Aqua Restored
/We have water. It was restored about 5pm last night. Barely.
Yesterday morning I cancelled the jillion-dollar plumber and had the plumber who is doing the work to our bathroom come out. Like the first plumber, he confirmed the leak was coming from a spot underneath our bathroom shower where there just isn't enough crawl space to get back in there. So I had our general contractor come out yesterday, rip up my closet carpet and saw a hole in my closet floor (my closet backs up to the shower), allowing access to the pipe. Apparently just a casing or something had come loose so my GC tightened it up and voila! Water!
The plumber is coming back this morning to confirm everything is tightened up as it should be. Then the GC will screw the plywood back into my closet floor, creating a sort of trap door should we ever need it again.
I like the plumber. It honestly hadn't occurred to me that the source of the leak was anything other than older pipes. But he said upfront, "No, I'm pretty sure it was something I did when I did the preliminary work to your shower." He apologized and made clear he would set things right on his own time and I wouldn't owe anything to him.
Love that. I don't mind if people mess up. We were without water for 48 hours and it wasn't the end of the world. But he took responsibility, apologized, and is going to fix it. You can't ask for more than that.
Meanwhile, this little episode has been useful in helping me appreciate some of the things I usually gripe about. Once we had water I did 3 loads of laundry and was happy to fold and put away clothes. Emptying the dishwasher was a pleasure. Few things brought me more enjoyment this week than wiping off the kitchen counter tops. It's like being able to see with new eyes.
I would not have been a happy pioneer woman. Electricity and water--these are a few of my favorite things.