Forward with or without me

While I've been traveling from couch to work and back again, my man-servants, as my neighbor calls them, have been busily fixing and breaking things. A freezer full of meat was just the motivation Jonathan needed to finally finish up the insulation and drywall in the mudroom. It's great because, well, it's nice to have proper walls and it'll save us some money in heating costs. It is rapidly becoming Fall around here and our little Rinnai will be cranking soon.
Where's the correlation between meat and drywall, you ask? We were given 8 sheets of drywall for our combined birthdays a good three years ago and they've been leaning against a wall in the kitchen ever since. Move the drywall and there's room for a freezer. Leave the drywall and opening the fridge will be challenging. So, my love moved that drywall. I'm very proud. It required a little rewiring of things which he's quite good at and does with ease. Drywall and mud, however, were totally uncharted territory for him. He's doing a great job and I'm planning to smear some paint all over it next week. Then perhaps a trip to IKEA for some cabinetry. We'll see how the budget looks.

Also on his agenda was to unclog the sink in the upstairs bath. His go-to for clogs has for many years been Drain-O or something like it. A couple of years ago we bought a little drain snake and it's been great. No more caustic chemicals for us! This clog, however, beat that little snake to a pulp. Jonathan poured some kind of really nasty junk into the sink and then proceeded to plunge it. He set the plunger into our clawfoot tub and went back to the drywall. I took the boy up for a bath and found that our well loved clawfoot tub is now etched with 2 circles where the plunger sat and a stream all the way to the drain. That was yesterday. Today it's even worse. This evening it's etched and rust colored. This blows! Now we're going to have to have the tub resurfaced with some more seriously toxic shit AND the sink still isn't draining.
Gotta love old iron pipes. They're rusted and filled with hair. My hair I'm sure since I'm the one who uses that sink the most. Jonathan bought a snake that attaches to the drill but the water still won't budge. Tomorrow, he'll open up the pipe that runs down the back of the house and have a look see.

I'm trying to cost this out in my head:
2 trips to the hardware store $10 gas
new tools $I don't want to ask
toxic drain cleaner $10ish
bathtub resurfacing $ I'm afraid to know

plus, we'll certainly have to replace the 1930's sink that was rotting away before we tortured it. $200ish


BUT, we've learned a lot. Jonathan will feel so great when the problem is solved. And maybe, just maybe, it's still cheaper than calling a plumber? Last time we had to call a plumber we ended up having the gas lines for the whole house redone. $thousands!

I wish we could find a nice plumber who likes jam. How many jars of jam would a plumber charge?????