The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker

 

Only in my case it would be theveterinarian, 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 spentseveral 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 giveThe old house we all love but which is now
causing us maintenance problems
her an insulin shot (Jordanand Christian). And also yesterday, for the Burtons, they took their new-ishmale kitten to be neutered. A traumatic pet day all around. And, my olderbrother was hospitalized. It was a medically oriented day.

But things are never dull around theBurton/Alter compound. Today it was plumbing and air conditioning. The plumbingproblem seemed simple enough—the bobber on my toilet wouldn’t bob, and it wasrunning all the time. The plumber I have sworn by for almost twenty-five years hasretired, so I called a new company, recommended in our neighborhood list ofvendors. The main house had a leaking sewage problem, but we planned to call acontract company about that. Then I suggested we ask the plumbers to look sincethey were on site. They diagnosed a severe problem, with water gushing out of aleaky sewage pipe. After an early afternoon call, they left, and said they’d beback either late afternoon or tomorrow. They came back late afternoon with thesmallest, thinnest guy in their crew because part of the problem is that thedeck is built over the sewage pipe. At first they said they’d have to shut thewater off overnight, but then they recanted—after Jordan and Christian hadfilled pitchers and ice buckets and everything they could think of. Theplumbers got the gushing slowed to a trickle, said they wanted to sleep on thesolution, and went away.

Before I bought this property thirty yearsago, an addition had been added on to the back and that’s apparently where theproblem 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 understandthe whole thing, but the reason they didn’t cut the water at the curb is thatthey were afraid of backflow when it came back on). I had happily been thinkingif the main house didn’t have water, they could have access to mine. Anotherno: it’s all one pipe which it shouldn’t be.

All of this meant Jordan and Christianwere in and out of the cottage every five minutes around five o’clock, justwhen Donald from Rhinefort A/C was working to fix my heating/cooling units. Hegot them working and promptly got it so cool I needed a sweater. So there Iwas, wearing my sweater, trying to write my thousand words for a day withJordan, Christian, and Donald coming and going and giving me updates. Proud tosay that I did it.

But it’s not over. The plumbers had to cuta larger hole in the deck for their small guy to get down into that gosh-awfulmess. 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 thatshould have a Y and doesn’t. I told Jordan to ask for an estimate; she did, andthe guy apparently in charge said, “I have no idea.” Not words to lull me tosleep tonight. And as plumbers, they won’t be repairing the floor where thewasher and dryer go. Christian pointed out we will be without laundry servicesfor a while, and I asked how he feels about the laundromat. If there wasanything that made me grateful to be a homeowner, all those years ago, it wasgiving 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 hugeshadow 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 ourplumbing: they aren’t sure what’s wrong (except maybe age—he’s almost 92 and ourplumbing is a hundred in some parts of the house) and they don’t have a plan. Heremains 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 histreatment.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe it’s true that trouble always goesin threes. People caution that old houses are maintenance problems, but todays’trouble spots are in mhy cottage which is a new construction except for theshell. I’m waiting for the plumber—the bobber in my toilet doesn’t bob, whichmeans the toilet softly and gently runs all the time! Plumbers are neverinexpensive—and the main house has a major sewage problem we’ll ask them tolook at and give an estimate (that’s an old house problem, although thatkitchen 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 myceiling-hung units will open to operate. When I use the remote a light goes onand the thing beeps, but nothing else happens. It’s a lovely day today and willbe okay, but it was stuffy and hot at midnight last night.