Today was fall cleaning at our house. Walls, ceilings, corners, cracks and crevasses. By 9:00 Katya was hard at work on the upstairs. After lunch, Lena and Tanya and Katya were all going full steam ahead. I just ran taxi shuttle and tried to stay out of the way. Kuchma just tried to stay out of the way. He got booted out at least once. I was lucky.
The house now shines like new penny. One is not allowed to live in a clean house in case it gets dirty again instantly (all men will understand that) but it is worth it. The area rugs are unrolled for winter. The summer drapes are down and winter ones are up. The cobwebs are gone and the woodwork polished. Ready for Christmas decorating.
Our kitchen sink has been plugged for months. Drano didn't help. A 10' snake helped a bit and it would drain slowly, so I would wash dishes until the sink filled with water then stop and let it drain. I rinse with hot water. Finding a plumber with a roto-rooter is a non-starter as we don't have plumbers in Ukraine as we know them in Canada. Katya's husband Yuri found a guy who owned a 50' snake and so today he and Roman set out to see if they could unclog our sink drain.
It is about 25' to 30' from our sink to the corner of the house where the main sewer pipe to the septic tank is located. The black iron pipe drain has been buried under the floor in concrete (or earth?) for over 20 years. It may have corroded shut, collapsed or whatever, but there was no fixing the problem. Yuri sweated at it for three or four hours but nothing doing. The snake was not going through. All that happened was enough gunk got stirred up that the drain is totally plugged now.
We have two choices - be shot or hanged. Wait until spring and trench a new sewer line from the kitchen to the septic tank, independent of the one from the bathrooms. Or run a white PVC line inside the house, along the living room wall, under the window and figure out what to do with the hot water register under the same window. Chiseling the pipe into the wall is impossible as is jack hammering up the floor.
The 6 lb pork roast sure tasted good for supper. There wasn't much left of it when the six of us got finished (seven counting Kuchma).
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| Kuchma thinks he is Emperor with all this carpet to himself |
Glad to hear that your act, I mean your house, got cleaned up. Ready for Christmas and winter.
ReplyDeleteSewer problems. Yuck! You have my deepest condolences. Especially at this time of year.
And you didn't share scraps from the pork roast with the dogs? They WILL put you on E-bay.
I love that pic of Kuchma. Too funny. I could use Tanya and the crew here for cleaning.
ReplyDeleteRB, the dogs get their share. I buy soup bones for next to nothing for them to chew on.
ReplyDeleteMB, they would be thorough. And cheap. Except airfare.
Also, Yuri suggested to Tanya that after Christmas/New Years he will put in a new white PVC drain pipe inside the house which Tanya and I both favour.
ReplyDeleteThere. And now I've read it and know all about the sink. Am I forgiven?
ReplyDelete