Z/Web

Today the plumber arrived first thing. He was supposed to be here at 8:30 but he was at least fifteen minutes early. That was fine, though, as I was ready. He had a number of tasks to do: install a new sink, faucets, garbage disposal, and run a water line for the fridge. I figured water line would be the most complicated and thought the other stuff was so routine it would happen quickly, but it took a surprising amount of time. I didn’t watch everything he did, but he was busy under the sink area, putting in a new valve or something, as I think he had to repipe a few things to get everything to flow correctly. Then came the bad news. The first was a surprise. After the garbage disposal was installed he went to plug it in and realized there was no outlet under the sink. Apparently that’s normally standard but not in my house. For now I can run it with an extension cord (not a big deal as you don’t use the disposal often) but odd that no one noticed that until this late in the game (it was something I’d wondered about but hadn’t checked). Eventually I can have an electrician install a switched outlet but I’ll wait until I know what else I need an electrician to do. To continue the bad news, the plumber revealed that my water lines are “polybutelene” (?) and will eventually need to be replaced as they begin leaking after about fifteen years or so. That will cost three grand at some point in the future, but it’s not an immediate worry. That sounded sort of familiar — I think the home inspector might have mentioned something about it. But a more immediate bummer was that after connecting the dishwasher we discovered it didn’t work. Water wouldn’t pump inside it even though everything was connected. So now a new dishwasher is in the cards.

At about eleven Uncle Phil showed up. He’d actually arrived before my mom and her friends with the beds. They were in a pickup loaded with mattresses and couldn’t drive more than thirty-five or so. The beds arrived about eleven-thirty and we quickly hauled them inside. There was a double for my room and two twins for the guest room. Excellent! Now my mom and her friend Glady will have a place to stay tonight. I took everyone out for lunch at Ruby Tuesday (I had the Triple Play: ribs, shrimp, and chicken strips). It was delicious. Afterward Bob and his wife went home with the truck, Phil went off to work, and my mom and Glady and I went to home to clean. At least they cleaned. I busied myself putting closet doors back (someone had removed them from the tracks and never put them back), assembling beds, and putting outlet covers on all over the house (whoever had painted had removed them and only put half back).