I'm currently doing the Kermit!Flail.
THE PLUMBING IS FIXED!!
Plumber showed up about 11ish. (After I had been awake since 7, so I was rather high-strung and pre-stressed-out about all this.) He explained the problem as this: We have a water softener - well, had, since it's now irretrievably broken - that we were told upon moving in three years ago wasn't hooked up to the lines so we wouldn't have to worry about maintenance. Come to find out that, in fact, it WAS hooked up, but it wasn't plugged into the wall socket. Therefore, the beads in the filter were still doing their job of pulling the magnesium from the water, but the tank couldn't reverse itself and clean out the filter automatically. So, after three years of constant use, the beads just couldn't absorb any more magnesium, they swelled, and they broke the filter, causing the beads to flow everywhere in the system.
We were hoping against hope that he wouldn't have to get to all of the fixtures; that he could skip the ones that we hadn't used in the past week or two. This would have allowed us to keep the kittens/girls in the bathroom upstairs without having to move them. Naturally, as is our general luck, they had to get to the toilet to use as a place to dump the water from the water heater in the attic. (On a side note: since they don't know how many of the beads got into the water heater, and they couldn't tell if they had been able to flush it all out, we're now crossing our fingers and praying that the heater doesn't die next.) This meant we had to move the four kitties out of the bathroom and into my room. NOT COOL, but we had no choice. Monsieur, Fluffy, and Cole were already freaking out in Sarah's room. It took forever to get them herded into my room, since they are used to their room, and roaming around downstairs. My room was scary. I then had to babysit them for the hour or so it took to finish working in that bathroom. Lili was climbing EVERYTHING, to the point where I was stressing out about what she was going to knock over next. Brie found a paper towel roll on my floor and took out her aggression on it, so now I have most of a full roll of paper towel shredded on my floor. At one point, Sis opened her door and Fluffy and Cole ran out. Cole was easy to catch, since he's not too fast, but Fluffy... I finally got her, but, as I slung her over my shoulder, she put her right front claws in my lips. There's giant hole on my top lip, and a smaller one on my bottom. SO SO INCREDIBLY UNBELIEVABLY PAINFUL OMG. One of the most sensitive parts of the human body, and I had needles stuck in them. I know I screamed, I don't know how high. Mom thought I was being a baby, until she saw the actual damage. I gotta say, rubbing alcohol and broken skin on your lips is just as painful as the original injury. Painful, but necessary, as the last thing I want is this to get infected. It was just as difficult getting the girls back OUT of my room and into the bathroom again. Lili was all set to leave, but Bandit and Elise both needed the persuasion of the swiffer (they're scared of it) to come out from under the bed and dresser, respectively. Poor, terrorized kitties. The one kitten who wasn't affected too badly was Leo. He just sat and played in the carrier where we put him so the guys could get into the hall bathroom. He even took a nap after a while. He stared to get a little claw-strophobic toward the end, but it turned out it was because he needed to go to the bathroom and he didn't want to pee in the carrier. What a great little guy!
He ended up calling a second guy to come and help. They had to bypass the water softener, then take the aerators off all of the faucets and let the water run. After doing that, they did the same to all the showers. They finally took apart and replaced the water lines that ran to the toilets because they were just completely clogged with the orange goop. (This stuff basically looked like caviar.) So we now have newer plumbing on all the toilets, they fixed the toilet in the upstairs bathroom that started leaking several months ago (which is why we just turned the water to that toilet off a while back - of course, we feigned ignorance about the problem), and unclogged those drains that were already clogged.
My plans for the rest of the day: 1) take some pain killers, 2) lie down and take a nap, 3) get up again, 4) wash my clothes, 5) take a bath/shower so I can finally get CLEAN after being scuzzy for almost two weeks now, 6) go back to sleep.
I gotta say, it's the little things you miss when you don't have them. Being able to flush a toilet at a whim is a big one. We all had to use Mom's toilet since Friday. And since the damn thing wouldn't refill, we had to pour water in the tank a punch bowl at a time (it was the only thing that we could fit in mom's tiny sink that would hold a decent amount of water - stupid cultured marble shallow crap sink/counter combos).
I'm glad this saga is now over because Mom was about ready to blow a gasket, and that was pushing me to the limits of my medication. I got to the point this afternoon just after the guys had left, where I was just screaming and screaming and screaming at everything. I'm calmer now, but I was getting to that point of no return, train to crazytown. Thank God things have settled out.
