Well it looks like all our scheming and trickery has back fired. Call it karma or just plain bad luck but dear Zio Peter is off the hook. When we first started this phase of renovations we naively thought the only plumbing intervention that would be necessary was a simple hook up beneath the floor for the new kitchen sink and dishwasher. Well, we were sorely, sorely mistaken. As it turns out we have had to redo the plumbing of the entire house save for the fourth floor, and only because we already redid that part two years ago. Oh and not only inside, but on the outside as well.
The Tall House was a mess from top to bottom. Drain pipes were spotted and cracked, water pipes were rusted and deemed a general health hazard, water pressure was decent but could be improved on... Not to mention the impending doom a pipe bursting and the subsequent water damage. Something that we of course were loath to happen once the walls were all closed up.
It took two plumbers three days to complete the job on the inside. While on the outside a separate team (thanks to city bureaucracy) comprised of a back hoe (and of course its driver), a couple of city workers and a city certified plumber replaced the pipes that run underground from the city main to the house.
So 12 000 and some odd dollars later the Tall House has all brand spanking new plumbing. 12 000 dollars that was not budgeted for. And unfortunately 12 000 dollars that was earmarked for the new kitchen.
I would like to say that the new pipes are beautiful and resplendent in all their copper glory, but lets face it they are part of the functional aspect of the house. And bit like having to buy a new iron or a hair dryer (albeit incredibly expensive ones), we sorely wished that we could spend our money on something less, well utilitarian. Something that would make our hearts race whenever we came near it. Something that we could "ooh" or "aah" over.
But now that it is all done and that the money is spent, the security of knowing that the inner workings of the Tall House are pristine and in perfect working order is strangely comforting.
And there is something more. By doing so, we have turned a corner. For we can now proudly say that we, us, Sam and Manu have saved the Tall House. Or that it is, at least taken it out of intensive care. For even though we have a list longer then the house itself of things to do, from now on it is really mostly cosmetic.
And so what if we have to live in a dump for the next few years? We have water pressure that could sandblast paint of a wall.
And hey, isn't it what is on the inside that counts?
No comments:
Post a Comment