I thought the title for this entry was better than the traditional colloquialism.
For those of you keeping up with the ongoing renovation saga at the Donovan household (blame Covid), here’s an update.
After weeks of silence and wondering when the kitchen might see progress, waiting for the drywaller to finish touch ups, and coming up with great recipes for the grill and slow cooker, we received a call late Wednesday afternoon asking us to confirm installation of the cabinets on Friday.
Surprise!
They said they would arrive at 11 am, so I texted the drywall guy and he agreed to come at 7:30 am to get the final sanding, etc. finished. We would have to forgo painting until the kitchen is finished, which is not ideal, but at this point, it just needs to get finished.
Drywall man didn’t show until 9 am and fifteen minutes behind him, the cabinets guys pulled up. What a circus. These cabinets guys were amazing, but if you got in their way, they just sort of walked through you. With the kids quarantined in their room and every one in a mask, I vacated the kitchen and sought refuge in another part of the house, only to return every fifteen minutes when the guy in charge would yell, “Sir?” and I would come running to answer a question.
Just as I started to think, “It’s all coming together nicely,” the water starts coming out of the hallway ceiling. Then the light switch, then down the wall.
Then one of the children yells from the basement that we’ve got water coming out of the basement ceiling, then another spot in the basement, then down the wall….
Then another shout from another child in another room that the toilet is overflowing.
At this point, I seriously thought about just ducking out the front door, but I didn’t have a dang mask and really didn’t want to wrap boxers around my head just to get out of the house.
We called a plumber and the drywall guy shows up.
He wanted to start opening holes in the ceiling and I quietly wondered if this is some secret plan for job security – open a hole, then close it, then open another. But I digress.
We called a real plumber and he arrive within the hour. By this point, we had turned off all the water to the house and traced the issue to the toilet. Jimmy the plumber puts a snake down and hit something. So Jimmy the plumber put something else down that was attached to a drill and after 32 feet, hit found the issue.
Roots.
Oh, but wait there’s more. When Jimmy the plumber pulls the line out of the toilet, Jimmy’s not that careful and now we have a bathroom – with new tile – covered in that which shall not be named.
We shut the door, opened the window, and poured a drink.
The next day, Jimmy the plumber is back and he’s digging a hole in the ground near the septic tank. Yes, we are on septic. Fourteen grand in property taxes gets you snow removal, but no sewer. Two weeks ago, we spent $5200 to replace the 52 year old tank in the back of the house. By the way, that little project took six tries to get a hole that didn’t hit ledge and now we have a giant pile of mud for a back yard. But Jimmy’s in the front because there is another tank there.
He digs and puts a camera down. Nothing.
He digs some more and puts that snake thing down and finally gets a breakthrough. I honestly don’t know what the solution was and I am not sure I care. For twelve hundred dollars, it’s fixed and now we have a clean out vent in the yard to match the new one in the back. Future snaking can be done outside now.
We are blessed that it’s not our last $1200 and the kitchen cabinets look amazing, so it’s all about perspective.
My wife spent most of Sunday cleaning the bathroom so Christmas is looking pretty good for her. The kids were amazed at how calm their old man remained and I heard one of them say, “When do you think he’ll lose it?”
The drywall guy came later on Saturday and after an hour started to leave. I told him he wasn’t going anywhere until he was finished. He almost cried.
They say it’s easy to be overwhelmed by home renovation projects and I think the overwhelming part is coming soon for me because I just discovered we are out of Jameson.
Stay tuned.