Oh, these corroded pipes!
That’s not a phrase of some kind. That’s literally what’s taken place at my house over the last few weeks. I had some water come up from my basement drain, and the cause is… not good. A plumber has come over to my house twice, and sadly, we’ve discovered that there was a break somewhere, and a lot of dirt got in, which led to a major clog, which then corroded the pipes in my basement. It’s going to be a massive fix and of course, expensive. My plumber and his cadre of nephews are going to fix this this next weekend.
When it rains, it pours. That actually, is a phrase. I’ve figured out how to make this work, but I’m going to be a frugal gal this summer.
And that part, at least, leads to a joy I want to share with you.
Are you aware of Buy Nothing groups?
I’d love to not have to buy PVC pipes. But there are a lot of other things I haven’t bought lately. There are Facebook groups where people share things they are giving for free and things they’d like to receive for free. People match up and pick up things at each others’ houses. I’ve been giving away a number of items in my house lately because I’m downsizing a bit. And I’ve received, too. For instance,
In the wake of this situation, I shared that I now owned precisely one bath towel because I used all my towels to sop up the basement. As a result, today, I get to pick up bath towels, paper towels (because someone is offering those too) and an air popcorn popper, because someone is nice, and mine also died this week. Meanwhile, this week, I’ve given a speaker, frozen food, and a bunch of coffee mugs.
I love neighbors helping neighbors. This is the kind of world I want to live in. And though I’d also want to live in a parallel universe where I don’t have corroded pipes, this part of this story is pretty good.
— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 