My life is not glamourous.
It's tough coming up with journal entries that I think might interest people. Well, for those who enjoy following the trivia, I am pleased to announce our victory against drain pipes!
gamble made a lovely meal of chicken cacciatore and wild mushroom risotto on Friday night, as a welcome gesture to his parents who stayed with us for the weekend. I do believe Doris was shocked at her son's newly-developed talents. We knew the clean-up would be larger than normal, and so we made sure to get the dishwasher loaded up as early as possible. We finished eating, started the dishwasher going and then retired downstairs. Later that evening, Doris pointed out that the sink had backed up with dirty water. I thought initially it was just a bit of backflow from the dishwasher, which happens very occasionally and is easily cleared. I tried the normal steps: running the garburetor to clear any lingering food scraps (no joy) and hammering at it with the sink plunger (no luck). gamble even tried letting it drain away slowly overnight and then pouring Liquid Plumbr down. No improvement.
We would have let it settle again and tried an auger next, were it not for gamble's untimely discovery in the basement, right before we were all heading out for a fancy dinner reservation: the clean-out valve under the kitchen was seeping water over the carpet in our home theatre area. Realising that the clog was almost certainly below the basement floor, we knew we were out of our depth and resolved to call the plumber.
We eeked out a living on what few remaining plates and utensils we had left until Mr. Rooter arrived on Monday afternoon. For a princely sum, they spent nearly three and a half hours figuring out how to clear the thing. It was impervious even to their augers. At last, they brought in "the boss" who had a pressure hose that proved itself a match.
Apparently, it was a massive grease clog that must have been developing for years. Under the basement floor, there must be a low point in the pipe where it collected. Fixing the lay of the pipe would require expensive jackhammering, and so we're going to try using an enzymatic cleaner periodically in the meantime. Add another item to our list of future basement reservations. Maybe we could install a backflow valve at the same time.
We took advantage of the plumber's presence to upgrade the garburetor while we were at it, though. It's been flakey for a while, and this new model is a bit more powerful. It should help keep any food waste finely chopped and less of a threat to our poor drains.
In other news, I've finally put a good collection of photographs up on the Flickr site that gamble got me so long ago. I hope to get more involved in its communities and get some constructive feedback. If anyone wants to head over there and let me know what they think, I'd really appreciate it! What you like, what you don't like, any changes that you think might make a picture better... whatever comes to mind. :)
gamble made a lovely meal of chicken cacciatore and wild mushroom risotto on Friday night, as a welcome gesture to his parents who stayed with us for the weekend. I do believe Doris was shocked at her son's newly-developed talents. We knew the clean-up would be larger than normal, and so we made sure to get the dishwasher loaded up as early as possible. We finished eating, started the dishwasher going and then retired downstairs. Later that evening, Doris pointed out that the sink had backed up with dirty water. I thought initially it was just a bit of backflow from the dishwasher, which happens very occasionally and is easily cleared. I tried the normal steps: running the garburetor to clear any lingering food scraps (no joy) and hammering at it with the sink plunger (no luck). gamble even tried letting it drain away slowly overnight and then pouring Liquid Plumbr down. No improvement.
We would have let it settle again and tried an auger next, were it not for gamble's untimely discovery in the basement, right before we were all heading out for a fancy dinner reservation: the clean-out valve under the kitchen was seeping water over the carpet in our home theatre area. Realising that the clog was almost certainly below the basement floor, we knew we were out of our depth and resolved to call the plumber.
We eeked out a living on what few remaining plates and utensils we had left until Mr. Rooter arrived on Monday afternoon. For a princely sum, they spent nearly three and a half hours figuring out how to clear the thing. It was impervious even to their augers. At last, they brought in "the boss" who had a pressure hose that proved itself a match.
Apparently, it was a massive grease clog that must have been developing for years. Under the basement floor, there must be a low point in the pipe where it collected. Fixing the lay of the pipe would require expensive jackhammering, and so we're going to try using an enzymatic cleaner periodically in the meantime. Add another item to our list of future basement reservations. Maybe we could install a backflow valve at the same time.
We took advantage of the plumber's presence to upgrade the garburetor while we were at it, though. It's been flakey for a while, and this new model is a bit more powerful. It should help keep any food waste finely chopped and less of a threat to our poor drains.
In other news, I've finally put a good collection of photographs up on the Flickr site that gamble got me so long ago. I hope to get more involved in its communities and get some constructive feedback. If anyone wants to head over there and let me know what they think, I'd really appreciate it! What you like, what you don't like, any changes that you think might make a picture better... whatever comes to mind. :)