A Day NOT in my Van

As those of you who have been reading my blog know, a year ago I moved my elderly mother to Oregon and bought a house here to care for her. There is so much work when you own a house. Though it's wonderful in many ways to have a home base, it also can be exhausting. Here is a (not so) funny tale about my day yesterday.

I put a load of laundry in and was out in the garden planting some new plants I'd bought when mom came out and said, "The kitchen sinks are plugged up."

My heart dropped. I was so looking to having a day to myself. I also planned on taking a walk. I'm still trying to recover strength from my double mastectomy. It's amazing how long it has taken and how much stamina I've lost.

Anyway, I poured some liquid drain opener into them and said, "I'm going for a walk. I'll check the sinks when I get back."

I started out the garage door and as I passed the laundry room, I realized it was FLOODING!

I spent time mopping up the mess, then called a neighbor to ask if he knew of a good plumber. He offered to come down and help.

The friendly neighbor came down and we went to the rental place and rented a snake. This is a HEAVY machine with no legs that has a long wire "snake" coiled up inside. The machine was like a drill with a forward and backward. You hit forward to push the snake down and backward to bring it back up. For about 1.5 hours, he struggled with the weight of that thing while he pulled out snake, turned on the machine and drove it down the washing machine drain pipe in the wall. I stood by and helped hold it up occasionally, and I saw that snake going down. After it was down a good ways, we'd retract it to see if it snagged anything. Nothing. And the sinks were still plugged up. After doing this about 3 times I said, "Let's just pull it out manually and see how far it's gone. It feels like it's gone 20 feet!"

So we did.

And out came FIVE FEET of snake! WTH?!

The machine was broken and that poor guy had been hefting it for 1.5 hours while he pulled the snake out 10 inches, then the machine just pushed it back into its nest. Because of the cylindrical shape of the snake, it appeared to be going down... but it wasn't.

So we took the broken snake back to the rental place. They gave me back my money, and I went home to try to find a plumber.

I decided to take a break and rest. I was sitting in the den with my 87 year old mother when we suddenly heard a very loud "glub, glub, glub" in the kitchen. I went in there and both sinks were EMPTY! They had suddenly drained. I went into the laundry room and the water drain pipe was EMPTY. What the heck?

Then a lightbulb went off in my head. I said, "Mother, when you used the carpet shampooer in the den yesterday, where did you empty the water?" (She has a carpet shampooer she loves to operate)

She says, "In the kitchen sink."

My gosh... I couldn't believe it. That water was probably full of hair and fibers from the carpet and that had been our issue. After all that... I was torn between jumping for joy and, well, you know. I told her, "Next time, please dump it in the gravel out in the backyard, ok?"

The LDS Missionaries came over later and helped heft the dryer off of the washing machine and put it in the garage. That had been a pain in the kazoo for the last year since we bought the house, as both mom and I needed to use a step-ladder to even see the controls on the dryer. It was not made to be a stackable but the previous owner must have been 8 feet tall, because he'd stacked it. So that was the second good thing that happened.

So...now my pipes are clear, and we're waiting for my friend, Joe, to come over next week to hook the dryer up in the garage. We aren't sure if there's a vent under the drywall or not - at some point the machines WERE in the garage we believe, as there is a water spigot out there, though it's only cold.

Today, I have a pile of wet towels and rags from the flood that need to be washed and dried.

Morals of the story:

1) Don't let your 87 year old mother shampoo your carpet and if you DO, watch where she dumps the dirty water.

2) Try drain opener before you panic

3) Just because you rent a tool doesn't mean it works

Now I'm looking for a laundromat to dry all the towels. Then we have to pick up Scooter, mom's dog, who is having dental work done today. The I have to get groceries for mom, as I'm going to try to go to Portland for a few days to see my other two sons and grandkids, and take my car to my mechanic Monday morning there.

Some days it feels like the work will never end.

I miss the freedom and the simple days of van life.