Where do I begin? Hmmm...you know how (bad) things usually come in threes? We definitely got hammered with three things - all at the same exact time (give or take 5 minutes).
We originally were supposed to take a trip out west to visit Aunt Lou yesterday. But the threat of tornados and severe thunderstorms caused us to rethink that plan. We rescheduled our visit and now had a free day ahead of us. Since we haven't yet completed the bathroom renovation, it made complete sense to work on that. All we have left to do (we naively thought) is finish putting up the hardiplank (mildew resistant drywall) on the walls and floor so we can tile. Easy.
But then Chuck thought to check out the new plumbing hardware that we were going to use to replace the old shower nozzle and handle. What do you know? They need to be soldered on as well. Chuck thought he was finished with that nightmare after his bathtub fiasco. When I called out thru the house to find out where he was he replied, "I'm in hell right now." Somehow I knew that meant the bathroom and oddly enough it also meant he was going to have to solder something.
After spending an hour at Home Depot gathering all necessary supplies, he comes home ready to use his blowtorch - the only fun part of the whole ordeal. I put on my 'Helper Extraordinaire' hat and we both get to work. I get to hand him important things like ice, and pieces of copper and wet towels. I also get to run up and down 21 stairs multiple times throughout the afternoon and evening turning on and off the water main.
He might look like he's smiling...but he's crying on the inside.
Despite our best efforts and long hours of hard work, we still have one tiny leak that doesn't want to get plugged. We break for dinner (crepes with eggs and sausage) and get back to the nitty-gritty. We are right in the middle of soldering when the kids run up to tell us that Ninja puked all of the carpet (two separate places). They become comatose and have no clue what to do or how to help. We drop everything and run and clean up the space (without any water since the water main is still turned off). We've been without water most of the day by this point. I can't scrub the floors with the cleaner until we have water, but we can't have water until we plug the hole. It's an endless circle.
After that little smelly interruption, Chuck heads back up to the bathroom and I run down to the basement in the 14th attempt to turn the water back on only to find out it's still leaking. Again, the kids come running to each of us informing us that our neighbor is at the door. What in the world does a neighbor need right now? We both run out there to hear our neighbor breathlessly tell us that one of the branches from one of our huge trees fell into her yard just two minutes ago and would we come look at it.
It's severe weather outside. The winds are raging at 50 mile an hour wind gusts. There is a small break in the rain when we run out to check on the damage. Thank God it missed her shed, but there is indeed a huge branch hanging on for dear life to the tree yet also cracked and precariously hanging into her backyard.
The boys grab the saws, another neighbor grabs his chainsaw and we start hacking away at the huge part laying on the ground. There's nothing more we can do until we talk to our Tree Guy. I have him on speed dial on my phone since we call him so much.
We all typically shower at night so the kids are beside themselves not taking their showers at bedtime. We turn the water on for 1 minute so everyone can brush their teeth and flush the toilet. What a huge convenience running water is! I love you water. I promise never to take you for granted again.
We wake up to the same problems we had yesterday. It feels like the movie, "Groundhog's Day." However, our Tree Guy was able to come checkout our mess and informed us it would cost a small fortune to take down the tree. We figured. Thankfully, Chuck stayed home from work to finish the soldering which never got finished. We actually even came up with 4 plans. Seriously. We are about to implement Plan D at this stage of the game.
Plan A - do it right the first time. Fail
Plan B - go to Home Depot at 6am and get parts necessary to start over again. Redo soldering. Fail
Plan C - cut out the entire unit and cap off the hot/cold water pipes so we can at least shower and brush out teeth like normal humans again. Check
Plan D - call in a neighbor who has a tool we might be able to borrow and some experience that might help out.
I'd like to add my own personal Plan E - forget we ever had a shower and convert that into something else. We'll see where this goes. After our tree problem, we can't afford to call a plumber. So....there's that. It appears that the easiest problem to fix was Ninja. After she puked, she put herself in her kennel and didn't show her face the rest of the night. Smart dog. The carpet is as good as new. The water main is back on. I haven't had time to take a shower but I did get the entire counter and sink full of dishes washed as well as my first load of laundry. I can hear the lovely sound of chainsaws hacking up the tree in our backyard as I sit here typing. So things are looking up here.
