The Trip — 2016: Part 11 — Plumbing Problem

Late this evening, tenish or so, Di’s other sister, Helen, and her two daughters, Holly and Eleanor, are arriving. Sunday, her brother, David and his family, Ivy, Lola and Cara, are arriving. So, in forty-eight hours there’ll be ten of us here — so much for peace and quiet? Hmmmm . . .

Okay, so much for peace and quiet.

Trip -- Tricia and Joe with groceries.
Tricia and Joe with groceries.

I’m sitting in the living room reading the OC Register’s on-line edition. Tricia says “Uh-oh, Joe . . .” Both kitchen sinks are stopped up. No plunger. Trish starts to disconnect the drain pipe — in what I think is the wrong place. I re-tighten that section and loosen the cap at the base of the U-trap. Water dribbles out. I stick various objects up the pipe to the sink. The water just continues to dribble out.

I re-cap the U-trap and work my way up to the next link. The water continues to dribble out. I stick a butter knife handle up the pipe . . . ahhhh . . . something is dislodged and the water flows freely into the bucket we had placed under the pipes. It appears to be a flower and stem — problem solved. Bucket is drained. Re-tighten all pipes. Run the tap to check and everything check out okay. Ta Da. . . .

A few minutes later there’s water running out onto the floor again. Hmmmmm . . . It turns out that the pipes from the sink are not screwed into the final outlet pipe . . . oops. While fixing the other problem I’d accidently pulled the sink pipes toward the front of the cabinet and they’d come loose from the final drain (dirty word, dirty word, dirty word).

Trip -- Tricia in town with Di -- a break in the shopping.
Tricia in town with Di — a break in the shopping.

Okay, push the pipe in . . . check all the other joins . . . run water from the tap . . . nothing runs into the pan we’ve got under the sink. Use towels to mop up water on the floor. Hope things are OK. Fingers crossed — will check back later.

Later and much later — no further problems with the sink.