Anyone in Florida needing some kind of acceptable home repair done in an efficient and proficient manner over the past few years has learned it’s at best a crap shoot just as it is in South America . Today’s story begins in Colombia some months ago when we were forced to make the sad decision to have the large tree that’s home to a pair of mating macaws removed from the front of the house. Fortunately we hired two typically inefficient bozo’s who succeeded in removing a couple of limbs before abandoning the project forcing us to seek other help. Other help informed us that our giant almond tree would in all likelihood survive the removal of one offending root allowing replacement of the damaged sidewalk. So we thought we’d chance it.
Fast forward to this morning when I stood and watched those two macaws happily drop their quano from a great height to mess up our freshly poured concrete sidewalk. The sidewalk is definitely an improvement even if it is in appearance a typical amateurish affair but did come with a silver lining. The concrete guy proved to be a fair hand at plumbing which proved useful as two plumbers we brought to the house to repair a toilet issue the day before proved to be useless. For a start and as is commonly expected, when the concrete guy jack hammered up the previous sidewalk he got the ball rolling by jack hammering through the water line entering the house.
First plumber that came explained that like a cleaner who won’t do windows , he doesn’t remove or replace toilets. Second guy, complete with company uniform, explained that toilets here are seated in concrete instead of wax rings and all we need to do is reseal the edge to stop the water flowing all over the floor on every flush. This did in fact solve the water on the floor issue but the toilet then became a gurgling burping slow flushing inefficient piece of porcelain. Enter the concrete guy again who claimed an ability to solve that issue as well ….. and he did.
Cleaning lady was here last week and she drives me batshit. I’ve never before seen anyone clean a home with such mediocrity, or so slowly . No matter how many times I try to explain that I’ll pay the same amount if it takes 2 hours or 7 she just insists on spending 6 hrs + screwing the pooch . While here this time I asked her if she’d seen the missing scrubby sponge we keep at the kitchen sink and she said “ No … haven’t seen it. ” Well I just had and as I didn’t anymore I checked the trash and even secretly the cleaning ladies supplies to finally come to the conclusion that the cat dragged it outside and one of the macaws picked it up to pad the nest.
This brings us back to when the concrete guy who would be better suited in the plumbing trades than pouring cement removed the toilet and called me in to witness the problem with the toilet. It was the kitchen scrubby sponge lodged in the pipe below the floor level having made its way through the bends in the toilet. This brings a ball of fear to the pit of my stomach every time I think that the kitchen sponge didn’t get flushed last time she was here …..
