That there was something not quite right with the drain of the shower is not exactly new to me. It had always been slow, but I just didn't feel like having to pay the plumber myself and than having to fight with the landlord of getting reimbursed. Clearly the plumbing system is his responsibility. But the landlord does only what is an aboslute must. Everything else is always a fight. When it comes to that I really miss having a professional real estate company managing the building.
To make long story short. Firday morning the drain of the shower stopped working. So I used some of the tricks I knew about to get the shower drain unclogged again. Well, it just made matters worse. I ended up of having some of the stuff stuck to the walls of the drain loosened and it ended up right in the bathtub. All tricks didn't help and since I had to leave for work I had to let it the way it was. As you can imagine I was not a happy camper.
I couldn't get a hold of the landlord and so I took matters into my own hands and called a local plumber. They offered very reasonable flat rates and the were going to send someone over on Friday afternoon. So I left work early. That being in the middle of tax season and this being busiest time for me didn't help to improve my mood. The plumber really worked his ass off. After about 1 hour he managed to unclog the drain somewhat. He told me that this is only a very temporary fix and that it can break down at any time and that I would have the drain high pressure cleaned. That's clearly the obligation of the landlord and I have to talk to him first otherwise I might end up paying for the entire procedure myself.
Of course the entire thing is a pain in the ass, but it also gave me the necessary kick in the butt to get serious about finding a new place for Daisy and I. Spent Saturday afternoon looking at places online and found about 5 or 6 that I liked and so I wrote to the Real Estate Agents to find out if dogs are allowed, since it isn't that easy at the moment to find great apartments that allow dogs. So I hope to hear back from some of the Agents by Monday or Tuesday.
But the "Plumbing God" was not quite finished with me yet. On Sunday afternoon the fix broke down again and it was right back to Ground Zero. All the tricks didn't help and after trying it on and off for a couple of hours I gave up. It was time to rethink the strategy. Here it comes in handy if you have learned to think on your feet. Since I couldn't fix the problem I had to find a way to wash myself for Monday. Then I remembered how I used to do that as a kid when visiting my Grandma. There was no running water at her place and you had to wash yourself over a bucket. And that's exactly what I recreated. Well, of course it's an inconvenience...but as a short term solution it's very doable.
But there is good news as well. Only the drain stack of the bathroom and kitchen broke down, luckily the stack for the washer and toilet is still in perfect working order. At least I still can cook and wash dishes, you just have to get a little creative go back to basics...to the way we used to do those things
60 or 70 years ago.
Now I have to call the landlord and have him set up an appointment for a pressure cleaning of the drain. I will keep you guys updated on that.
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