Monday, September 26, 2011

Whew!

Well, I'm about done with today.

First thing in the morning we had the city inspector come to view the renovations, with the architect along. That fortunately it all went well, no problems, though I was a wee bit anxious about it as you never can tell what bureaucratic nightmare can be tossed at you for no reason at all.

All was good though and the Man, the Architect and I had a lovely cup of tea/coffee together which was nice.  If anyone needs a great architect in the Barcelona region, I know your man.  You may want a different plumber though, see below.

Went off to work, yadda yadda, yadda, normal day.

When I got out of work this evening though, both the plumber and the contractor had been calling me.  Weird. We need them to sort out some kind of paper work, but 8pm seemed a little above and beyond.

Then the Man called me, he had to get ahold of the plumber, need the number.  OK.....went to meet him and gave him my phone to make the call, his was out of money.  After the call he explained to me what was going on.  Seems that the llampistet, I don't know if you remember him, the plumber's assistant who I loathed and who was totally useless?  Seems he's struck again.

The shower in our bathroom had developed a leak....possibly like the other shower fitting which the llampistet had put together wrong.  So anyway, the man was working away at fixing that.  He turned the water off in the bathroom, did his thing, and then, because Dork-head McDuffus hadn't put the pieces of the valve in properly, when he went to turn it on again, the water FIREHOSED out into the bathroom from the shut off valve which he could neither close nor open it up.  BUCKETS or water were firing into the bathroom and our room while the man charged upstairs and down trying to get it turned off.  The water main shut off is in the street (?????) and there is a key to the door, which of course, we don't have.  So down he went to try and shut it off, couldn't get it open, up again to try to shut it off up here again, down again for a big hammer and a chisel to break the door open and then it was off.  He and Eldest then spent quite some time tidying up.  Eldest had been a trooper in fact and had hauled all manner of stuff out of the room to save it from damage.

The water has seeped down into the wall and ceiling in the kitchen there was so much.  The llampista/plumber may not know this yet, but he is going to be opening every single valve, panel and gate in this place and catching all he can of the problems.  I just dread to think what there is sealed in behind the walls.

Below, various shots of our wet floor hours AFTER the mopping up is complete:




The problem.  See how it isn't straight?  He either bent it or didn't thread it together correctly.
Lazy little bugger, either way he went ahead and installed it.


The center piece there?  That's the valve.  It is straight.  It should be right in the center of that chamber so it can shut off the water, but the chamber is (see photo above) bent.

Water came out, very fast and quite a lot of it.


Below, you can see the water appearing in the kitchen ceiling.

Ho hum.

I wonder if plaster works the same way as sheet rock.


All I can say is that if you think a construction guy is a dork and incompetent, banish him NOW, don't wait.  Do it NOW.  I only wished I had banished the dufous earlier.  Even if they did think I was a witch and a horrible crazed wife/woman for doing it.

We currently have no water at all, not to flush, brush, wash or cook with, nor, obviously, to drink.  Fun wow.

Oh, and then to top it off, after the girls are in bed and we are starting to settle down, a large and fairly violent domestic starts up somewhere on the street.  And it goes on and on and on as the man and I try to figure out where it is coming from and how to go about calling the cops.  Fortunately, just as the man is going out the door to take Chuck for a walk, and see if he can locate what is going on,  the sirens start up.  Thank goodness.  Help is at hand for that anyway.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that really sucks. Glad that everyone is ok, I hope either the warranty in the plumber's contract (if any) or the insurance will cover whatever damage you need to fix there :(.

Beth said...

What a friggin' nightmare!
If you have to be a witch to get things all sorted out - be the best darn witch you can be!

surfie999@gmail.com said...

This has obviously overshadowed the end of la corrida in Catalonia!

A gross plumbing disaster......

Helen said...

Hellish!!!!

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Holy smokes! What a day! Wet plaster = disaster. My condolences. It's amazing how fast we can act, though, when water is spurting everywhere, n"est pas? I have been known to be fleet of foot then too. Looks like a big clean up job, I hope you find a more competent plumber/helper for that part of it.

oreneta said...

Plumber came, no charge. That's good.

Beth, I wasn't as witchy as I had planned to be, but I had a hot shower, no leak and no flooding, that is good.

Peter H! YIPEEEEE

Helen, precisely.

Bodhi, the Man and Eldest handled the clean-up. I only had to commiserate! it is amazing how one can move when one has to, no?

Nomad said...

omg.

**!!!

LARGE AMOUNTS OF SYMPATHY!

Hang in there.

XXXXH

oreneta said...

Thanks Nomad!!!! How's school treating you????