Plumbing

In the literal sense, not in the body sense. We always have some sort of plumbing issue here. Currently i can hear the plumber banging at something outside. All i want to do is go to the toilet, but i'm too paranoid as he's right near the toilet window and what if what i do flushes out into the hole he is trying to fix.

This issue has been going on since we moved in 4 years ago. The kitchen sink blocks up every now and again so DH gets the hose and flushes it out. It absolutely stinks to high heavens. Then it's all fixed...until it blocks up again an a few more weeks..then the process is repeated. So  a few weeks ago Dh did some investigating and pulled up the many pavers surrounding the outside drain, and dug down until he found the pipe connected to the drain. He isn't sure if he hit it or not but there was alot of water there, then whenever we turned the kitchen tap on there was more water. Hmmm. He was none the wiser and called his plumber mate, who took a look and hmmm he was also none the wiser. So the huuuge hole gets cover with a board so the kids don't fall in and that's how it stayed for several weeks. Each day the smell got worse. Picture a field full of portable toilets and each person using them has diarrhoea. Thats the smell. If we're lucky it even wafts through the house. This plumber kept forgetting to come. Hmmm, i wasn't very happy.

Now, about 5 weeks later, he is finally here.

Our other issue is the main water pipe. A couple years ago i woke up one morning to a hissing sound. It was about 4am and I thought shit, the bathroom tap was left on. So i went to turn it off. It already was. So i bust my brain wondering where this noise is coming from. I look out the window to smell for gas, i go into the kitchen to check the taps and dishwasher. Nothing. Nothing at all. I go back to bed and tell dh. He says it's in my head, probably just the aircon, and to go back to sleep. Wake up at my usual time and still hear it. Had my shower and told dh it's the sound liek the toilet has flushed but the button wasn't pushed properly so hasn't stopped flushing. Dh was convinced it was jsut the water from the aircon and when he gets time he'll go and turn the tap off to check. I'm thinking nah, it's not that, the air con isn't even on!!About 3 weeks later he goes up on the roof to turn the aircon tap off, and no difference. I knew there woldn't be. He said oh well, don't know. About a week after that he went to check the gas bottle level and notice there was a puddle of water but cold see bubbles in the puddle, and knew there was a pipe near there so he investigated.His investigated discovered a leak in a pipe. UH OH!!!!
We ring a plumber to come IMMEDIATELY...therefore 2 days later lol. They came in the morning and told me it's a small leak so would only take an hour or less to fix. 7 hours later they leave to let me knwo they still have more to do!WTF?? Well because it's a copper pipe, it's rusted, so each time they fix a section, then turn the water back on the next section busts. We've still got the temporary pipe there over 1 year later as it costs too much to get it all done properly.  A few weeks later we got the water bill. Imagine the cost when the pipe has been leakign full time for abotu 4 weeks. Next time i hope dh will reaaaally listen to me when i say i hear running water.