Week of calamity

Oh what a week the Dupers had last week! We're starting 2012 off the right way. This is going to be a long post, so sit back and enjoy our misadventures.

On Tuesday, I was doing dishes and reached under the kitchen sink for a new sponge. Bad idea. Under the kitchen sink was very wet and in some places had a nice layer of fuzzy mold growing. Yay! Leaks and mold!

While I finished cooking dinner using the bathroom sink, Mike found that the problem was pretty simple. The twisty thing on the right side of the drain trap was loose. He cleaned it up, tightened it all, and we were set. 

We proceeded to congratulate ourselves on being the kind of homeowners who can handle problems. Pride goeth...

I then walked into the first floor bathroom and found a puddle on the floor. Thankfully it was a clean puddle. But the puddle was on the uphill side of our downward sloping bathroom. Wondering if water runs uphill in the Duper Dwelling, I showed it to Mike. 

It was almost bed time, and we were pretty worn out. We agreed to play it safe by turning off the valve that supplies water to the toilet. Valve off, we turned in for the night.

Wednesday after work, we had to run Bessie over to the Chevy dealer since her speedometer has stopped working (another story for another day). Because the Chevy dealer is across town, we had agreed to play the valve game until Thursday.

We got home from the dealership Wednesday night, and Mike went to turn the valve to turn the toilet water on. Well, it was on alright. On as in leaking all over the bathroom floor. And it was late enough that our local hardware store was closed.

McGyver Mike kicked in to action. From downstairs I heard a lot of clomping around and bangs and crashes. McGyver Mike reappeared downstairs 10 minutes later with a valve from the scraps from the upstairs bathroom, a tub of plumber's putty, and a couple of wrenches. 

He cleaned it up, tightened it all, and we were set.

 

Again, we proceeded to congratulate ourselves on being the kind of homeowners who can handle problems. Pride goeth before...

Thursday morning the water company was scheduled to come between the convenient hours of nine and noon to install a new water meter. I ate half a day of precious vacation time to sit around and wait.

Now let's talk about our water setup in the basement. Like my MS Paint diagram? Good. I have Photoshop but since I used it all day at work today, I just didn't feel like it. And I've just been informed it's not 100% accurate, but it'll do.

 

The main water line comes into our basement wall. Then it hits the main shutoff valve (red circle). A small pipe goes from the main valve to the water meter (gray box). Then it hits the internal shutoff valve (green circle), turns vertical and hits two more valves. Why the extra valves, you ask? Heck if we know.

The green circle valve has had a slow leak for a long time. And the two blue ones are worthless and offer only opportunities for more leaks. So it's been on the list for a long time to rework this whole shebang. 

So on Thursday the water people came and gave us a new meter. In doing so, they shook the whole assembly around a bunch, leading green valve to leak even more. Because of that, Mike decided Thursday night would be "fix stupid valves" night.

I was at my mom's for dinner when my phone rang.

Mike: "Hi babe."

Amy: "Hi honey."

M: "We have a problem."

A: "Oh yeah?"

M: "The water company will be here within a half hour to do an emergency shutoff at the curb."

A: "..."

M: "..."

A: "HAHAHA! How much will that cost?"
M: "$30"

A: "Wow, that's cheap."

When Mike had gone to fix the green valve, he turned the red valve to turn off the water. And well, the red valve snapped off in his hand. So there was no way to turn off the water from the house.

By the time I made it home, the water company had determined that the outside valve was broken, too. So they were going to bring in a backhoe to dig it up. They and the other utility companies spray painted a bunch of lines all over our sidewalk and street. I went and bought a few gallons of water. Then I took a prescription sleep aid and went to bed. Sometime when I was hanging out with the floaty green butterfly, they did indeed get the valve to turn without digging.

Mike and my dad spent much of Friday tracking down a new main valve (not for sale to homeowners - only to professional plumbers) for the low price of $70. 

They installed it, the water company finally made it back to turn the water on, and at 6:30 on Friday we had full water pressure with not a single leak. Yay!

 

Yet again, we proceeded to congratulate ourselves on being the kind of homeowners who can handle problems. Pride goeth before a great embarrassment. 

We hadn't had enough fun, so on Saturday we worked upstairs. I was on the stilts stripping paint out of this doorway. Mike was in the stairwell to the left using a plunge cutter to trim out some drywall details. 

Suddenly my dad heard a noise. "Is that an alarm?" Yep. See the red thing? Under there is the sensor for our hardwired smoke alarm. But we didn't have the red thing up at the time, and the combination of dust and heat and paint fumes triggered it. 

Mike bolted downstairs to call off the alarm company. By the time he made it back upstairs, I could hear the Crafton VFD alarm going off. We hoped it wasn't for us.

I glanced out of the window from my extra tall vantage point, and whooee here came the fire truck. Though it was a false alarm, the VFD makes a point of checking things out just in case things really aren't under control. Thankfully everything was fine, and they left us to wrap up work for the day.

Sunday, Mike and I sat on the couch and watched football and played video games. Sometimes you have to quit when you're slightly ahead.