Indoor Waterpark

Hi again! So, I know I've mentioned that everything in New York is really old. This includes our cute little efficiency studio, as well as the pipes, valves, and gaskets that make up the plumbing system. I'm sure everyone has had their own plumbing nightmares, most of which are probably much worse than what we've encountered, but I wanted to share our story as well.

When first arrived at the apartment about a month ago, our sublettor mentioned that the super was supposed to come in and fix a few things in the bathroom. I noticed there were little plastic cups below two of the water valves, but didn't think much of it at the time. The shower had a very slight drip, which I also ignored. No big deal, right? Let's pause this story - we'll get to it later.

Story 2: about a week ago I come home from walking around our neighborhood and find there is an interesting smell in the apartment. I couldn't put my finger on it, but let's just say it didn't smell very... fresh. I walk in and find the floor of the kitchen completely soaked in water. The sink was full of a brown, thick, murky substance which I assumed was (and which smelled very much like) sewage. The counter tops were covered in the same stuff, and water had started leaking out from the kitchen into the rest of the apartment. Under the sink the pipe was dripping the same wonderful brown mess, (ironically?) coating all of my cleaning supplies and appliances the sublettor had left under there.

After cleaning up a bit. The faucet wasn't leaking....

My makeshift solution

Not being a plumber, or someone who knows anything about plumbing for that matter, I thought the toilet line had exploded into my kitchen. While trying to figure out how to completely sterilize my entire apartment, I called the super completely freaking out. He was cleaning the sidewalk in front of the building, and said he would come up when he finished. When he finished?? I thought... There's poo-water leaking into my apartment and you want to finish cleaning the sidewalks?! After what seemed like an hour, but was probably only 5 minutes, I ran downstairs and drug him back with me to fix the problem.

Apparently he had been working on the apartment above us earlier that day, and their problems trickled down to us. Not caring at the time what the problem was, I asked if what was coming back from the pipes was sewage water. He laughed. "No. Those are coffee grinds. The person above you had been pouring them down the drain for a really long time, and finally it just backed up. And now it's in your apartment." Ohhh. Coffee grinds - of course. Feeling much better that what I previously thought was poo water was actually just coffee water, I set about cleaning up the mess. The super ended up having to run one of those long snake things through the pipes to clear the clog, which had to repeat for the three floors below us.

He also ended up cleaning a little of the coffee water for me as well. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and washing all of the rugs and towels that had been completely soaked through. All in all - not a fun experience, but all of our junk was pretty much unharmed, so things could have been much worse.

And that brings us back to story number 1. The slight drip the shower previously had turned into a steady stream one night ago. I was planning on calling the super this morning after I took a shower. Well, after I finished showering and went to turn off the faucet, it decided it didn't want to. Actually the cold water turned off just fine, but the hot water did not. Which led to a very uncomfortable end-of-shower experience and a very steamy bathroom. After more than an hour of trying to get a hold of the super, I ended up calling the sublettor, who called the building's property manager, who called the super, who came to the apartment. He turned off the water to the shower, which was a silver rod covered in a ball of duct tape (don't know why I didn't think to look there!) and ran off to the hardware store for parts.

Fortunately both stories did not lead to any disastrous flooding or damage any of our stuff. Also fortunately our rent is flat and we don't have a separate water bill. :) But these are the joys of living in a building that was constructed before World War 2. I'm hoping the only remaining source of water (the toilet) keeps its cool until we've moved to more permanent housing!