Plumbing the Issue

 Well, it's Saturday which means it's a workday.  Will it be busy?  I've no idea.  What college football games are on TV this afternoon.  If Penn State is playing business will be off since this is Penn State country.  Also, we'll have the weather to contend with: rain.  That's right, it's raining again.  Temps are supposed to go from moderate to chilly as autumn continues to creep into the picture.  This week's high are predicted to be in the mid 60s (F) and next week's in the mid 50s (F).  Of course, who knows what's actually going to happen with the temperatures since we're coming off of the hottest summer on record.  

The plumbing in the kitchen renovation is fine... except for the cold water tap.  Down in the basement, those Pex pipes and Sharkbite connecters are busy drip, drip, dripping away.  The hot water's fine, and so's the drainage, it's just the cold water where there's a bit of a leakish problem.  Biting the bullet, yesterday I called Bowman Plumbing and a nice young man drove here to give me an estimate.  I pointed to the dishwasher and told him he might want to add that installation into the quote.  A few minutes later he handed me the quote.  I smiled, and nodded kindly, saying "that's nice," to be polite.  The cost for installing the dishwasher alone was $652.  I pointed to it, saying "that's awful pricy," and he said, "well, there may be issues," so I told him I have a friend who can do it for free.  With the dishwasher charge removed, the cost was still $1250.  I told him I'd think about it.  I want to have a small section of pipe fixed, not to have most of the copper piping replaced.  I feel bad that there are people out there who would have simply said "Okay," knowing that price might be creating a financial burden for them.  Don't put yourself in debt because the plumber or electrician you call will charge you as much as possible because they know most people will simply hand their credit card to cover the expense.

Here's an updated kitchen pic taken before they added the trim around the window.  That's a sample of the marble countertop sitting there on the temp countertop.

And, of course, the Republican shit show continues in the House.  First they were going to have an informal thing on Fox TV, I guess sort of a Meet and Greet the Fascists, and then they weren't.  They've been forewarned that putting someone farther to the Right (notice I'm not saying Conservative) into the position will get them nothing.  Will they listen? Gimme a break.  We're talking about Republicans here.  A majority of Americans are not buying their pseudo- authoritarian, wannabe regime oriented politics.  Ouch.  Let's be honest here, has that ever stopped them before?