Is It Okay to Flush??

So as I stated in my last post we have had some major plumbing issues. I guess one of the joys of having an older home is that things have to be fixed and brought up to date. Over the last months we have had our sewer back up into our laundry room a couple of times. Luckily when it happened the first few times we were there and could keep it from getting onto the carpet in our basement. If we put the liquid plumber foaming snake in, it would fix it and we were good for about a week or so. So last Sunday it did it again but this time it backed up enough to get the perimeter of our carpet wet. So Travis went to get the liquid plumber but this time it didn't work.
So Monday we called a rotor rooter company and they came out to do their thing. The man then sent in a camera to have a look at our pipes and said that we have orange burg pipes. Orange burg pipe is actually a kind of tar paper that's rolled up about 10 layers thick to create a tube. It was used as the sewer pipe that runs from the house to the street in the early 60's when our house was built. The rooter guy said we needed to replace our pipes and quoted us a price of $6,870. I was like WHAT????? Of course with all that I've been through lately the first thing I did once he left was CRY. So Travis called Rod, a friend in our ward, who is a general contractor and asked him for suggestions. To make a long story short he was able to find a friend, Cory,who has a excavator and said that they would dig the hole & Travis's brother is in school to become a plumber so he could do the work.
So yesterday Rod & Cory got here first thing in the morning and began digging up the old pipe. They had the hole dug and then said why don't we just fix it. So within less than 7hrs they dug the hole, replaced the pipe & buried the hole up again & get this the bill will be less than 1/10th of the original bid.

Here's a pic of all the dirt. The excavator in action.

The new pipe.

Connecting to our house.



So while the old pipe was being taken out I told Parker and Hannah that they could not use the sinks, or toilet or anything that drains. I was downstairs and Parker kept asking me questions like, "can we use the sink in the kitchen? bathroom? bathtub? both toilets?" I said"No" to all of them and then later realized that he was asking me because he was putting Yellow post-it notes on everything with the word "NO" written on it to remind us not to use things.

Kitchen sink
Downstairs bathroom

I thought it was funny. Later that night when everything was done he asked, "Is it OK to flush now?"

I just have to say that even though it feels like we have been overwhelmed with our share of trials lately we have also been very blessed. How amazing to have friends and neighbors who are willing to take time out of their lives to help us when we are in need. It has totally strengthened my testimony & has made us really appreciate all that we have.