Well plumber number one did not return the phone calls, so I let my fingers do the proverbial walking to the yellow pages and found a nice big ad for plumbers. Very nice lady answered the phone -I do like people answering phones, not machines, when you have a problem. After just a few minutes she had secured a truck to come round late afternoon. At 5.15 he phoned to say he was on the way and would be 40 minutes. That was time to run to fast food place for nuggets and burgers for the charmers (kids).
Large truck arrives with guy to mend problem. He looked down the septic tank and thought we had a root blocking it. Funny thinks I, there isn’t a tree for 20 feet or more. He gets a light and decides that there is no root there (phew). So I flush all the toilets in the house and they obediently all enter the system on schedule.
So… the good news it is not a backed up septic system.
But to see what is causing the problem, they need to get behind the wall. This can be done with a light thing, which the gentleman in the truck didn’t have. Seems he was the guy to sort out the blogged up outside problems. A leaking thingy inside is a different sort of plumber. He called to schedule one for Sunday morning, or if they get a cancellation they will arrive this today.
We can shower but I cannot use the dishwasher or washing machine. I had planned to go shopping today anyway to get jeans and clothes, so instead of washing I will just buy a few extras!
After the plumber left I decided that the kids were old enough for me to leave them while I nip for an hour at the pub with some folks from work. I needed to get milk, fruit juice and cat food anyway, so a beer was kinda along the way. We spent an hour whining about work, objectionable editors etc, – nothing special but it was a much needed time-out from the drama of the basement being smelly, unsolved and unusuable. After shopping today I may have to face the fact that some of the things in the basement need to be moved so that we can see what has got wet and what is safe. I think I will stick to the shopping bit!
Tags: , basement drama, plumbing
