Showers

Sunday, May 28, 2023

When Alexander moved into his house 4 years ago next week, he found out that the shower didn’t work in his bathroom. He wasn’t too concerned, because there is a shower stall in his basement (next to the toilet) (both just in the one room of the unfinished basement) that he could use. He calls it the murder shower. I do not. Well, I guess I just did. Anyway, he told us that the water has been draining more and more slowly lately, so it would be great if his actual bathroom shower worked.

The water spout in his bathtub/shower was rusted completely through on the bottom and the diverter did not work. If you turned on the water, it just went everywhere out of the big hole in the bottom. Keith had to work really hard to get the spout off – it was very rusted in place. He realized he would need more things to fix it, so he went to the basement to unplug the drain. The little unclogger thing he brought wasn’t long enough.

We went to Menards.

He worked on the spout for awhile, then needed more bits. He worked on the drain with the two unclogger dealies he bought. He got a massive amount of compacted hair out, but the drain still did not drain.

We went back to Menards. (Funny thing – we went to a different Menards and I was absolutely BOGGLED that they had changed the direction of the rows in the garden center since we were just there. Took me a minute…)

We worked together with a new kind of unclogger dealie. It did not work at all. Then it seemed like it worked! But no. Try again (the directions actually said try again). We tried again and again and again. We gave up. We were on our way up to the bathroom, when Keith grabbed the plunger from next to the toilet that is never used because it is just in the basement. He plunged the shower that had standing water because we had been trying the dealie that used water. Glug glug glug! It moved whatever was left in the way and down the water went! Huzzah!

Up to the bathroom he went. He did something with pipe tape and plumbers’ putty and got the new spout to go on. But the diverter did not work, because the only one Menard’s had that would fit was the Menard’s brand, and that is not known to be a quality product. But the water works. Alexander could take a bath. Or he could use the murder shower. When he gets home from his weekend away LARPing, he will probably be dirty and he will be so happy his dad fixed stuff.

And Colby (the kitty) helped every bit of the time.