Home Improvement!

I never enjoyed the TV show, but I do enjoy the real thing! I am trying to post more on this blog, yes for my many adoring followers, but mostly because I can count it as writing in my journal, and at the end of a year I won't feel horribly guilty that I can't remember anything that happened.

So, I am happy to announce that we now have TWO sides of a sink! And they both drain! With no apparent problems! This is the story of our sink:

We've lived in the same apartment in Provo since we got married in August 2007. We picked it because it's cute (kind of... not really) but mostly because it's cheap. Quite cheap. But what we didn't know upon moving in was that 1) it's in a creepy neighborhood, 2) it would have occasional toilet issues, and 3) only one side of the kitchen sink drained. For the most part, these issues haven't really been issues. The neighbors are not so creepy anymore. (Actually, that's a lie, but 18 months without incident has done a lot to calm my heart about them.) The toilet was relatively easy to fix, and we upgraded from a boring white plastic flusher to a shiny, fake chrome-plated one!

But the sink.... it's been a continual nuisance. Our first day at the apartment, we ate a lovely Green River watermelon and attempted to rinse off the plate we ate it on. The seeds, juice, and watermelon debris remained visible, just sitting there in the drain. No amount of rinsing or hot water changed that. And so, soon after, we began completely avoiding that side of the sink. No food, no water, no nothing was to go down that drain. Now, unfortunately, 9 out of 10 of our houseguests have been foolish enough to assume that it was a normal sink. Not their fault I realize, but still. They would go to wash hands, dishes, etc. and before one of us could scream out that it didn't work, it would be filled up with water and we'd spend the next 10 minutes bailing it out. Needless to say, I posted numerous signs in and around the non-draining side, but the times they were actually noticed were rare.

Bowman had tried, unsuccessfully, to work out whatever the issue was (I couldn't help but think of all sorts of disgusting plugging-agents that might be responsible). We had basically resigned ourselves to using one side, and we were making it work. However, it all came to head last Sunday. I was making my usual dessert (what is Sunday afternoon without dessert?) when Bowman walked past me out into our concrete storage room, but stopped short when he saw a strange puddle of water growing around the drain in the floor:

I didn't take a picture of the real thing because we immediately panicked! Armed with a mop, bucket and cell phone (for calling our landlord) we began frantically soaking it up, but it was coming too fast! And it was sick! Thankfully no smell (that would have been too much), but those black things in the homemade picture represent the strange black floaties that were coming up with the mystery water. It was horrible.

So we called our kind landlord who promised to come over and figure it out. In the meantime, I was still madly soaking it up so it wouldn't seep into the kitchen or under the washing machine. Bowman was going through the house looking for running water, and eventually we discovered that the toilet was running (remember the toilet issues I mentioned? Apparently not completely fixed by the chrome flusher) and when it stopped, the sick water stopped coming out too.

Well, this has been a long post already, so I'll make the actual fixing part short: the man came over, had a plumber come over the next day (and yes, for 24 hours we did not use our toilet, but instead depended on bathrooms at the school... I agree that it was gross) and yesterday night we came home to no flooding, no toilet problems, and A SINK THAT DRAINED ON BOTH SIDES! Our landlord noticed the sink (which I believe we'd mentioned twice before, but it's okay) and fixed it too! We are so happy! No more signs! No more bailing out nasty water! No more doing dishes extremely carefully so as not to splash water in the wrong side! This morning I did dishes using both sides, and I was so pleased that of course I took a picture.

It's awesome. I feel like I live in a model home now! The working sink, plus the resolutions we made last night in FHE to make the bed, do the dishes, and keep the dresser drawers shut, are all coming together and our house is looking lovely. I would be sad to leave in April, except for the fact that we'll also be leaving behind the unnerving men next door and hopefully be upgrading to a place with a living room so our friends don't have to sit on the bed. I love my working sink!