Bad Week

It has been a difficult week around our house. We have been working to get the house in shipshape condition for visiting relatives. It used to be cleaning for a Mother's visit, but now that they are both gone a visiting relative or friend becomes the reason for a big housecleaning. I got the power washer out and washed the house, shop and shed. That went well and I got it done in a timely fashion. Next up was washing the windows, my job was just the outside windows. That went well too, except the microwave quit working. I got hold of a repair man and he said he would get me the needed parts for about $30. I got them and installed them, but they had extra plugs and when I installed them the microwave didn't work. Called the repair guy and he said, bring it by and he'd fix it. That was two days ago and I haven't heard from him, I can see a large labor bill piling up. The next task was to shampoo the carpets in the house, a task that I figured would take about 3-4 hours. All went well until I broke for lunch. When I returned to work the shampoo machine was leaking all over the floor. I had to go rent a carpet cleaning machine from the store. It didn't work as well as our own machine, but it didn't leak all over the floor. Then the sink plugged up. I spent most of Friday under the house in the crawl space trying to unclog the drain. I didn't have much luck. Then I got under the sink with the idea of running the snake from that side. I was very careful, put plastic down so the floors wouldn't get dirty. Then I put a 2 gallon bucket under the P-trap and unscrewed the joint. There was about 10 gallons of water in the pipes so about 8 gallons went onto the carpet. So I had to vacuum up all the water and clean under the sink. I got it so it would flow a little, but very slow. Got up the morning and the water softener had cycled and the drain had plugged up and the brine water overflowed the sink and onto the kitchen carpet. Got that cleaned up again and worked on the drain again, a little luck, but I can see a large plumbing job coming up. Well, we have most everything under control for our visitors who will arrive Sunday afternoon. We are thanking God in advance for no more problems, and planning the replace the kitchen carpet with tile. That way it will be easier to clean up after a plumbing disaster. Thank God these little disasters occur only every 10 years or so.