A 3 hrs late plumber, a sledgehammer & a redheaded temper – My Friday

There was a utility sink in the basement when I bought my house. I didn’t think much of the sink at the time and haven’t used it much in the first six months of calling St. Louis home, but it sure got a lot of energy Friday. Let me explain cause this blog post is definitely a bit different than most I write.And yes, its a bit of a saga.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that water was backing up a bit when I ran the washer. Its always drained slow but it was enough that I called for a plumber to come out. He did and tried to snake the pipe out….  he was hitting some sort of rusty mass of ickyness. He couldn’t get it cleared and said he would need to come back and likely have to tear up some of the floor & replace some pipe. What fun. Another big project in the first year of owning a house. So I went about trying to get the lengthier appointment on the calendar. It ended up needing to be the next Friday. So I’d be going a while without doing any more laundry. Great.

Fast forward to the day before he’s supposed to come and scheduling issues makes the company call and suggest it will be the middle of next week before they could get here. Well, I dug in. After some pedaling around, I was told the plumber would be here at noon as originally scheduled.On Friday, I left the office, ready to work from home for the afternoon. Even wondered whether I had time to run an errand on the way home. Luckily I decided I did. Cause at 1:30 I was calling to find out where the plumber was. I was told he’d be here in an hour. So, after the hour and another 30 minute grace period passed, I was pulling out my phone. I could already see my planned weekend in Memphis disappearing and was trying to calm my redhead temper when I saw the van. . Whew. That was close.

The plumber is the same good natured guy from last week. He got straight to work. First thing he had to do was move the utility sink. I had a million things to do upstairs but wondered if I should help. He said it was fine he’d get it and set about pulling it away from the wall slowly. It was on a metal frame, that wasn’t looking too great. We both figured it was original to the house.

He got the sink out and quickly got the work done. Then I heard him call me.

When I went downstairs, the water was running full strength and disappearing into the pipes under the house. The utility sink was in the midst of the storeroom. The metal frame it rested on was bent pretty badly, making it look like its only a matter of time. To which John asked what I wanted to do. He was worried that trying to get it back in place would result in a nightmare of troubles. And yet, he couldn’t lift the damn thing into his van & just get rid of it.

So what’s a girl supposed to do? I gave him the green light to take a sledgehammer to it! It took at least half a dozen blows before it even showed a crack! The darn thing definitely wanted to stay! I think he only was able to break it up because there were already a couple of minor cracks and he focused his efforts there. It was concrete reinforced with rebar! The bottom of it was four inches thick too!  

After we found out how much of a hassle it was, I probably should have had him try to get it back into place — thing would have probably outlasted us and nuclear war being the only thing standing. Could have used it as my tornado shelter or something. That probably would have been easier for both of us – though that tiny frame had 50 years of rust on it and didn’t look any stronger than the ruler I have on my desk. I seriously can’t believe the thing wasn’t connected to the frame, wall or anything.

To make good use of this concrete rubble, I’d be glad to give it to anyone who needs to fill some holes in their yard… I have a deal for you! Free green fill as long as you pick it up! 🙂  Yep, so my redheaded temper run-in with a plumber & a sledgehammer could end in burial in the yard.

Now, let’s take bets on the next major activity at my house…. we’ve replaced a gas heater and worked on the plumbing…. What should I be bracing for next?

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