After dinner relaxation

Life in a 1922 bungalow is so interesting. We have been remodeling our kitchen since the beginning of January. A project that was supposed to be finished in one month. (Boy, were we naive!) New cabinets, flooring (concrete backer board and vinyl composition tile), drywall, counter, sink, bead board panelling, lights, outlets and etc. Everything is taking longer than it is supposed to, usually because some sort of problem is discovered. Tonight, after coming home from a hard day at work (does anyone come home from a soft day of work?) , I enjoyed a good meal and conversation with my wife, Susan. After dinner I was planning on working on the kitchen floor molding. I needed to get this done so we could move our appliances into the kitchen this weekend. We have not had a stove for 3 months and toaster-oven food is getting tiring. First the dishes needed to be washed. I was hand washing the dishes in my usual Zen-like state, enjoying the view out my new window. I looked down and discovered my sink was not draining. Since I just put this sink and new plumbing in 2 weeks ago, I knew it was not a stopped up p-trap. I knew it was not a blockage under the house because early on in the remodeling project I had replaced all of that cast iron piping due to several leaks. After two hours of digging up my backyard I discovered the problem.


At some point the main waste clay pipe that ran from the bathroom to the city sewer line was replaced with PVC. However the clay pipe that ran from the kitchen to the main line was not replaced. I knew this and thought the clay pipe must have collapsed, perhaps at the juncture of the clay pipe and the main waste PVC pipe. Not so. The intellectual giants who put in the PVC pipe never connected the kitchen clay pipe to the PVC pipe! Aaargh!

I found a blog of someone who has many stories to tell about remodeling an old house The Last Nail