Finally Back!

Alright, so apparently I lied. But this time I WILL try to be better about keeping this journal updated.

I'm home again. My plumbing all blew up and they had to redo the apartment!

Let me explain.

I woke up a couple days after that last post, stepped out of bed, wandered to the door on my way to the bathroom, and the carpet was soaking wet. The bathroom was completely flooded. Water was coming out of the toilet, bathtub, sink, even the pipes under the sink in the cabinet were leaking. It was awful!

I ran downstairs to get the phone and call the landlord, and wouldn't you know it? Water everywhere! The downstairs bathroom and the kitchen sink were the same way. Even the pipes leading to my washing machine were leaking water.

I called the landlord, who happened to be in the office and immediately came and turned the water off.

Now here's the weird part.

All the pipes were clogged with thick, black hair! It was disgusting!

The plumber told me that the landlord was saying it was just some kind of leftover from previous tenants and that it had something to do with the pipes being so old. But I saw the stuff - it was floating in my bathtub. It looked like hair! And when I had tried to see if there was a plug in the sink (I thought maybe Billy or one of his cronies had somehow gotten in and set this up) all that hair tangled around my hand.

We found a puddle of water under where the tub is upstairs. I mean literally - on the ground floor was a puddle of water. The pipes in the shower had been leaking and water had seeped down into the wall and floor and dripped out onto the downstairs floor.

And my desk. And my poor computer. And the phone. And barely missed my router.

So my computer has been in the shop getting repaired. I now have a new one because it was fried. Renter's insurance helped pay for it, and the landlord paid the difference because the plumber pointed out that he was supposed to have made sure the pipes wouldn't do something like this.

They had to tear out all the piping and put new in. That hair stuff, whatever it was, was clogging things so much that there was no way they could clean it out. So I have all new plumbing, sinks, bathtub, toilets...and a new part of the floor and downstairs ceiling where there was water damage. They also had to put in new carpet in the upstairs hall so they put new everywhere upstairs. And replaced the tile in the downstairs bathroom and kitchen that had been messed up by the water.

I was surprised that so much damage was done but the plumber told me something strange. He showed me how that hair stuff was not only everywhere, but seemed to almost be eating through the pipes. He had to wear gloves and not just because he was grossed out - as he grabbed hold of the hair, it burned his hand. Kinda like acid. He thinks that had a lot to do with the amount of damage. So far, he can't come up with any kind of explanation.

Neither can I for that matter but I am happy to be home. Old building, old pipes, weird things happen, right? At least it's all fixed now.