sink saga.

anyone want to take a guess at what super-fun welcome-home present was waiting for us when we got back from vacation? i'll give you two hints: it rhymes with "blogged pitchin' blink," and i already mentioned it in Monday's post...

did anyone guess "clogged kitchen sink?" cuz if you did, you're right! points for you!

we first noticed the issue last Monday when we ran the dishwasher, and suddenly our sink was full of skuzzy-looking water that took For-Ev-Er to drain. on Tuesday, Mark dumped some Dran-o down the sink, hoping that would solve our problems. it didnt. so for the rest of the week, we just did our best to ignore it, and work around it, and only use the sink sparingly, if at all.

and when it backed up, it also leaked. awesome.

on Saturday, Mark finally had some time to really work on the sink. he took apart the trap. no clog. he ran 25 feet of snake through the plumbing. no clog.

he even went so far as to snake the line backwards from the vent in the roof. still no clog.

we took a trip to Lowe's on Saturday evening to buy a longer snake. (and to grab some dinner from Chick-Fil-A, because we were so not making any food in our kitchen at this point) but the stupid snake wouldnt go around all the bends it needed to, making it pretty much worthless. so we resigned ourselves to the fact that this job was bigger than the both of us, called and left a message for a plumber, and just went to bed on Saturday night, frustrated and sinkless.

and then, it was Mother's Day. and 17 people had a wonderful picnic lunch at our house. and even though we tried really hard to only use disposable tableware, we still ended up with a decent number of dishes that needed to be washed. but instead of leaving a kitchen counter full of dirty dishes to deal with later (which is really what we felt like doing) we made due with what we had, which was a working bathtub.

we are the epitome of classy.

on Monday morning, the plumber called back and said he could be at our house sometime between 10 and 2, and i decided it was well worth taking a couple hours off work in the middle of the day in the name of our kitchen sink. while i was on my way home, they called to let me know that they would be there in 30-40 minutes. and they were.

Chris the plumber was really nice. he brought his own doormat to wipe his feet on before he came in the house, and he laid down carpets to protect the kitchen floor where he would be working.

he was very professional and answered all my questions. he showed me where all the important water shut-off valves are in the basement, and made sure we got some septic-friendly drain cleaner (because apparently Dran-o isnt good for our system) he even laughed and said it was ok when i explained my picture-taking by saying "its not every day the plumber comes to your house."

and! no plumbers crack!

he installed a cleanout under the sink that is easy to access, so that if it ever backs up again we wont have to take the whole thing apart to run the snake through, and we'll be able to run water while we're snaking so we can know for sure when we break up the clog. he also replaced a bunch of the trap pipes that were showing signs of leaking, so we shouldnt have to worry about leaks either.

he even wiped down the bottom of the cabinet when he was done.

this was the first thing that we've really had go wrong with the house since we bought it almost two years ago. in the grand scheme of things, even though it was super annoying and frustrating, it was a relatively small thing to deal with, and it has made us much more appreciative of the luxury it is to have a working kitchen sink, along with all the other things in our house that keep working the way they're supposed to, day after day.

(hear that, oven and fridge and washer and dryer and dishwasher and water heater and well pump? keep up the good work! we love ya!)

**do i even need to say this? Mike's Plumbing and Heating knows nothing about my blog, and i did not get any perks or discounts for mentioning them here. but i was happy with their work. so if you are in the MD area and need any plumbing done in the future and you give them a call and tell them i told you about them, then i get a referral bonus. but they do that for all their customers, so its not like special treatment.**