A hole that made a hole in our budget

This is the continuing sad story of an attempt to dislodge a flushed paper towel that escalated into a damaged underground sewer pipe, a big hole in front of our house and involved two plumbers working two days to get it fixed.

Someone visiting our home flushed something other than toilet paper, which caused a clog in the sewer pipe. We called a plumber, but in the process of unclogging the pipes with his plumbing snake, he destroyed the old pipes. Unfortunately, plumbers don't pay for what they break. 

To be fair, the pipes were old anyway. Its just a shame the snake caused them to crumble apart during our ownership of the house.

We had to call in another plumber. We got a good reference from some other missionaries here and called Marzan Plumbing. The owner is a mid-twenty something young man with two vans and a couple of helpers. They came by late Monday night and commenced digging immediately. I was impressed by his good attitude and willingness to get muddy to solve our problem. But the deeper this hole got, the more nervous we got.

But, what could we do? It's not like the toilet is an optional frill in the entertainment category of our budget. We just had to get it fixed, cost what it may. Puerto Rican rates may be lower than the same work in the US, but this job is a big one, so we are holding our collective breaths for the final tally.

The rest of the story: $425 for everything. That is a lot of money for us, but not bad when you consider two plumbers working over two long days and all the thick, muddy, sewer soaked dirt they moved to make it happen. It could have been worse.