Fun with plumbing and paint!

For a short while, we had this really fun problem of the kitchen flooding every time somebody took a shower. At first we couldn't figure out exactly where the water was coming from. It started as slow pooling, which happened to coincide with rain...so the first thought was "Oh my god, our foundation is melting beneath our feet!" Thankfully, the pools got bigger, and more consistent, leading us to believe it was an actual leak somewhere. Our landlord wanted nothing to do with it, so we used our available resources and called in a few plumber buddies to diagnose what was wrong.

The bathroom is right over the kitchen, so we knew it was coming from there. We had to do a couple experiments to pinpoint exactly where the water was coming from. We knew it was the shower/tub given then the timing of the pooling. Our first test, which was kind of fun, was to rule out the drain in the tub by filling it with water and food dye. The theory was that if it was a problem with the drain (which would have been disastrous) we'd see colored water seeping into the kitchen. We filled the tub, added the color, drained. No water at all! Yay!
This lead us to two other possibilities...either there was a leak in the handles, or one in the head. One of the handles had been getting progressively more stripped every time we used it, so naturally we thought this was where the excess was seeping through. I put in a call to my awesome friend Ray, who promised he'd be there in a couple days. The VERY next day, when trying to adjust the shower head, however, I pulled a bit too hard and ended up with a head in my hands and a GIANT answer to our questions. The damn shower head!!
Ray was over that same day and did some lickety-split demo on our wall, diagnosed and fixed what had been all-around shoddy plumbing, and set us up with brand new parts..minus the leak!

Having the hole there is actually better, since now that dampness can dry out before we patch up the wall. There is an active stream of air flowing through there, so we're pretty sure the job is getting done.

The retro pieces that made up the rest of the gig needed replacing as well, but to our disappointment, they've long been discontinued and would need to be special ordered. Hence, the makeshift broken-handle handle!


We've all learned a lot about shower plumbing as a result of this mess.

As a second result, the flooring we layed down in the kitchen was pretty destroyed! From the water damage to the heavy traffic of our friends, it couldn't stand up to its duty in our busy kitchen. SO, we decided to go back to the plan I had a year ago, when we moved in, and opted for concrete floor paint. My thinking was that its ultra durable, cheap, and will match the whole "industrial" look of living in a warehouse. Heck, I can find some area rugs in no time to pretty things up! Here's where we are so far. Barrett has taken on this task single-handedly, and he's doing an AWESOME job!



I have to say I'm super-thankful that we're close to people with actual skills. God knows paying a random plumber to fix this mess would have cost an arm and a leg! So now, instead of money passing hands, we owe Ray a favor, or dinner, or whatever...which will surely include his and his wonderful girlfriend Kristi's company, which can't be beat!!!