If you ever see me…

…pick up a pair of vice grips and head towards the bathroom, just shoot me. I just can’t seem to get it right.

The downstairs powder room sink drains really slowly, and Vicki says it started after the carolling party. I tried plungering it, and didn’t help. (Plungering sinks is a bit of a waste of time anyway, because all it does it blow water out of the overflow hole.) So I tried taking the trap off. Didn’t find anything blocking it, so I tried to put it back on. And I couldn’t get the damn thing to stop leaking no matter how hard I tightened it. Then I discovered that in tightening it, I’d managed to knock a big chunk out the the trap. So I went to the hardware store to buy a replacement trap.

While I was there, I picked up a replacment for the handle and arm of the upstairs en-suite toilet. The current one keeps falling off the arm thingy all the time.

When I got home, I put the trap on, but because I forgot to buy teflon tape it still leaks a bit. And of course it didn’t fix the real problem – the blockage is evidently further down.

Then I tried the replacement for the handle. The existing one has a bend in it, but when I tried to bend the new one, I bent it at one of the holes and broke it. So off I went to the hardware store, and bought the exact same type again. And when I carefully bent it at the non-hole part, it broke again. Of course it wasn’t until then that Vicki mentioned to me that there are bendy type arms and non-bendy type arms. Who knew?

Rather than making ANOTHER trip to Myers hardware, I pushed the existing handle on the existing arm on as hard as I could, and hoped that can hold for a while.

5 thoughts on “If you ever see me…”

  1. About plunging sinks: You can block the overflow hole, it suddenly becomes a lot more productive. Duct tape works (when doesn’t it?), or if you are more dextrous than I am, you can soak a thick sponge and hold that against the hole while you plunge (it has to be soaked, though, or air gets through the sponge).

    Similarly with bathtub plunging, though it’s sometimes slightly harder to block the hole, depending on the design.

  2. “By all means, Paul, fuck with the plumbing.”

    Doesn’t someone have to say that before things actually start to come right?

  3. Just a comment to see if the count changes. You’ll have ti delete this to make the count in line with yoour statement on WP Support.

  4. Well, everything seems fine.
    Come back and tell the WP Support about the problem/solution.
    And a good 2006 for you!

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