Snowing in the laundry room and insulation stories

One last snow story (until I get home and create new ones)...

Last night, I went into the pantry off the kitchen. This room is one of the three in the house that does not have all of its windows replaced yet due to either our contractor or the manufacturer being inept (we think it is the manufacturer in this case).

It was snowing. Yup - inside. The wind driven snow was coming up through the two sashes of the original window along with a stream of arctic air. We were able to solve the problem with a few well placed towels. But we really need to get that window replaced.

This was a good ending to earlier in the evening when I had finally grown weary of our basement essentially being exposed to the elements. Our contractor installed 4 new windows in the basement. He also left two window openings OPEN and a third he put plywood over. One final basement window also consists of plywood where our stove duct exits the building.

All of these penetrations make for a very cold basement. For an area of the house that contains all of our pipes and our hot water heater, this is not ideal. So last night, I went down into the basement, suited up in rubber gloves and long sleeves, held my breath and had a fiberglass insulation party. It was an awful party, but now at least there are less high velocity winds ripping through the lower level of our house.

We also have an area of insulation that we need to think about replacing. The reason? It is covered in spaghetti sauce.

You see, on Christmas Eve, our brand new kitchen sink stopped draining right before LeeMichael's whole family came over to celebrate. Luckily, we have a second sink in the kitchen and were able to muddle through. On Christmas morning, we opted to try to snake the line after opening our gifts. The snaking was not successful.

Against Bryan's protestations, LeeMichael decided to open the pipes and see what he could see. Bryan, choosing to partake in the insanity, opened the clean out slightly to allow the trapped water to slowly escape. Then, without a lot of warning, LeeMichael reached up and wrenched the trap open. A geyser of spaghetti sauce saturated trapped water erupted from the pipe, into the insulation in the ceiling and then all OVER LeeMichael, covering him in a red greasy mess.

He claimed it was not appealing.

Bryan, on the other hand, gasped for air and made short squeaking sounds as he roared with laughter for over a minute. (He is giggling now at the memory). The newly Italianized LeeMichael was able to clear the line and all is now flowing. In the process, we did discover a serious build up of corrosion in one pipe, however, that will need to be replaced.

But no worries - the memory of the flying pasta sauce will allow Bryan to calmly order and pay for the work.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!

Sorry LeeMichael - it really was that funny.

And sorry followers - I just didn't have a camera at the ready.