OK the carpet did arrive and was installed, followed by the guy who finished off the painting and touched up some small areas damaged when the carpet was laid.
The carpet went down Saturday, my brother-in-law plus wife arrived on Wednesday for a few days. We installed eldest, who was using the spare room, back into his room in the basement just in time for the guests. They stayed longer than two days – they were here until last Saturday – a total of 10 days altogether. They were no trouble, but on top of chaos, it just gave one day to get things sorted before yet another Monday.
I broke my rule of not doing laundry on Sunday to get some of the backlog sorted. Got dinner started and began to attack the ironing pile. That is when I saw a little puddle on the floor. On closer inspection I saw several puddles, all parallel to the counter.
Darn, I thought, the dishwasher is leaking, or maybe the fridge. Alas as my eye travelled right I ntoiced the old, little bathroom. This thing is totally against code and common decency. When the people before remodelled they left the small bathroom by the back door. The door to the room opens right onto the kitchen and with very little effort one can sit on the throne and reach for a beer! Hence I shut the water off and declared it unusable!
I tentatively opened the door to the offending little room. I gingerly approached the lid and opened it – YUUUUUUUK! No further description needed here.
One quick call to the plumber indicated that we could not flush, shower or otherwise use anything that would put waste water, or any other sort into the system.
We are English. We continued to complete dinner, and served it in the dining room as per norm. Dishes were stacked in the dishwasher and kids dispensed to bed.Even the countertops were wiped with disposable cloths.
This morning was a rather less decorous affair. Minimal water for teeth etc and no major bathroom privileges was rather tiresome. Kids went to school, I went off to the garden and the husband, in town for at least one calamity, stayed to meet the plumber. Within half an hour he phoned a hotel – it was the septic tank and that couldn’t be dealt with until tomorrow.
So kids and I are back in the local hotel and the husband is south of the town at a meeting for the rest of the week!
Tomorrow I get to find out if the septic was the only problem or if we have a blocked pipe too. If the pipe is blocked, I doubtless have to call the plumber back to clear it and that could be another night in the hotel.
