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Everyone needs services of a plumber at some point in a lifetime. Although finding a qualified plumber can often sound hard and complicated, it usually doesn’t have to be like that. You can follow some rules, or better to say some logical guidelines; and doing this you will discover that finding expert isn’t such a rocket science after all.

Firstly, an experienced plumber will have the correct certification, license, and insurance policy. Certifications are some kind of evidence that the chosen plumber has the right skills for the job. And, an insurance coverage is essential because it gives some kind of safety to the clients due to the fact that they are protected if something goes wrong during the service.

It is vital that you have an effective communication when you are dealing with a plumbing company. Experienced plumbers from San Diego plumbing can provide you with clear information regarding your question, and they do it as fast as it is possible. Fast response is essential in this type of a job, especially if you are facing witn an emergency situation. Plumbers who do not have so much experience oftenly will not give you so fast solution.

It would be good if some of your friends or relatives can recommend you some plumber company that they had used in the past. Also, they can tell you with which company they are satisfied and with which that is not the case. But, you can do the research on your own as well. Because there are many plumbing companies, you will have to do a little bit more research to find a company that provides you with the best plumbing. So, the usual glance at company’s contact information will not be enough. It would be the best to look at the company’s official website and read through customer testimonials. In that way, you can get some information from first hand.

Nowadays, life is imaginable without usage of hot water. So, having this in mind, there is no place to wonder about the importance of a water heaters in everyday life. A water heater installation requires quality plumbing and electrical work. Due to the fact that this kind of job is more demanding in comparison to usual ones, it is of a pure essence to hire experts. For completing this task, it is very important to find professionals who have knowledge, experience and needed skills as well. Firstly, an installation methods are planned on the paper by experts. This procedure helps in making a list of needed materials, and other objects which are required during the installation. Also, technicians are always there to see the space and consider if that space is ideal for the installation or not. And, they check other connections such as water lines, valves, and other. This procedure helps in preventing any possible problem that could come up sometime in the future.

Besides proper installation, attention should be paid on a maintenance aspects as well. Regular maintenance helps in avoiding certain problems, and it also helps in reducing any damage before it gets bigger and maybe unreparable.

Image by Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff via Flickr

What’s your best plumbing story?

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With a title like this, you know that this book will have shelf appeal! But will the readers keep with it after it’s on the table? Did the Romans poop in public?!

In this fast and gross history, readers will learn all sorts of interesting bits about the history of our bathroom habits. The first two chapters “Poop Matters” and “Bad Plumbing, Bad News” set the scene giving readers a sense of the sociology of waste, and making them hone their minds on to the idea the how and the why of poop and fashion and poop and class. Set at a furious pace, author Sarah Albee then gets to the history starting with the Romans and ending with disposable diapers and fitting all sorts of fascinating facts in between.

For example, if someone asked you who invented the toilet, chances are you would say Thomas Crapper. Guess what? You’d be wrong. In fact, in 1596 Sir John Harington invented a flush toilet for himself and Queen Elizabeth (p.132). It’s just too bad there weren’t any sewers. Thomas Crapper doesn’t come along until 1884! But go back 5000 years further and it turns out that the Harrapan civilization (in what is now Pakistan) built sewers, and private bathhouses that drained into covered sewers.

It’s not all about toilets either. Albee explores the frightful diseases that caused havok among cities like London, New York and Paris. Cholera, dysentery, escherichia coli (E. coli), polio, schistosomiasis and typhoid are all waste related and all took out large portions of the human population (and unfortunately continue to do so in poorer and developing nations).

There are highlighted boxes throughout the book that outline topics such as waste related jobs (Fullers, Paleoscatologists, Tanners, Gongfermors, Barber Surgeons, Knight’s Squires, Delousers, Chair Men), “Hygiene Heroes” (Florence Nightengales, Ambroise Pavé, Leonardo da Vinci, Sir John Harington, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. John Snow) and “Too Much Information” (filled with some fun, gross-out facts that are somehow related to poop). There is also an interesting look at fashion and the bathroom (for example, how do you go while wearing a hoop skirt?).

