December 29, 2020 A few days ago, Bob said, “Hey, I flushed the toilet in the garage bathroom and it didn’t go down…” Hmm, we stood and stared at it like that was going to help. A bit later it gurgled and gulped and drained away… we thought ok, maybe it was an air pocket? With many other things to think about (ha), this event diminished in our thoughts, until…..
Bob was cleaning and organizing the garage area, and called me to come “see something”… which was a sight one does not want to ever see in their toilet bowl. It was obvious something was backing up. Yuck. Jared the plumber was coming the next day for the leaking vent pipe, so we called him to describe the new problem… to him it sounded like a plugged line so he suggested a Rooter type guy to snake it out. I looked on line and called a few places…. one of them agreed to come out and, well yes, the line was plugged but at least we found out where (after many toilet flushes). You know that old Beverly Hillbillies TV theme song? About “bubbling crude”? “Oil that is…” Haha, well this was not the stuff that would make us money, but more like cost us money!
The Rooter Guy seemed like a nice guy, and he suggested someone who could dig up the line and fix it, but not until the weekend, and for a god-awful price. No, just no. So I texted my guy John Shea, who found the “missing” septic tank last summer (remember that fiasco?). He and his son did a great job, and found our house adventure sufficiently “unique” – so they would definitely remember us! Luckily, they were able to fit us in later that afternoon, but of course in late December dark comes early.
After a lot of flushes and filling/draining of the utility sink to power flush the rocks and dirt out of the line, the drama was over for the night. Thank goodness! They covered the repaired pipe with a good amount of wood chips, to insulate for the winter (and I added more later), but in the spring we will have to have the whole pipe replaced and properly bedded in sand, and all that. Well… no comment for now… we have water and septic right now so – yay!
Almost a full moon, I suppose that is fitting. Will this year ever be over???
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