So yesterday, literally an hour before the CIO and assorted other dignitaries arrived for dinner, the kitchen sink backed up. We tried a few manual workarounds, I made a mad dash to the store from some Liquid Plumr, etc., but essentially we stashed away the dirtiest dishes and went on from there.
The drain slowly drained over the course of the evening. But even the rest of the jumbo Liquid Plumr didn’t do anything. Margie reported it was still plugged today.
Now, this is not the first time this drain has plugged. Our kitchen is a zillion miles away from the rest of the house plumbing; the drain goes down the wall to a clean-out in the basement immediately below, and then into a shallow-grade pipe to the opposite corner, basically under our downstairs bathroom. We’ve had to open that clean-out a few times and run a snake down it to solve some problems.
And that’s what I was thinking was going to be the case tonight. None of the other rooms of the house seemed to be having any problems — we showered with no trouble, no toilets have backed up, the sump in the basement has remained dry. So somewhere in that line …
I headed downstairs to the basement to move the bookshelf we have in front of the clean-out.
Now … our basement is something of a disaster area. It’s mostly finished space — painted and carpeted and well lit and quite nice. It’s been several years since we gamed down there, and storage space entropy has proceeded apace. Katherine’s been talking to Jim & Ginger about working on cleaning the basement next time they are out, but I’ve been extremely reluctant because, well, it’s kind of embarrassing.
I headed to the book shelf and …
That’s not good. The carpet was damp in front of the bookshelf.
And, looking to the side, I could see some things leaning against the wall that showed dampness around their bases. To wit, many pieces of framed, unplaced art.
…
Well, to make a long story short, with Margie and Kay’s help, we moved everything that was damp into the furnace room (which is uncarpeted), to clear away space — including aforementioned art, the wooden bookshelf, and a plastic shelving unit full of computer parts and cords.
In all, about a 15-foot width along the baseboards is seriously damp — wet, though not “squishy through the toes” wet. It can’t have been there too long — we’ve both been down in that corner of the basement in the last few weeks. But there’s a bit of mold in a couple of places on the wood. The wood/cardboard relating to art that was against the carpet had wicked up an inch or two or three, depending on its density.
(Most of the art is actually okayish. Some has gotten a munged. A flat cardboard box with most of the largish art I’ve made in my life … um, not so much (haven’t looked in detail, but …)
My original thought had been to pull back the carpet, figure out what was going on, then move onto the clean-out. Margie convinced me that was probably not a good or healthy idea. Instead, she’s called the insurance company to have someone come out tomorrow (we hope) and investigate and figure out and solve the problem and all that …
… which is the right thing to do, but I want the problem solved noooooooowwwww … Plus, all the mess be gone.
(I’m also concerned that the problem may be coincidental — that there’s something else causing the leak separate from the stopped up drain ipe. Or maybe a sprinker pipe outside has broken and is slowly seeping across the foundation. Or maybe the water pipes have a leak. Or maybe it’s Artesians. Or …
Anyway, short-range thoughts/plans include (a) washing the dishes (from last night) in one of the bathrooms, (b) using a lot of paper plates and cups, (c) trying not to think about it all.
There’s a finite chance we may end up with the basement recarpeted, depending on what’s advised and all. Which would mean schleppling all that stuff upstairs. And sorting and cleaning and re-storing it downstairs.
Which, come to think of it, is just what the basement needs. Even though this isn’t the reason I wanted to do it.
*sigh*
art
paper plates
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