A Clog in the Kitchen Sink From HELL!

I’ve had the perfect start for this year. Wait, really I haven’t and this is why. On Saturday morning, my husband noticed the water backing up from the dishwasher into the kitchen sink. He put on his Man Belt and got to work with a plunger. The water instantly shot out of the other side and landed right on his back. Don’t laugh yet, it gets better. He’s ticked, I mean really mad. He moved on to the plumbers snake and twisted that sucker to its breaking point. NOTHING. We went and bought an acid that’s supposed to eat through anything. Really, the bottle said it would eat through rags. What the bottle didn’t say is the fumes could kill an army. Still the clog stayed put.

My husband spued out a few choice words and I told him to call a plumber. He yells back, “Screw that. I got this! I can fix it myself and cheaper than hiring a plumber.” I knew that was the kiss of death. Nothing ever good comes after that saying.

He cinched up his Man Belt a little tighter and bought a new, longer plumbers snake. After shoving the 50 foot metal hose down the pipe, WE FOUND THE CLOG. Bad news, it was something so tight it bent the snake accordion style.

The next thing I heard was banging of power tools getting pulled out of the garage. “Heaven help me now!”  Sure enough the saw fired up and a pipe was being cut. I prayed for a miracle. Or at least for my husband to not chop off any of his body parts.

All of a sudden I hear, “Oh. My. Gosh.” I could have crapped my heart through an eye of a needle right then, but luckily it stayed in place. I took off down stairs, waiting to find my husband covered in blood. What I met was an invisible wall of the most horrible smelling order ever and my husband looking up at the severed pipe in disgust. It looked like what you see inside of a raw sausage link. What seemed to have happened, when we were building our house the plumber made too many bends in the pipe from the garbage disposal to the main drain of the house causing six years of discarded food particles to build up little by little until it became packed—solid.

We ended up replacing that entire length of pipe, about ten feet. It was too packed to even start to unclog. It’s a dang good thing we didn’t have the basement finished or we would've had to replace the ceiling too. But, my husband rubbed it in my face. He did save us money. The total cost of the repair, $40. My husband’s pride—priceless.

Oh, P.S. When I get the time, I have to show you what I got for my birthday from my husband. Plus an awesome gift from my friend, Gretchen Stelter.