Overall, this is a fun and gross book that has many points of entry. It would make a fabulous book-talk or browsing book and has enough information to help out on projects dealing with diseases, fashion, ancient civilizations, tenement life, royalty, and even colonial times.

Okay, so I promised I'd fill you all in on the summer family reunion.
True to my word, I did not write this summer, but still the story wove in and out as our family gathered here in my creaky old house with old plumbing. They came from Berlin, Germany, from Santa Fe, from San Anselmo, from Tucson, from Texas. And as we gathered, events began to unfold.

We had a wasp invasion, right through the living room wall one memorable Sunday morning.
We had a major plumbing blow-out (tree roots in the pipes).
We had a record heat wave, 103 degrees, and no air-conditioning.

But we also had a great wedding reception, welcomed the newest baby, Anika Faith (see picture) and celebrated the first birthday of our Berlin baby Ceci, along with that of her Daddy, Michael, (my eldest son.) We had lots of late breakfasts on the deck, a trip to the zoo, lakeside swimming parties at my daughter Laura's home (oh hooray for that lake when the temp soared to 103).

And each day, no matter what the joy or catastrophe (usually some of each) I journalled, just a bit, before I went to bed. Just bits, but the story was weaving, in and out, flashes of character, bits of dialogue, scenes to remember, some dramatic, some funny.

Will these come into the new book I'm beginning? Maybe. But for sure they are woven now into the fabric of my life, part of the bigger Story. The story of family that undergirds everything else I write. I'll share next time some of the smaller bits, those colors and textures that stand out, the pieces of that bigger story.

