Plumbing!

September 25 2012

We had a quiet day today, though that wasn’t the plan!  April was going to stay around the apartment and I was going to head to the Musee D’Orsay and maybe the Musee de Moyen Age.  At least that was the plan.

I mentioned in our previous blog that water had started to drip by the toilet. The owner’s son-in-law was here when we discovered it and he called a plumber. We put a pot under the drip, but had to empty it every two hours, all night long. 

We waited for the plumber and he showed up about 10 AM.  He spoke no English, but the tsks, and ohs that he uttered, told me it wasn’t very good. He called the owner and she then told me that he needed a special part that he didn’t have. He would have to go out and see if he could buy it.

We waited around all day as the plumber couldn’t get in if we weren’t there. Finally around 5 PM the owner called and told us that the plumber had gone to 7 stores and couldn’t find the part he needed, It was special ordered and wouldn’t be in until Thursday! I asked her whether there was a way we could turn the water off when we left for the day, but it seems the water tap would turn off all the water in the entire building rather than just this apartment.

The owner knew we had planned to go to Versailles on Wednesday, but I told her we couldn’t leave the water dripping.  The owner told us not to worry, just put the pot under the drip. I told her the pot would fill in 2 hours and so we couldn’t leave the house for the full day.

She told me to go and buy a pail to catch the water.  We walked down the boulevard and found a store with cheap household goods.  We found a plastic waste basket that looked like it might do the job, though it would probably need to be cut down where the pipe was. 

We got it home and I cut a chunk out of the pail and put it under the pipes. The cut is not deep enough but I’m nervous that it might split if I keep on cutting.  While I was fiddling with the pail, the owner’s son-in-law called and I explained the situation,

He will come over tonight and get one set of keys. We will head out to Versailles in the morning and he will drop by around 1:30 and will dump the water that would have accumulated all morning.

Hopefully the plumber will be here early Thursday and will be able to fix the problem quickly.

Well, we said we wanted adventures!