2 years

For two years, everyone who lived in my house has been using the same shower. It's a 3 bathroom house but 2 have been out of commission for about 2 years. We've had up to 8 people living here at any given time and we've all bathed in the same tub. One of the problem bathrooms is the one we are currently repairing/remodeling. It had a plumbing leak and, turns out, a roof leak at the vent pipe. The combination of these leaks had rotted the floor. Over the years, we've discussed having it repaired but there never seemed to be a convenient time or enough spare money. We did okay without it. It was in the mother-in-law apartment added by the former owners so, since it didn't directly affect me, I wasn't overly concerned.

The second problem bath was more of an issue. There was just no water pressure in the shower. The sink and toilet still work just fine so it helped some but everyone who wanted a shower had to use mine in the master bath. It wasn't very convenient and we had to do some creative scheduling but we made it. Since the plumber is already working here on the back bath, he said he'd fix the hall shower, too. He'd already warned me that he thought it was going to be a big repair. He checked it out today and had it fixed in about 15 minutes. Turns out something had come through the pipes and clogged up the inside of the shower head. He can't identify the substance or it's origin but he removed the "clot" and we have water pressure again. TWO YEARS of sharing my shower with this herd of kids and it was just a mystery clot. I took pictures of the clot. If I ever get around to uploading my pics to my computer, I'll post one here. It's rather gross looking, but when I look at it all I see is less money I'm going to owe the very expensive plumber.

In other remodeling news, I have a bathtub in my living room. It's okay, though, because it's keeping the dishwasher company. You wouldn't want a lonely dishwasher in the living room, now would you? The carpenter now refers to my living room as the "appliance waiting room." There is a logical explanation, of course. I think I posted earlier that my dishwasher hasn't worked in forever. A friend was remodeling and getting a new dishwasher to match her new kitchen. She was discarding a dishwasher that worked just fine but didn't match. I'm not proud. Cori and I dashed over to pick it up. The carpenter is going to install it after he finishes the bathroom, so it's just hanging out in the living room. My other friend picked up an delivered the tub today but the plumber didn't quite get to the point of installing it yet. So, the tub sits by the dishwasher in the living room that we don't use often but is the room you walk into from the front door. Again, I never said my life was anywhere near normal...but we do have a lot of laughs!

If you need another laugh, let me explain my carpenter. He's a raging alcoholic. I've never seen him that I didn't smell beer on his breath. Why did I hire an alcoholic carpenter, you ask? Well, he rents a house from me and tends to not pay his rent. I sued him this time last year and the court garnished his wife's wages to pay me the back rent. During 2007, they got behind on the rent again. So, I've hired him because he is working off some of what he owes me. He charges $15 an hour. I pay him half that and we are taking the other half off what he owes. And, despite the drinking, he's really good at what he does. I have no complaints about the work that he and his 12-pack do every day.