faster pussycat... type! type!

Sewers can't be ignored. They run under the best cities. And some of them lead to the fanciest plumbing at the Ritz.

Sewers are something you probably take for granted. Until you don't have one. Then, friends, you'll understand the genius that is indoor plumbing. Our adventure in sewers begins Friday night, when I decided to run a load of darks, in the washing machine. I heard strange gurgling noises. I had heard them before, when I washed clothes. I wasn't sure why I could hear what was going on in the pipes so clearly, it seemed odd. After I put the clothes in the dryer, I was getting ready for bed, and noticed that there was about two or three inches of blue tinted cold water in the bathtub. I had noticed that the tub was slow draining, since I moved in, but I took a shower the night before. And that was really slow draining. And why was it blue?

The next morning, it was all drained out, I cleaned the lint out of the tub and took a quick shower. When Ron came over that afternoon, to work on the roof, I told him about the shower. And the blue wash water, and the lint. Unfortunately, I did not tell him before he flushed his toilet and it overflowed in his bathroom. I didn't know!! My toilet had worked fine! I didn't know we had toilet issues! While I was at the movies with Louise, he called a plumber.

I got home late that night to a note that read "bad sewage issues. Do not flush, shower or wash clothes. Plumber will be back on Monday to finish. Expensive problem!" Since then, I've been doing my best to use off site toilets. I worked from home today, and the plumber was here for about 4 hours trying to unstuck whatever is stuck. Couldn't do it. Ran a camera down the pipes as far as he could go, didn't find anything, above water at least. So tomorrow, I am working from home again, because the city has to come out and run a "tv" down the "mainline." In which they can see as far as 7 feet onto our portion of the line. They will determine if it's on their part, and if not, I call the plumber back in.

I have to tell you, when they explain these things to me, I hear "blah blah tv blah blah main line blah sewer blah blah blah blah tree roots blah blah man hole blah blah." And it all translates into "no shower for you, smelly girl!!"

Posted by jodi at novembre 15, 2004 03:46 PM

I feel for you. I have owned only one house, my current house. I spent weeks cleaning it up, then finally the move-in day. Everything went great. The next morning, jumped into the shower, no problems. Decided I should go an buy a washer and dryer that day, still excited about my first night in the new house. Went down stairs to the basement. Strange reflections from the bottom of the steps. Should I turn on a light? Nay. Last step, then splash. An inch of water, with "stuff". Interesting....Best money I spent was that damn wet/dry shop vac that I had bought the previous week. Never realized why one would need a "wet" vac. Culprit, tree roots. Now every 18 months or so, I hire one of those roto-rooters to clean the pipes. I will light a candle and pray for the plumbing gods to smile down on you.

Posted by: Robert at novembre 15, 2004 07:12 PM