The plumbing fiasco involved tearing out portions of the newly-built wheelchair ramp and bring in a $1200 machine to send a camera through the sewer pipes. It turns out there is a chunk of wood in the pipes which was catching non-flushable paper products which someone has been flushing. The wood is several years old and is probably a relic of one of the many remodels. The plumber did angioplasty on the pipes and managed to shift the wood, as well as the sludge, but at some point the wood will probably need to be removed. For now *we* need to avoid flushing non-flushable items.
The phones (which had shorted out from the flooding) have been repaired, and the wireless internet has been fixed. It turns out we had a faulty router, so for the first time since I moved here I can download software updates and watch on-line videos of cute animals without continually resetting my internet connection. The FiOS guy was even nicer than in the commercials.
And I didn't have to cook dinner. Since we couldn't use the toilets in the main house, everyone went over to the second house and we got pizza from the best pizza place in Chambersburg, whose owner asks us to come by and get whatever we want whenever we want it, gratis.
Now we are back in our little house, all cozy and ready for bed. The downstairs is still a disaster (the second bout of roto-rooting sent even more sewage into the basement, and the cleaners are back and working as we speak), and we're praying the insurance will cover the damage. On the plus side, I will get to learn tiling when it comes time to replace the ruined flooring. I've heard that the key is not to eat the thinset or grout, no matter how much they look like icing.
And it was a beautiful, cool day, with patches of sun and rain, which I got to enjoy while drinking coffee and watching the plumber tear apart the decking. To be honest, I had a great time.
