Major "Surgery" in The Plumbing Department, Update #1

 Like many of our friends, we're redoing the bathrooms. It seems to be the home renovation for the 65+ crowd here. 

• widen the doors
• replace the tub with a shower
• get those non-slip floor tiles

In the process, we've, or more precisely our plumber son and the professional he anointed to work for us, discovered that most of the house pipes need to be replaced. 

This is ending up being more complicated and time consuming than the hip/knee replacements many friends have signed up for. Nowadays people almost walk off the operating table, and many are home the next day. While body parts have become bionic, renovating the bathroom is for those who like to break things up and play in the dirt.

This isn't a time to wear my hearing aids. You can't do it silently, though the boys who did the "destruction" worked quickly and were very polite. Honestly, I can't complain. 

After Day #1, we still have water, though I wonder how long that will last. There's also a working toilet by the front door, and the kitchen is still business as usual. 

Today's plan is to take apart the laundry room, so the "final" wash is in the machine as I write this.

B"H, thank Gd, a neighbor has invited us to stay by her, so I was there last night. It was so nice to be out of a building site. But as you can see, I returned bright and early to the computer. Today's cold brew coffee is waiting in the fridge.

More updates to come, Gd willing.

bathroom laid bare, stripped of tiles, sink, etc

container parked across the street for the garbage

Oops! No Water

Like many Israeli suburban locations, our regional council thinks the way to our hearts/votes is with new sidewalks. We would have really preferred they return the bush shelters they replaced with holey tin cans.

Instead they have made our lives difficult, not only ripping out perfectly good sidewalks, but adding another to the other side of the street, which has narrowed the street. Many bus drivers have gotten stuck and refuse to drive by the house. They go a different way, which leaves waiting passengers in the lurch.

Besides that, there's the dirt and dust, and I almost broke my leg the other night. I hadn't realized that the sidewalk nearby had been ripped out, and I stepped into a mess in the dark.

And then yesterday, just as I was about to leave the house for Jerusalem, I tried to wash my hands and discovered that we had no water. I had heard the tractor at the front of my house, and had an awful feeling about it. I ran out and discovered that it had broken the water pipe to, davka, my house.

I ran back in and called the "municipal authorities." Thank Gd they were able to quickly send a plumber to make a temporary repair. If I hadn't been home, I never would have known about it to be honest. That is except for the mess in the yard...

Never dull, for sure.

When people are battling serious illness, I'm not going to get hyper hysterical over inconveniences. Please pray for a refuah shleimah, complete recovery for:
Miriam bat Chaya
Leeba Asnah bat Sara

Coffee Corner and Water Update

When we were without water, I found going into the kitchen too depressing, especially coffee time in the morning.  Instead of simply being able to use my giant glass mug twice for coffee, I had to keep returning with the smaller disposable hot cup.  My large glass French Press makes enough for two full giant mugs, with room for milk and some sugar of course.  So I set up a little "coffee corner" by my seat in the den near the computer.

And if you haven't yet heard the news....

Our main water pipes got replaced on Friday early afternoon.  We now, bli eyin haraa and of course BARUCH HASHEM, have water in the house via the faucets, rather than schlepped in bottles.

What's most amazing is that I managed to do everything necessary for Shabbat, all the cooking, cleaning etc on Friday, mostly after the pipes were replaced, and I unprecedentedly finished early.  I couldn't do any Shabbat preparation on Thursday. In the end we event had much beloved guests.

Miracles do happen!

Never Dull is It? Remember Priorities, Please

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a strange wetness near our front stairs aka the stoop.  I figured that there were leaks in the faucet and irrigation hose.  Well, I was right about a leak, but wrong about the location.  It took over a week until our plumber could come and, after checking out everything, discovered that the leak was in the main pipe bringing water to our house.  So we've had the water turned off most of the time recently as he can't work in the jungle-like mud and vegetation growing there.

 

The repairs aren't yet finished.  We've been using mostly disposables and cooking methods that require little dishwashing.  I'll blog more about it when, G-d willing it's all repaired.  And yes, it's not going to be cheap, but at least we'll no longer pay for "lost" water.

This is not a month we'll be saving money, since my regular readers know I've been to the dentist.

And then just to keep things interesting, yesterday at work, I felt something a bit "strange" with my distance glasses.  It seemed like a lens was "loose."  Within a few minutes it popped out, but Baruch Hashem it was in easy view right in front of me.  That's much better than the time a few years ago when a lens in my reading glasses somehow disappeared when I was shopping at Rami Levy.  That one was never found, but since the glasses had been only about six months old, and I had them in the shop a couple of weeks earlier for a different repair I didn't have to pay for a new lens.  So next week, before my dentist appointment, I'll have to go to downtown Jerusalem to the optician to have the glasses fixed.

If you're wondering why I sound pretty calm about these problems, inconveniences, expenses etc.  I must tell you that it's easy to put it all in perspective when following the bima Ima's saga on Superman Sam.  She has the right to rant; I don't.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

May you have a peaceful and blessed Shabbat

I'm Afraid of That "Pop!"

No, I'm not expecting Arab terrorist missiles from Gaza, thank G-d. As the sun rose, strong and bright this morning, I was afraid of something else.





Last night, it was freezing. No, I don't mean just cold. It was below zero Celsius, below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Even when my husband went down to shop after 10pm, he reported ice.

Israeli building methods don't take into account that we sometimes get this sort of weather, at least in the mountains. This is the sort of day when the plumbers get rich. Pipes freeze and explode.

A few years ago, on a day just like today, I suddenly heard an explosion from my roof, over the merpeset, terrace, and immediately glass and water poured down from the solar panels, the solar water heaters. We needed emergency repairs and replacements. Some people just had plugs pop, and then the water goes out. So we've bought spare plugs.

The recommended methods to prevent this are to either keep the hot water boiler going all night or let hot water drip all night. We sort of did both. We left water dripping and we had the boiler on a timer, going on and off. Thank G-d for leaky faucets. The main bathroom sink is almost always dripping.

So far, it's after 8am. And all is quiet from the roof.