Plumbers

Today thru to one and one-half weeks, the family and I will experience... 


Plumbers.


Coming in and out. 


Luckily, most of the work is going to be downstairs and ... jeez you will not believe the daydream I just had.


Anyway, they're also being pretty good about doing the work in here only when Lucy and I are out of the house. Just today, during the regular park trip Lucy and I take, they came up and moved our coats and shoes and all the stuff in the bathroom around, and drilled two sizable holes in two walls, and knocked what must have been a shotty caulk job on the bottom of the pipe leading from the bathroom sink. There was a fine white dust on the floor, too. They probably used our broom to sweep up most of it, but they missed a bunch. So I went at it again, cleaning up after them.


It's good that they're polite, middle-aged (read: mature and calm) plumbers that are being as accommodating as they can. I hear them now, drilling into who knows what downstairs. Lucy's room is above one of the bedrooms downstairs, so the noise won't wake her. Another bonus.


The last plumber we had was this total jerk slob of a guy who left slightly severe messes for us to clean up, and weirded us out every time by just saying this really ... what's the word ... stupid shit.


One hundred years -- that's how old this house is. And with that age comes rot. But also--archaic, problematic plumbing practices. I talked to the main plumber today. Nice guy. He told me that our landlord wants them to "snake the pipe leading to the main sink," he said. Then he smiled a little.


"Uh-uh. It goes down, turns sharply to the right, then goes uphill." The only answer with a problem like that, he said, is to replace the pipes. This is going to be more expensive than our landlord had anticipated, I'm guessing.


I hope rats or any other assorted critters don't come out of the holes in the walls.