October 31st 2011
How was your Halloween? We started out normal routine no problem. Hubby got out the door to work on time, and I pushed play on my workout dvd. The kids got up and we had breakfast.
Now would be the time that I would jump in the shower while they are eating, and we would begin our preparation for conquering the day. Turns out the water from hubby's shower has not drained out of the tub yet. This is odd so I begin looking for a solution. Plunger equals no real help with the matter. In comes the trusty coat hanger. No luck with that even though I got out a large clump of hair. {GROSS}
The weather has gotten colder here, so I was beginning to notice that the heater was not working. We are the proud owners of an ancient heated water baseboard heating system. Last year some one stole all of our copper pipes, so I know it has brand new pipes under the house. I verify the pilot light is lit, and that the water is being heated. Everything is a go there so I start googling for an answer. I tried a few of the suggestions, but nothing really worked. I decided that it was not an urgent matter, and went back to working on the drain. It is cool here, but now I know the heater is not working, and I can fix that before we get to cold outside.
My dear sister-in-law drove over to watch the kids, while I worked more on the drain. After trying everything I could think of to not crawl under my house I gave in. I donned one of my husbands old navy coveralls, got a flashlight, and a large wrench. The good news is that our bathtub sits very close to the entrance to our crawl space. So after I crawled under it was not long until I spotted the bathtub drain. By following the pipes I found the location to remove the plug and drain the line. I get my wrench all adjusted and ready to go.
Finding a position where I could hold the wrench, and get leverage to turn it is a whole different story under the house. Once I found a good position I set my wrench, and gave it a good tug. To my ultimate surprise I broke the pipe in half. Now I know the pipe was old and rusted, but it really gave me a start. Needless to say the bath tub now drains, it just leaks under my house. So now we get to call a plumber to work on these metal pipes. If we had PVC I would attempt it myself, but our drain pipes are ancient.
After my day of excitement I did not even take the kids trick-or-treating. I know they really still do not have any idea what they missed, but I always had fun going out on Halloween. So later this week I am going to dress them up, and take some pictures of them.
Have you ever worked on your own pipes? Who clears clogged drains at your house you or your hubby? 
