Broken pipe dreams

So. That's what I've been up to.

That rusted-out piece of crap belongs to my kitchen sink. MY KITCHEN, YOU GUYS.

It's been a long weekend, sans sink. The new garbage disposal was installed on Saturday, but when the guy went to unscrew the pipe from the old one, it pretty much crumbled apart in his hands.





See how the pipe goes nowhere now? Yeah, that was a problem. We called around for a plumber, and the contractor who did such a fabulous job on my shower was available for an assessment on Sunday and could fix it on Monday. So we stuck a bowl underneath, a cookie sheet on top to remind us not to accidentally throw anything down into it, and waited.



I had plans to cook this weekend, too. But not only did I not have a sink, my counter was full of everything we usually store UNDER the sink.



So frustrating! But that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst was when we discovered on Saturday night that our neighbor's sink shared a mainline pipe with us which has no valve to keep them separated. When they did the dishes it dripped down from the open pipe. Hubby realized it when he went into the kitchen and saw a stream of water running around the baseboard of the counter. He opened the cabinet to find the temporary bowl completely full and water everywhere.

SIGH. We mopped it all up, talked to the neighbors and asked them to keep their washing down to a minimum until we got it fixed (luckily, they happily agreed) and we stuck a much bigger bucket underneath. Kept an eye on it every few hours after that, dumping any build-up out and preventing another flood.



The contractor came on Monday morning, as he had promised when he gave his assessment on Sunday, and not only fixed the broken pipe but replaced the other one with PVC while he was at it.







Once he was done, I finally was able to appreciate my new garbage disposal. Ours has been on its last legs for years, to the point where we only used it if we accidentally got small food scraps in the sink. This one ROCKS. I had forgotten how handy they are!

To fully inaugurate it, I cut up a couple of spaghetti squashes for dinner, and threw the strings and seeds down the disposal. What a satisfying moment, to hear it all grind up and have the pipes wash it all away. At last!




Plus, now I have spaghetti squash for the next couple of days. Yum!