Grunt, by Russ

It's really kind of sad when you are glad that it is Monday.  Glad that the clusterfrak of a weekend is over.  A weekend that included our anniversary.  That was the highpoint, not that is saying much.

As noted before, we discovered a water pipe in the house.  We just had no idea where it was and I don't like paying someone to do exploritory surgery under the slab of my house.

They, the plumber and his helper, started in the garage in an effort to be as minimally destructive as possible.  It seemed like a good place, there was a lot of evidence that the leak was nearby, the sound of water hissing was quite clear and we could see water on the foundation (not just it being damp).

Evidently, that was just the path of least resistance for the water.  The plumber only found a lot of wet Carolina Clay.

Since they found only evidence, but no leak, we had to move inside.  That meant jackhammering in the house.  Which also meant that sending the kids upstairs for their nap time was a huge joke.  So no nap/quiet time today.

Fast forward an hour or two and they have a hole in the bathroom where the vanity used to be.  They found a leak.  Capped it and I went to turn the water back on and check to see if the meter was still running. 

Thank goodness, the meter was not moving!  We could get on with our lives.  After we put the house back together of course.  I go back into the house to annouce their success and I see them huddled about the hole in the bathroom making not good sounds. 

Apparently, there was a second leak!  It was too far back to get at it from the hole in its current size.  It was also nearly six pm on Friday.  And The Wife's and my anniversay (which had already been pretty well shot) and the plumber's wife's birthday.  So he was interested in going and we were interested in him leaving (just to get him off the clock, he seems like a perfectly nice guy).

So the next morning, the plumber's help showed up and dug out the hole a little more and found the leak.  Then the plumber showed up and did some more plumbing stuff.  Not all of the water was out of the line, so the solder wouldn't melt.  Then he ran out of propane for his torch.  The comedy of error continued.

By the by it got capped off and no more leaks were found.  Currently we are letting everything dry out so we can a) make sure there are no more leaks and b) fix the hole properly.  In the mean time, I have no commodes on the first floor and I have a gaping hole where the vanity once was.  But the leak is done.