Day 1…
Having returned from the Gold Coast I had been catching up on some much needed sleep and writing posts on our little trip away for Steemit. Because I’m a bit voluminous it’s turned into a series. My apologies…
Anyway, as always I digress. When we unloaded the car, made a coffee and prepared to crawl into our own beds, I noticed that the tap over the kitchen sink was dripping.
Now it wasn’t dripping much, but I thought I should mention it. So I did…
Day 2…
I’m prone to chronic fatigue, especially in summer when it’s a wee bit hot here in Queensland, so I can sleep for a good 20 hours no problem. Add this to being really, really tired after the weekend away with 12 grandchildren and I did some serious sleeping.
Eventually something must have woken me and I wondered into the kitchen to find this…. OMG! Dishwasher, gone. Taps, gone. Tools, not gone. Water on floor.
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I queried ever so patiently of Dad (being that he’s only been 87 for a couple of days) what in the name of all things holy was happening!?
I was advised that on attempting to replace the leaking tap washer, there was some kind of ‘issue’ with the pipes between the hot and cold taps.
Apparently the ‘dodgy bastards’ (Dad's words) that installed the pipes used very thin brass pipes, instead of thicker more resilient copper pipes. This combined with the location of said pipes led to them splitting, breaking or whatever…
This caused a sizeable hole and water poured into the cupboard under the sink! Even though the water had been turned off there was still water laying in the pipe.
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So by the time I arrived on the scene Dad was the floor on a pillow, because his poor old knees were taking a hammering on the tile floor, and the entire contents of the cupboard were all over the kitchen floor as was a fair quantity of water.
Well at least it can’t get any worse I thought. Silly me!
I offered my assistance, which was summarily rejected, accept for being permitted to carry out a quick mop of the floor and relocation of the cupboard contents from the floor to the countertop. Not that there was a lot of room on the countertop!
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At this point I backed away and left Dad to carry on…
Several hours later I came back only to find that entire kitchen sink was gone and there was just a gaping hole where the 2 bowl sink used to be.
Again I gently asked what had happened and I was advised that the old sink had to go because of the location of that dodgy brass pipe that split, Dad couldn’t get a spanner on it to repair it.
In any case he had a great second hand sink he bought for 10 bucks years ago down in the garage, that ‘should’ be absolutely perfect and it had a flip-mix tap which was so much better.
Although my heart sank as I looked at what remained of our kitchen, it was hard to argue with the logic of either of these points really.
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Did I mention that we have had no water to the house since this debacle started! Needless to say that means no toilets or showers either. Things were starting to get a bit ugly and the night was already closing in.
Dad is diabetic and it was still quite hot so I persuaded him that a drinks break was in order (thank heavens the cricket was on).
While he was taking said drinks break, I picked my way through the debris field in the kitchen and threw a frozen quiche in the oven in the hopes of getting some food into him before he lapsed into a diabetic coma.
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While the quiche was cooking, he returned to the kitchen where he now installed the new sink along with the new tap. This of course did not go as smoothly as this sounds, there was quite a bit of cursing, moaning groaning, crashing and bashing and the shrill scream of power tools.
Finally at about 9 pm he called it a night and I was able to serve something vaguely resembled the quiche that entered the oven hours before.
While he had the sink with single mixer tap in place we still didn’t have any water because apparently Dad wasn’t able to turn it back on until he tested the line for leaks.
So we had a couple of buckets of water and an electric jug. Funtimes to be had bathing in a bucket tonight!
Day 3…
My fatigue was improving and I actually got up at a reasonable hour took some of the left over water boiled it and started washing dishes in a bucket on the verandah from yesterday’s meals.
Eventally Dad emerged, ate breakfast and then promptly fell asleep in his chair for a few hours. By mid afternoon I had fallen asleep again but Dad was up and running and returned to the plumbing job.
Thankfully he got the water running in fairly short order, so that was a huge relief to have the toilets and running water everywhere but in the kitchen. Because although the tap was working he still had to install new waste pipes to fit the new sink. So now he set about doing that.
This was not helped by the fact that Dad is a bit of a hoarder so every tool or piece of pipe he needs is somewhere in a 9 car garage that is full from floor to ceiling and must be searched for. This usually takes quite a bit of time.
After several hours of trying to cut new holes in the shelves in the cupboard under the sink to accommodate the new sink plumbing, Dad injured his finger and it was at this point that I suggested he remove the shelf and replace it at a later date.
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By 7 pm he decides that’s not such a bad idea and sets about removing the shelf and finishing off installing the waste pipe. But what can I tell you he’s 87, he’s been on the job for 2 days already and he’s knackered!
So after eating dinner once again he falls asleep in his chair… There will be no more plumbing tonight. I gave up and went to bed about 10 pm and he was still sound asleep in his chair so I don’t know when he turned in.
Day 4...
When I got up this morning he was back under the sink again.
After a short break for breakfast and a coffee he pulled out the offending shelf and set about getting all the under sink plumbing sorted out.
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Finally by about 7 pm on day 4, after a few snooze breaks in the chair, it was all finished!
We sat down to dinner with a kitchen sink, with a flip mixer and actual water coming out of the taps and I might add flowing down the drain.
Dad may be 87 and there were moments when I had concerns for him and the kitchen, but my Dad the legend got it done, yet again.
Now I’m going to lie down and have a valium to recover and then I will spend some time persuading him he doesn’t really need to keep the old sink and taps… Wish me luck!
Thanks for reading…