Drip, Drip, Drip

I am beginning to hate pipes, plumbing, faucets, tubes, water, and anything else that needs to be supplied into the apartment by any round tubing. The plumber came again to check on our new faucet in the kitchen. Once turned on, it took a good 30 seconds before it gathered the energy to provide a liquid. We could live with that, but it was when we turned it off and it continued to shower the sink for a full two minutes, we started to drown our sorrows. Seriously, two minutes of a steady gush of water is not normal. We could wash the dinner dishes, turn the water off and then rinse them while waiting for the water to finally quit. A call out to Imre the plumber again, this time add in the new water heater in the large bathroom, and the cold water in the small bathroom to the "To Do" list. This guy must think we have crush on him and purposefully find things to keep him returning. Hardly! He originally said it would be two days work to change out the water heater. Fine, but we would have to work around B and B guests. Imre showed up anyway with a helper. The new expensive kitchen faucet just had issues with our plumbing. We don't get it. When we moved in here, there was a uni-handle faucet, but when it corroded, we replaced it. There has not been a single uni-handle faucet that has worked properly since. We have tried every brand, size, shape, and color, but they refuse to play nice. Once installed and removed, they are no longer returnable, so the plumber-du-jour gets a bonus to take home. Kind of a parting gift for appearing in our comedy of errors. Within three hours, Imre and Imre 2 changed out the faucet, fixed the bathroom faucet, and replaced the hot water heater plus adding new exhaust pipes. All of this for 12,ooo forints ($50.). I gave him 3,000 forints extra as I always do, knowing I need to insulate my plumbing karma. Ron goes into the bathroom two hours later and tells me he thinks the bidet is leaking. Just whack me with a pipe wrench and be done with it. No, it was not the bidet, it was the hot water heater. Drip, drip, drip, every five seconds a drip, timing it like a woman in labor. Too late to call anyone to call Imre. Old towels on the floor, catch the drips, hoping against hope that we don't wake to a flood, we go to bed. For one second, I had doubts about that 3,ooo forint tip. A quick review of our plumbing history assures me it was worth it.

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Sink, Flow, Drip

The plumber returned to put in the yet another new faucet, this one with the required three hoses. It took him three hours. We did not realize that our new deep double basin sink was so much lower than the old one, a hole had to be cut in the bottom of the cabinet to set the hot water heater in so it would fit. Hearing the plumber using a saw, we just sent up silent prayers, not wanting to check up on him and have panic attacks in the process. Plumbers and saws go together like carpenters and monkey wrenches. There is just something illogical in the combinations. Three hours later, he announced he was finished. The new faucet looked lovely, but we never gave it a trial run before he left. His fee was 7,000 Huf ($29.00). Yes, Americans, read it again and weep. Three hours of a plumbers work for $29.00. He told us he would have to pick up a new hot water heater for the bathroom. Fixing it would cost more for the parts than a new one, so we gave him the money to pick one up for us. As soon as he was out the door, we tested the faucet. The water pressure popped it right out of the base. Not good. Okay, I see now you Americans are no longer weeping over the $29.00, but laughing instead.

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Yea!! Boo, Hiss!!!

The plumber came today to install the faucet on our new sink. We have been doing without a kitchen sink for the week that they remodeled, but thought today was the day we did not have to wash dishes in the bathtub any longer. I was so charged, I would have volunteered to wash them. It only took the plumber three seconds to tell Ron he bought the wrong kind of faucet. Ron protested that the salesman at the store said this was the best for this sink, but as it turns out, we need a faucet with three hoses for our hot water heater. Why? Nem tudom! I don't know. While we had the plumber captive, we had him look at our other hot water heater. There has been a leak somewhere. Big mistake! It needs replacing. Miracle upon miracle, he is returning tomorrow to do both the sink and the hot water heater. Ron went back to the store he bought the faucet at, after some English/Hungarian interchange that neither he nor the service desk understood, they gave him a new faucet and a refund for the difference. Okay, I am not washing dishes tonight. Afterall, Ron has it down to a science by now. Anna, our kitchen remodel interpreter sent an e-mail asking that I spell out for her what I want done to complete this job, also jabbing that I should be so very grateful it only took one week to do all that they did. Personally, I want to cast all of them in bronze and build a religion around them, I was so impressed. What I did instead was take detailed photos of all of the little things that need to be corrected, labeled them 1-11 and sent them to her with instructions in elementary vocabulary, hoping there is no miscommunication this time. At times, I think I am repeating myself, but no one is listening or those who are do not speak English. It reminds me of an old FAR SIDE cartoon. The guy is saying to his dog "Good Ginger, you are such a good girl. I love you Ginger. You are so sweet, Ginger." What the dog hears is "Blah, Ginger, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, Ginger...

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