During her recent visit my daughter who is stationed with her Marine husband in North Carolina decided that my mother in law needed a new faucet in her kitchen. She and I were out bonding as only a father and daughter can when she said “The faucet in Grandma’s kitchen is leaking”. I responded with the warm caring that I’m known for. “So what?” says I. “Daddy, Grandma needs a new faucet in her kitchen, and we should get her one and put it in”. How could I refuse my Sweetpea?
So, off we went to that testament to testosterone, the Home Depot. We cruised an isle about two city blocks long that displayed so many different types of faucets that my head was spinning.
” How about this one with the built in tea maker?’ I asked. “Or this one called “Mothers Little Helper?” ” What about it?” she asked. “It dispenses vodka on one side and tomato juice on the other for those people who just can’t seem to get away from that sink full of dishes”, I said. “No Daddy, just a regular faucet will be all we need.”
So, after some hours of searching through the myriad of metal, she finally picked out a rather plain looking brushed silver apparatus with one of those hose thingys on the side which cost after taxes about 90 dollars. “For 90 bucks it should come with a little elf to do the dishes too.” I said. My daughter just smiled and said that once I saw Grandma’s face after we put it in I would feel proud that we did such a nice thing.
Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we went, bearing our shiny silver gift. I immediately prepared myself for the task at hand. ” Uh Daddy, what is all that stuff you have on?”. I had tapped into my soldier mentality and outfitted myself for the coming battle with this inanimate object facing me. “Just the things I need; tool belt, face mask, rubber boots, rubber gloves, and so on”. “But swim fins and a life vest, Daddy?”. “You never know, Sweetpea”. “Never hurts to be prepared”. Phase one of the operation had begun.
I emptied the area below the sink of all the cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous items and squeezed myself into the space between the pipes. I assessed the situation, withdrew, and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” asked my daughter. “To buy more tools”, I said.
Back to that Mecca of Manhood, Home Depot. I returned about an hour and four hundred dollars later with a whole slew of nifty new tools, only to find that my son, George, had taken the old faucet out and and almost completed installing the new one. “How did you do that?” I asked in open mouthed disbelief.
” I just took the clamps off the sink, raised it up and took the faucet off with these rusty old pliers” he replied. I pulled him aside and said ” Boy, didn’t I teach you anything?”. He immediately knew his mistake. “Oh, I’m sorry Dad. This was an opportunity to buy some new tools, huh?”. “That’s right Son. Never miss a chance to buy shiny new tools, even if you don’t know what they’re for. Don’t tell Mom and maybe I can keep them”.
All was not lost, however. It seems that the copper pipes running from the faucet to the water supply pipes were too short. This meant that I would have to go and get some flexible hoses and brass fittings, as well as some more tools, to make them connect together. Back to that Round Table of real men, Home Depot.
I arrived about fifteen minutes before closing and left a half hour later with the hoses and two hundred dollars worth of new tools but not the fittings. The “plumbing expert” working in that section assured me that I would not need the brass fittings. ” Trust me” the idiot in the orange vest said. ” All you’ll need is the hoses and the tools you bought”.
Back at my mother in law’s, I squeezed myself back under the sink and as I suspected, discovered that I would indeed need the brass fittings to make the required connections. Of course, Home Depot was now closed.
I arrived once again at that Haven of Hardware, Home Depot, as they opened the following morning. I spent the next hour looking for the correct fittings and departed with them and a fifty dollar tool that was on sale. (It was some sort of wrench for adjusting the fuel filter on a tractor, not that I have one , but you can’t be too prepared.) Back to Grandma’s.
I once again squeezed myself under the sink. I connected the hoses, tightened the fittings using a crescent wrench and the same rusty pliers my son had used earlier, then went out to turn the water back on. I used a highly specialized tool I called a “T” tool, but is known to professionals as a curb key. I came back in, found several leaks, then went back out and turned the water off. I repeated the process several times.
In the meantime, my sister in law, Margaret, had arrived from work. She cracked open a beer and offered to help me with my task. ( It was eight o’clock in the morning, but she, like I, works nights, and it was five o’clock pm in Yugoslavia, or somewhere, so I joined her.) She took over working the curb key. Turn the water on, come in and check with me, take a swig of beer, go back out and turn the water back off, repeat the process. This is how things went for the next hour or so. I couldn’t get one small leak to seal up so I called George and asked him to come and help and began mopping up under the sink.
He arrived shortly thereafter and said “Why is Aunt Margaret out there lying on the curb with her face in the water valve compartment?” I explained the situation, then went out to get Margaret while George sealed up the leaky fitting using some stuff he uses on his job as an air conditioning/heating tech. I propped Margaret up and we cracked another beer and we began to sing those golden oldies from out past.Our favorite was ” I see England, I see France, I see George’s underpants”, at which point we would laugh like a couple of nut bags.
George completed sealing the leak and at last the task was done. It only took forty nine hours, seven hundred dollars, and a six pack of Amber Bock. I could only think of how much money and time we had saved compared to calling in a plumber to do the job. Later, my daughter said, ” It’s too bad I have to leave tomorrow, Grandma’s roof could sure use some work”.
I took my daughter to the airport the next morning. I dropped the large duffel bag on the check in scale at the ticket counter and it began to wiggle and make muffled noises. One of the security officers looked at it suspiciously. ” Do you have an animal in there?” he asked. I smiled pleasantly and answered in the negative. ” Well, is it fruit or explosives?” he queried. I again smiled and began to explain the events of the past few days. As I watched the bag going down the conveyor to the cargo area I called out ” Safe trip, Sweetpea. And don’t worry, I checked you all the way through”.

I often refer to the Roxbury Free Library when I’m talking about the digital divide. It was easier to get this library set up with wireless internet access — which they’ve had for years now — than it was to get them a bathroom which they just got this week. Yay! Here are a few other photos I’ve taken of the library.

We moved back into our house last weekend and had nothing but the toilet in the bathroom. We used the shut-off valves from the sink to get water. It was like camping in our own home. But I needed to be home to be able to meet an illustration deadline and get ready for the craft sale - I had odds and ends for that tucked all over the place. Our furniture was crammed all over the place so that we had to climb over things to move around or find things. The bedroom had the watertank in the doorway so we couldn't even close the door.

