NIghtmare on Main Street
The hottest day of the year. Thursday, August 3, 2006. At 8 a.m. the plumber arrived. At 8:15 am the guy with the ditchwitch arrived. At 8:45 Miss Utility arrived. At 9:00 Miss Utility informed us that we are sharing the water line with the building next door. At 9:30 the town's public works crew arrived to assess the situation. At 9:45 the digging continued. The ditchwitch was scraping the top of an old (but possibly used) sewer line. At 10:15 a couple of holes were made in the sewer line. At 11:00 the public works people decided to run a new water line to the building next door (in the trench that we were digging). At 12:00 we were trying dig/drill/punch a hole from the ditchwitch trench to the hole that we had prepared in the building. At 1:00 the inspector came and approved the trench for the connection. At 1:00 we were still trying to dig/drill/punch the hole. The 80 year old concrete footer of the building was proving to be a difficult beast to conquer. At 3:00 we managed to get a 1" hole into the building. At 3:15 we managed to get a masonry drill bit stuck in the concrete. At 3:30 we finally go the bit free. At 4:00 we finally got a 3" hole drilled through. At 4:00 I had to leave so I could pick up my wife at the airport (an hour and a half away). No water for a shower. I washed up with ice cold bottled water. At 6:00 I arrived at the airport. Her plane arrive late so I arrived about 15 minutes before she did. At 6:45 my helper called me to say that the plumber finally finished the job at 6:30 and everything was OK. At 9:00 we got home from the airport. I was ready for my shower. I turned on the hot water faucet. Perfect. I turned on the cold water. Nothing. I tried another cold water faucet. Still nothing. I filled a large pot with hot water so we could flush the toilet. I washed very briefly with hot water.
Friday morning. I finally traced the water issue. The plumber capped the old connection one joint too soon. OK. I started to fix the plumbing issue myself. My small pipe cutter was so badly rusted that I couldn't use it. Quick trip to Ace Hardware. Yes. They had one left in stock. Back home. The old pipes weren't taking the solder very well. Reclean... re-flux... resolder... no luck. Replace a bit of the old pipe with new. Perfect. Now I've got hot and cold water.
I'm getting a little pissed at one of my crew. He is almost out the door. He is a young guy (19) and has no sense of responsibility. If we don't tell him exactly what to do he just stands around and watches the other. I have a 54 year old worker. When he finishes his job he starts cleaning the place up. He keeps busy. He earns his pay. The young guy just stands. I told the guys today that I don't need to pay people just to stand around. If I want to see people standing I can look out of my windows. I don't have to pay them for the pleasure.
Friday morning. I finally traced the water issue. The plumber capped the old connection one joint too soon. OK. I started to fix the plumbing issue myself. My small pipe cutter was so badly rusted that I couldn't use it. Quick trip to Ace Hardware. Yes. They had one left in stock. Back home. The old pipes weren't taking the solder very well. Reclean... re-flux... resolder... no luck. Replace a bit of the old pipe with new. Perfect. Now I've got hot and cold water.
I'm getting a little pissed at one of my crew. He is almost out the door. He is a young guy (19) and has no sense of responsibility. If we don't tell him exactly what to do he just stands around and watches the other. I have a 54 year old worker. When he finishes his job he starts cleaning the place up. He keeps busy. He earns his pay. The young guy just stands. I told the guys today that I don't need to pay people just to stand around. If I want to see people standing I can look out of my windows. I don't have to pay them for the pleasure.
