A cautionary tale... leave the plumbing to the professionals!
Well it technically started Saturday night. I came home late after a night out with friends. I headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and take off my jewelry. It's not wise to leave jewelry near a sink, but I was sure that it was a good 6 inches away.
I don't own a lot of expensive or sentimental jewelry, but this piece was one of the few special ones. My birthstone is amethyst and as a baby I was given a tiny pendant on a chain. As an adult I added a raw piece of amethyst to this chain with the tiny pendant.
Sunday morning the necklace was still far away as I hopped into the shower... as I hopped out it all went down in slow motion!!! The condensation from the shower made the counter top slippery and just as I was stepping out I saw the chain slide down into the sink with the tiny pendant. The large raw piece I recently bought still sitting unmoved on the counter top.
You would think one would get a bit panicked, but having removed a p trap a few times before to fix a kitchen clog I was rather calm. I had to leave the apartment for an appointment, but I shut the water off and realized a quick stop at Home Depot for a monkey wrench would be all I needed to loosen the nuts and release the trap to free my necklace!
Cue Destiny's Child "Independent Women" in my hide.
The first nut came loose EAASSSY, but the bigger one took a little more muscle! Finally got it popped and went to wiggle that p trap loose. IT WAS LIKE IT WAS FREAKIN GLUED! So I took the handle of the monkey wrench to tap the pipe down and .... OOOOPS! Well that pipe was plastic and this girl cracked it!
Defeated I finally called building maintenance to tell them what I did. I thought I was saving someone a trip for what should have been an easy fix, but in the process I made it worse.
My roommate was home when the man arrived... apparently not too happy with me for taking matters into my own hands.
Dateline today ... Tuesday December 3rd - the necklace is free, but apparently my muscles are so big that I damaged a pipe in the wall. Water is now shut off til Friday until a plumber can come in and I owe my roommate some margaritas for dealing with the man's displeasure and allowing me to use her shower :-) First world problems ... all is good, but I do need to give a little something to the plumber and building man... Dunkin gift card?
Notice - I left the man a nice note hoping he would find some humor in my stupidity ...hope he did! Note to all... if you aren't the plumbing professional... LEAVE IT TO THE PLUMBER!