The Big Dig

The good news about the plumbing at 207 (if plumbing and good news can be used together in a sentence) is that it has almost all been replaced. The bad news is that the remaining old plumbing is almost all under several feet of dirt.

Over the past number of years, Mr. has snaked out the shared kitchen sink and washing machine drain close to a dozen times...and never once was this accompanied by the thought, "boy, that was a convenient time to drop everything, find the snake and the drill, and get black grime all over." Since we need to replace a big chunck of the basement floor soon as part of the basement renovation, the time for digging arrived.


Mr. D starts off the The Big Dig (TBD) with an 8-pound sledge. The floor wasn't too impressed at first, but Mr. D (aka 'Stick' to his friends) kept at it until the floor gave him a little more respect.



After much digging, it turns out the 4" sewer main was right about where we expected it to be...deep down.



It wasn't hard to see why it clogged all the time...looks like the artery of an elephant that ate bacon and donuts its whole life.



Mrs. applied the cake batter mixing technique and improved mixing time dramatically! I think she could have given Ruth a run for her money in the field...and I bet Ruth didn't know a thing about mixing concrete!:

"She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."
Ruth 2:07



A few dozen plumbing parts and a thousand pounds of concrete later, voila!, stage 1 of the TBD is done.