Plumbers!

Well.

We have water. Ha!


Justin giving the thumbs up

Anthony has promised to come back this morning to finish some of the things he and Justin just weren't able to get to yesterday, like attach the filler and trim pieces around the bathtub and shower fixtures, which means breaking out some more tile since the spacing wasn't measured before the fixtures were installed. There are still some loose pipes in the walls, so they need strapping down. The water heater installation hasn't been completed yet -- though that was the appliance we started this whole adventure with (drains and straps and such are missing), and the kitchen and bathroom sink drains are leaking a bit. Oh, and the tub drain is clogged up with plaster and other debris. And apparently has sprung a major leak. I wonder how that happened? Gee.

Other than that, and a massive amount of wall hole-age and clean up still left to fix, we're doing fine. Even the cat seems to have settled in (he spent all of yesterday in the bedroom closet, buried in folded clothes under the hanging clothes. He was as contented a cat as I've ever seen him be in his hidey hole.)

We've grown to like bottled water, too. We can't really drink what's coming out of the taps yet because of who-knows-what kind of chemical contamination that's in it. It has an... interesting, piquant aroma... something like the burning and smoke generated by the plumbers as they went about their tasks inside and under the house. Apparently the residue is from the solder and flux and whatnot as the sweated the pipes together. It'll go away in a week or so, they say. OK. Fine.

The City got pissed because we turned the water off and on at their valve by the sidewalk. Apparently that's a NoNo, they're the only ones authorized to do that. Oh, really? Who'd a thunk. But their dambed valve was leaking anyway and had to be replaced, along with nearly everything else. At least they were pretty quick to come out when called. Didn't have to get all attitudinal about it, though. Excuse me. Ultimately everyone was mollified and we left as friends. Harrumph.

There's plaster dust all over everything, even though we tried to keep it confined to the areas of work by closing off the rest of the house. Apparently that wasn't enough. So prioritizing what to take care of first is the next task on the list. The holes in the walls can be temporarily covered over while we try to clean up as much of the debris and dust and stuff as possible, and then we can figure out how to keep the debris of repairs to the walls from overwhelming "living areas." Probably won't be entirely successful, but while we're doing it, we can begin to get rid of whatever we don't need anymore. Beacuse...

The floors are going to be another story.

An entirely different and more involved adventure. Repair and refinishing will lead, I'm sure, to redoing all the floors, which, realistically will mean moving out. To do that, after living here for 20 years, is going to be a somewhat more than daunting task.

We'll wait till spring.