weekend plumber

Fortunately my plumber is cheap - I just have to feed him and have marital relations with him regularly.

Giselle noticed a wet spot on her bedroom carpet this afternoon and mentioned it to me as I was putting her to bed at 8. Thinking that the dog had relieved herself there earlier in the day I investigated. Fortunately the dog had not peed there; unfortunately the carpet in half of her room was soaking wet and it was coming from beneath the wall that adjoins the 2nd bathroom. We pulled up the carpet and underlying foam to start drying it out while we searched for the cause of the water.
First Joe pulled up the toilet, thinking that might be leaking but that was bone dry underneath - good thing since we had just had tile put down and had replaced all the seals. Then he checked behind the sink since there's a big hole in the wall above it for the medicine cabinet that Joe's in the process of installing (a process that involved rerouting the pvc sewer vent pipe in the wall); no leaks there. That left the tub/shower. In the process of diagnosing a small leak behind the shower, the pipe outright broke; spraying water all over the backside of the wall in Giselle's room and leaking out onto the concrete floor in her bedroom. Joe goes running out the back door to grab his "turn off the water at the main valve" tool and then ran through the house to the water meter/main shut-off valve out front. See, here in the South where it doesn't freeze, the water shut-off is outside at the water meter out by the street - about 1 foot below the surface of the ground.
So, he gets the water shut off and then he had to cut a hole in Giselle's wall to get to the pipes. Of course this all happens AFTER Home Depot has closed for the night because it's Sunday and they close early on Sundays so no repair parts would be available. But he cut away the bad sections of pipe (using the pipe cutter that his Dad had bought for him earlier that day, ironically enough), Dawn came up the street with some Shark caps to cap off the pipes and Joe turned the water back on so that we'll have running water in the AM. At least until he has to turn the water off again to make the repair.

I am SO glad that Joe knows how to do this stuff and I am SO glad that Giselle told me about the wet spot on her floor!