Old and new...

When the electrician was putting in the new plug in the living room, he pulled out the French door on one side to peer in the wall to see what other things were in the wall before making his hole.

"Myrtle, can you come here a moment?"

SIGH.

His eagle eye spotted water on the sewage pipe.  Why the home inspector did not do the same is beyond me, but there it was.  I needed a 10-foot hole cut in my wall so that my cast iron pipe could be replaced.

DOUBLE SIGH.

The plumber came today to make the repair and was very surprised at the size of the crack.  Originally, it looked like the pipe had micro fractures from age and was merely seeping.  However, you can tell from my boring photos that the crack was significant.  Christ be praised that this was caught before a complete failure and I ended up with extensive water damage!

I am also very, very thankful that the plumber was quite careful to ensure that he did not cut into the ceiling.  This is because the ceiling has one of those swooping curved patterns in it.  I couldn't imagine getting that redone.  He laughed at the dozens of times I asked him if he could do the repair without disturbing the ceiling and called out a very large "Oops!" when I was in the other room just to see if I would come running.  Shame on him!  He did promise to avoid the ceiling if I gave him a Dr Pepper.  Having a steady supply of those has made my home his favorite stop. 

The upside of this is that I will have to paint the living room once the wall is repaired.  I could try to get someone to match the paint by a section of the wall that was removed, but I truly dislike the color blue on walls and am looking forward to no longer having to spend my days on the couch in a blue room.  Hmmm...can you guess which color I might choose?