Time to rest now. Leo pictures later, maybe.
Plumber showed up about 11ish. (After I had been awake since 7, so I was rather high-strung and pre-stressed-out about all this.) He explained the problem as this: We have a water softener - well, had, since it's now irretrievably broken - that we were told upon moving in three years ago wasn't hooked up to the lines so we wouldn't have to worry about maintenance. Come to find out that, in fact, it WAS hooked up, but it wasn't plugged into the wall socket. Therefore, the beads in the filter were still doing their job of pulling the magnesium from the water, but the tank couldn't reverse itself and clean out the filter automatically. So, after three years of constant use, the beads just couldn't absorb any more magnesium, they swelled, and they broke the filter, causing the beads to flow everywhere in the system.
We were hoping against hope that he wouldn't have to get to all of the fixtures; that he could skip the ones that we hadn't used in the past week or two. This would have allowed us to keep the kittens/girls in the bathroom upstairs without having to move them. Naturally, as is our general luck, they had to get to the toilet to use as a place to dump the water from the water heater in the attic. (On a side note: since they don't know how many of the beads got into the water heater, and they couldn't tell if they had been able to flush it all out, we're now crossing our fingers and praying that the heater doesn't die next.) This meant we had to move the four kitties out of the bathroom and into my room. NOT COOL, but we had no choice. Monsieur, Fluffy, and Cole were already freaking out in Sarah's room. It took forever to get them herded into my room, since they are used to their room, and roaming around downstairs. My room was scary. I then had to babysit them for the hour or so it took to finish working in that bathroom. Lili was climbing EVERYTHING, to the point where I was stressing out about what she was going to knock over next. Brie found a paper towel roll on my floor and took out her aggression on it, so now I have most of a full roll of paper towel shredded on my floor. At one point, Sis opened her door and Fluffy and Cole ran out. Cole was easy to catch, since he's not too fast, but Fluffy... I finally got her, but, as I slung her over my shoulder, she put her right front claws in my lips. There's giant hole on my top lip, and a smaller one on my bottom. SO SO INCREDIBLY UNBELIEVABLY PAINFUL OMG. One of the most sensitive parts of the human body, and I had needles stuck in them. I know I screamed, I don't know how high. Mom thought I was being a baby, until she saw the actual damage. I gotta say, rubbing alcohol and broken skin on your lips is just as painful as the original injury. Painful, but necessary, as the last thing I want is this to get infected. It was just as difficult getting the girls back OUT of my room and into the bathroom again. Lili was all set to leave, but Bandit and Elise both needed the persuasion of the swiffer (they're scared of it) to come out from under the bed and dresser, respectively. Poor, terrorized kitties. The one kitten who wasn't affected too badly was Leo. He just sat and played in the carrier where we put him so the guys could get into the hall bathroom. He even took a nap after a while. He stared to get a little claw-strophobic toward the end, but it turned out it was because he needed to go to the bathroom and he didn't want to pee in the carrier. What a great little guy!
He ended up calling a second guy to come and help. They had to bypass the water softener, then take the aerators off all of the faucets and let the water run. After doing that, they did the same to all the showers. They finally took apart and replaced the water lines that ran to the toilets because they were just completely clogged with the orange goop. (This stuff basically looked like caviar.) So we now have newer plumbing on all the toilets, they fixed the toilet in the upstairs bathroom that started leaking several months ago (which is why we just turned the water to that toilet off a while back - of course, we feigned ignorance about the problem), and unclogged those drains that were already clogged.
My plans for the rest of the day: 1) take some pain killers, 2) lie down and take a nap, 3) get up again, 4) wash my clothes, 5) take a bath/shower so I can finally get CLEAN after being scuzzy for almost two weeks now, 6) go back to sleep.
I gotta say, it's the little things you miss when you don't have them. Being able to flush a toilet at a whim is a big one. We all had to use Mom's toilet since Friday. And since the damn thing wouldn't refill, we had to pour water in the tank a punch bowl at a time (it was the only thing that we could fit in mom's tiny sink that would hold a decent amount of water - stupid cultured marble shallow crap sink/counter combos).
I'm glad this saga is now over because Mom was about ready to blow a gasket, and that was pushing me to the limits of my medication. I got to the point this afternoon just after the guys had left, where I was just screaming and screaming and screaming at everything. I'm calmer now, but I was getting to that point of no return, train to crazytown. Thank God things have settled out.
Time to rest now. Leo pictures later, maybe.