So you can imagine how thrilled we were when the plumber turned up and quickly put back the water tank (hot water! hurray!) and tub (bathing! I missed it!) and sink (heaven). The best part was finally seeing our new bathroom floors with the furnishings in the room, because without them I was wondering if the tile was too small - it looked a bit busy. But with the furnishings in there it's just right. The traditional style of hexagonal tile makes it look like those floors could have always been there and they work perfectly with the old clawfoot tub, and in short, I think they're beautiful. The porcelain also feels lovely, it's hard to describe but it's just very nice.
Also I was very happy with how the cream paint on the tub looked with the new floor - there aren't a lot of colour choices with Tremclad but the cream really works (it's not quite as yellow as the picture above). And finally the new IKEA vanity/sink is also beautiful and soooo much better than the old one. It's a bit taller which I find more comfortable and I even love the shiny chrome knobs we picked to match the rest of our fixtures.
There are still a few small problems, our new faucet was bought out of the box and there was a small part missing. So for now we have a different stopper in there and it doesn't close all the way and isn't the right one. Also, the new flooring is higher than the old one, due to the Ditra and porcelain tile being thicker than vinyl tile. The plumber had no trouble adjusting the drain length, but the offset supply lines are too short (and it looks like they got a bit bent). So we need to buy new ones because for now the tub is installed on a bit of an angle in order to make it fit. Soon I'll be painting the walls, and once that's done I can do a full reveal.

Our kitchen is looking very empty. When a room is bare you can really see it's qualities and it's really a nice space. The big window and sliding doors let in so much sunlight - I've been tempted to live without cabinets and turn it into an airy studio. But I guess I have to be practical. Anyway, now the walls are smooth and I can paint those too, and our cabinets are ready for pick-up at IKEA. Yesterday we put back our appliances and a little table, so we've created a kitchenette area that is all we need for now.The dishes get washed in the bathroom so of course I had to buy this cute vintage mug for the scrubbie...For the wall colours, I've been so inspired by the January Martha Stewart Living. I noticed a lot of pale blue and yellow, including mustard yellow which created a really fresh (but almost vintage style) colour scheme that appeals to me so much. You can even see it in our dishes on the chair in the kitchen photo, we have a pale blue Denby stoneware set, and a brown and mustard yellow striped vintage set of dishes that's more casual.
The bathroom isn't as sunny as the kitchen, there's a window but it faces a wall. So the white walls are too stark and it needs a bit of colour. I've been wanting pale blue walls, but I was wondering how pale blue would go with the cream floor and tub then realized this was the colour scheme I was seeing in the magazine and loving. It was even already there in my favourite soaps in my Jonathan Adler soap dish. So I've picked up a big can of Benjamin Moore's "ocean air" and I can't wait to see it on the walls!

Controversial enough to be jailed, bawdy, talented, end endlessly quoted, Mae West is the pop archetype of sexual wantonness and ribald humor. In her book, Mae West: An Icon in Black and White, Jill Watts looks at the ways West borrowed from African-American culture and helps us understand this endlessly complicated woman. In the telling excerpt below we learn about how West’s first Broadway play SEX came to fruition.

One day, Mae West and some friends sat stuck in New York City traffic. In a rush, she ordered her driver to take a shortcut past the waterfront, and as her car rolled past the docks she spied a young woman with a sailor on each arm. West described her as attractive but with “blonde hair, over bleached and all frizzy . . . a lot of make-up on and a tight black satin coat that was all wrinkled and soiled. . . .She had runs in her stockings and she had this little turban on and a big beautiful bird of paradise.” Mae remarked to her companions, “You wonder this dame wouldn’t put half a bird of paradise on her head and the rest of the money into a coat and stockings.” But as her friends speculated that the bird of paradise was probably a seafaring John’s recompense and that this woman of the streets at best made only fifty cents to two dollars a trick, Mae grew enraged. Certainly she was worldly enough to know about prostitution, yet she recalled, “I was really upset about that.” She insisted it disturbed her to witness such exploitation of a woman—and also to realize that a woman could be so ignorant of her potential for exploiting her exploitation. (more…)

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