Home Repairs: The Chinese Way

For the last couple of weeks, we've been having some issues with our kitchen sink. It's been leaking. So much so that my husband and I discussed the possibility of turning it into a swimming pool/kitchen kind of thing. But alas, we agreed having just a kitchen would be most practical. Plus, we didn't want it to become worse and affect the people living below us. We called the repair guy that we usually call in for large messes such as this, because we do NOT want FIL taping things together. You've seen what my FIL has done to try to fix things, right? If not, please step right this way to here, here and here. There was no way we were letting him handle the sink situation.

The repair guy came and after some tinkering around, we figured that was the end of that. But later, after washing the dishes, I noticed the floor was wet again all around the sink. So he came back again, this time replacing some tubing underneath the sink. We thought for sure that THIS was the official end of the matter. But no. The next morning, we woke up to a very wet kitchen floor. Again, he came, and he fixed what he could (without charge) until he could come back for a longer stretch to repair it for good. The problem? The pipes inside the walls of this shitty building were causing the leak.

So on Friday, my in-laws sat here with our repair guy while he did a bang-up job on our pipes. I mean this quite literally. You HAVE TO see what he did. Of course my in-laws think this is normal but I hate it. But if this is my alternative to mopping up a swimming pool every time I wash a dish, then so be it.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Well, these pictures are surely worth 1,000,000,000,000 words...

I was surprised when I came home from work to find the repair guy STILL working away. Even more surprising, he was working in our bathroom. Oh God. He's rerouting ALL the pipes. This should be interesting. I took this photo when I was running in to use the toilet. Being pregnant, I simply could not hold it any longer. I was annoyed because our washing machine was so close to the toilet now.

And here was why! He changed the spigot to be against this wall instead of next to the radiator. So this was as close as it was getting to the wall. I was furious. How am I supposed to take a shower in this place now?!? Or comfortably sit on the toilet?!? Gah!

Lucky for me, my husband called saying to get Raelynn dressed and ready - we were having dinner with his boss and one of his clients. I was relieved, for one, that I didn't have to be trapped inside my house with my in-laws and the repair guy. No offense to the repair guy. And for another, I wondered how in the world I could possibly make dinner with pipes and crap all laid out across my kitchen floor. Or worse...what if MIL insisted on cooking for me? I swear I would have chased her away with the pieces of pipe on the floor if she even tried.

When we came home, the disaster area had all been cleaned up. But the aftermath was still just as intriguing. Here is what it looks like now...

The new pipe comes out from under the sink cabinet...

 And into this cabinet...

 And out the cabinet and on up it goes...

 And up, into this small extra storage cabinet we have above the kitchen door. Or should I say "had" because look at it now...one of the doors to the cabinet is missing (perhaps FIL stashed it away so he could tape it to one of our walls for later use). We can't even cover that up so we're stuck with half a cabinet!

 See?!?!? Geez! Only in this country!

 So through the cabinet it goes out into the entryway of our apartment, by the coat rack.

 And above our door...

 And into the wall just above the bathroom door...

 Why, yes! That IS another over-the-door cabinet that has now been rendered gimpy. I feel like hitting myself in the face with a brick.

 Down it goes along the wall...

Under the bathroom sink...

Behind the toilet...

 Into a clusterfuck of pipes! WTF!

 I will say that at least he raised this spigot up so we could get the washing machine back up against the wall. That I appreciate because the thought of standing in or on my toilet while I showered made me extra, extra, extra stabby.

 And the whole thing ends here, connecting to our water heater for the shower.

Here is the bathroom now. Or rather, before I scrubbed it like crazy this morning. As I did the rest of the house. It was so grimy in here. Now it feels better but it's just so weird having all these insane pipes and half-complete cabinets around.

But at least there's good news in all of this: there's no more leaking in the kitchen. A small victory.