I was very lucky when I was house hunting that I found a well kept, well maintained home that was in my price range. Most of the major items had been done: new furnace, roof, gutters, siding, water heater and driveway. The only major item that needs to be done is the windows, but for now they work just fine.
When you own a home or a condo you can expect some maintenance issues to arise. No one can tell you when the garbage disposal is going to get jammed or a light fixture will stop working. My new house? It has plumbing gremlins. These gremlins run around the house and cause havoc with the plumbing systems and water in the house.
Now I’m familiar with gremlins causing trouble. There’s been many a Sunday that you can tell they are running around the sanctuary at church causing troubles. Mics that don’t work, missed entrances and forgotten cues on songs that were sung perfectly all throughout rehearsal, or hymnals that go missing and then show up again out of the blue. These little guys are brilliant at causing mischief. And they have been very busy at my house.
My first issue: I walked into the room where the furnace is only to find the floor covered with water. Upon further inspection, I found out that the little pump that is put on these high efficiency furnaces to pump the water that drains from the furnace had stopped working. So my first trip to the hardware store was to purchase some tubing and I ran it from the furnace to the drain in the basement floor. Works like a champ, and I didn't have to ask for help.
Second issue: the garage floor doesn’t drain properly. Although this isn’t technically a plumbing issue, it is a water issue and it’s driving me crazy. There is always water sitting next to my car in the garage. When it rains, it comes in under the door and pools just about right where I stand to get in my car. When it’s cold outside, the snow will melt off the car and there will be a big puddle of water. Who in the heck do you call to fix this problem? I have no idea.
Third issue: after I got the furnace issue fixed, imagine my surprise to find more water on the basement floor a few weeks later. At first I thought it was my upright freezer leaking. I dried up the water and a couple days later more showed up. After further investigation I found out that the water was coming from behind the wall in the unfinished part of the basement. I thought for sure my water softener was leaking. I mopped up the water and waited to see if it happened again. It did, six days later, and then six days after that. So I called the water softener people (it’s a rental) and they came out to look at it. The repairman said the softener was working fine and that it was probably a drain issue.
A few weeks later, on a Sunday of course, it happened again, only this time the water was coming out of the drain that was put on the side of my main plumbing stack. Oh great!! Desperate I called my brother and asked him what I should do. He was great and came right out, but decided that I needed a plumber because there was most likely a clog somewhere. Fortunately I have an ex-brother-in-law that is a plumber and he came out and was able to snake the drain and find the clog right away. Thank goodness it wasn’t something more serious, just a 50-year old plumbing stack that had finally collected enough goop to stop it from flowing. And fortunately, my brother came out another day and fixed the other drain issue.
Fourth issue: In the midst of hosting a family reunion at my house I went to flip the switch for the garbage disposal and it chose that moment to stop working. The motor ran, but the blades weren’t turning. Obviously there was something stuck in it, but upon closer inspection I could not tell what the culprit was. Fortunately, my brother-in-law was visiting and he’s one of those great handymen that can fix just about anything and he was eventually able to get the innards to move and un-stick the grinding mechanism. Good thing he was there because I had just about had it with all these darn plumbing issues.
Needless to say the plumbing gremlins have been very busy. Hopefully they will eventually calm down and leave my house alone. Maybe I can send them over to the neighbors?
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