Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Kitchen (facepalm)

The dad came down to help us*, and he showed us just how poorly put together the sink drains were by pulling them away from the sink basin with his bare hands, and then unscrewing the gaskets and piping (also with his bare hands).  As mighty as the dad is, this is something that should not have been possible if the former owners had, oh, I don’t know, used a wrench? Exclamation after (bleeping) exclamation floated up from beneath the kitchen sink to where my mother and I were putting contact paper in the kitchen cabinets.  The dad explained to us that every piece of the piping and drainwork for this sink was either installed backwards and/or was only partially assembled, causing a sprinkling of water from all the pipe fittings, and from the seal of the drain.  This I had discovered when I tried the inaugural washing of ice cube trays in the sink.  Did the former owner diy it and then just leave it because he didn’t know how badly he’d put it together?  How could he not know, the water was not a slow leak, when you turned the tap on it. went. everywhere. 

The dad spent the better part of two days in this space under the kitchen sink.  The initial leaks he fixed right away after a quick trip to Lowe’s, with new piping, new drains, putty, and personal fortitude.  Then, while admiring his handiwork he discovered another leak. A source leak due to some sort of botched soldering job.  With much exasperation he ended up going back to Lowes to buy a blowtorch, which he used to un-solder and then re-solder the offending fixture back up properly.  (I would have photographed, but I was at work at this time)
While he was under there he found an electrical source not wired into the breaker box.  He remedied that, running the wiring through the entire side of the house to the breaker box and labelled the breaker for me.  This is the only breaker switch that I have not labeled myself.  Then the dad installed the garbage disposal using that oddly placed electrical box. Then he installed our dishwasher. Did I say “the dad?”  Excuse me, I meant the Superdad.
 
Before and after shots coming soon.  It's difficult to blog without internet access at home.  Soon.   

[*the mom came too, she’s been helping me put contact paper in the drawers and cabinets, and helping us paint the kitchen]
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1 comment:

Althea Tumlin said...

Oh, what a mess! It's really hard to fix something when the previous owners put it wrongly together, and all the problems are left to you. Maybe the last person who touched the pipe knows about the leaking issue but couldn't find another way to fix it. Or, maybe, he/she forgot that there are plumbers around who could help. I'm glad that your dad was able to fix it. He's a superdad, indeed! You're making me miss my father. Take care! :)