Our First Plumber

I am very thankful to be in our home, yet just like everything else on earth, it's not perfect and has some quirks. :-) Yesterday I was talking to my sister Rachel and I said I've been experiencing some "growing pains" of homeownership...when something goes wrong you are your own landlord and you have to either:
(a) figure it out,
(b) foot the bill to get it fixed, or
(c) just live with the problem.

I was doing laundry last week, when lo and behold, our huge cement 2-compartment utility sink in the basement was draining slower than molasses in January. I spent quite sometime digging out lint, gunk and mush from the drain for awhile, but it didn't help one bit. I realized we may have more than just an old sink, but some clogged pipes too. I made a mental note to self to talk to Scott about the issue and think about getting a plumber. In the meantime, when I would do laundry, it turned into a full work-out...

I would keep an ear out for the spin cycle, and run downstairs to begin my routine: grab 5-gallon bucket, dip in sink to get a load of water, run it upstairs to the bathroom, dump it in the shower drain, run back downstairs, repeat as necessary (several times at least). That was my way of just "living with the problem." I mentioned to Scott that the basement sink wasn't draining that well, and then kept on doing laundry the same way for about a week.

One night a threw a load in the wash and was going to begin my regular 5-gallon bucket ritual, when Scott came down to the basement too and was baffled by the whole thing! I suppose my "basement sink not draining well" comment didn't quite get my point across of it being all that bad.

The next day we hired a plumber.

Not just any ole plumber, but a friend of a friend who gave us a discount because of the referral, who did an AMAZING job, super fast, and super affordable. Oh how I am thankful for my friend and her friend the plumber!! He was here snaking pipes, putting new fixtures on, replacing our sink and faucet in less time than it takes to watch a full length feature film. Yes, he was that fast. If any of you all live in Western Michigan, look no further for the best plumber around (note: he is not the bearded man on the web-page)! :-)

As part of this whole experience I learned a whole lot, but also count it as a "God-thing" not only because of the connection to a great plumber through a friend, but because of the unknown hazard of our sink!! See, this huge, 2 compartment cement sink resided on rickety metal legs that it was not even attached to. So if those rusty legs had decided to give out (which, by the looks of it, wasn't unreasonable to think), there would have been (100? 200?) lbs of concrete smashing to the ground...if Micah had been playing near there, or one of my limbs was nearby...yikes. I am SO thankful that this little plumbing problem allowed us to see the need to get rid of our giant, dangerous sink!

I just did a load of wash, and instead of using a 5-gallon bucket, I simply watched all the water drain down our new sink and snaked pipe in a timely manner.

Out with the old:


In with the new:


The remains of our ancient sink (Scotty took a sledgehammer to it):