. He cut out vent lines, replaced quite a bit of pipework and had things nearly wrapped up when the first bad thing happened. The drainpipe for the masterbath sink snapped as they tried to make a connection. Cast iron pipe, folks, just snapped in two.

As a result of that little oopsie, we found a crack running down the length of the pipe. We're on a slab foundation, and the drainpipe and its crack, ran straight down into the concrete. Since it was already 4pm, they cleaned up and promised to be back first thing in the morning to saw and jack hammer into the foundation until they had good pipe for the connection. They were pretty sure they would be done no later than 3pm with an 8am start time. Joy. I had to get up early.

So my morning started off painfully early, with the cat beginning her morning meowing an hour and change early. Normally the cat alarm goes off at 6:20. This morning, she went off at 4:54. I should have drop kicked her furry little tail into next week. I was a little miffed. The next thing I heard, was Little Dude chatting away to himself at 6-something. I went out to investigate and found him happily perched on the couch...in soaking wet pajamas. Apparently all this construction threw him off his groove. He peed on the couch. I retrieved a towel, and started sopping things up.

At this point, at 6-something a.m., I should have known it was shaping up to be a not-so-fabulous day. I showered, fed the kids breakfast, and ripped out a few rows of tiles while I waited for the plumbers to show. They arrived at 8:30am. First, they sawed into the foundation around the pipe. Then, the jack hammering began. Oh, my goodness. Next time someone wants to jack hammer in my house, I think I'll sell it and move out. They jack hammered for hours. Then, all the sudden, I hear shouting and one of the guys comes flying out, and shuts off the water to the house. They've hit a water line.

I went in to take a look. The rest of our slab is 4-5 inches of concrete. The first thing I noticed about their hole, is that it's about a foot deep...and still totally encased in concrete. Guess what. The drainpipe for the master bathroom? Is in a footing for our house. Great. Just flipping great. Cue the music. Yeah, that's right, we're going to suffer through many more hours of jack hammering while they try to find the bottom of the concrete, or the bottom of the crack in the pipe.

At this point, I decided that I needed lunch. The kids already had lunch and I was hungry. I came out to the kitchen, got out the bread and peanut butter, then opened the cabinet to get a plate, and the door came off in my hand. GREAT! You know what Mr. Murphy??? Screw you AND the horse you rode in on! What the heck, man? WHY??? So I spent the next hour looking for wood putty to fill the stripped screw holes so I can reattach the cabinet door. Cleaned out a few things in the garage (because I was bored) and found a couple of new movies for the kids. Also located all of the paint I will need for various wall repairs, but that's a different story for a different day. Anyway, at some point, I did get my lunch.

Back to the bathroom situation. Eventually, nearly another foot of concrete later, they finally broke through to dirt. And discover that the crack, goes all the way down to the coupling. They have to excavate more, so they can replace the entire joint. Hoo baby. With their continued digging, they realize that all the dirt under the pipe is soggy. The crack has been there a while, we just hadn't paid the piper yet. We were lucky.

So, fast forward a bit to 6pm. The pipe gets fixed, the hole gets refilled and compacted, the water line is repaired and both lines get sheathed, and the top gets cemented in. Time to set the tub. At this point, I bailed. I went to church to help with a parish retreat. Bottom line was I had no water, I had no toilet, and there was no way I was going to try to make dinner. Going to church was the easy way out. Sure beat trying to drum up something in my kitchen anyway.

I left my number with the guys and they promised to call when they were finished. They thought they would be done by 7 or 7:30. Or? Or, Mr. Murphy will hang around and mess with things to the best of his abilities. They set the tub, and then realized that something was seriously wrong. The sides were wonky. So they pulled the tub (no easy feat), troubleshot the problem and reinstalled the tub with the proper side supports. Then they soldered in the new PosiTemp (single) handle, the spout and shower head. The last thing that needed to be done was running the water to the tub to check the new plumbing for leaks. Turned on the water and...

I heard a freight train rumble through my house. Good lord, I thought the thing was going to come straight through the walls! I traced the noise back...down the hall, out to the garage...it seemed to be coming through the water heater. I had no idea what the heck was happening, but it sure didn't sound good to me. They checked the water pressure in the house, and it was a whopping 113 psi. It's supposed to be right around 65 psi. The regulator blew out the diaphragm, so that now needs to be replaced. That'll be another $275.

And when the regulator blew, it blew the masterbath toilet innards to smithereens. So, now the masterbath toilet has new guts. I finally got the kids in bed around 9:30, which is obscenely late. More than 2 hours past their bed time. I'll pay for it tomorrow, I'm sure. And the plumbers? Got everything together and left my house at 10:15pm...nearly 14 hours after they started this morning. Ho.ly.cow.

So there you have it. That was my Friday. Happy, happy, joy, joy! So much for camping this weekend. I think gas went up another 15 cents today, or something equally stupid. The cheapest gas in the county is $4.07. If you want diesel? Prepare to pay $5.29 a gallon. Uncle. I give already.