2013 is now a week old and I finally have resolution in sight for the problems I encountered last week: the kitchen is usable but there are a couple of finishing touches before the job is complete and the van was a completely different problem than what we first thought – the mechanics are hopeful that they can complete the work on it tomorrow.
In case all of that was not interesting enough we woke up on Saturday morning to discover that our tub would not drain AT ALL. After hours of work for me and a plumber we found that water had frozen in the drain for our tub (probably while we were out of the house the previous days). If anyone has that problem and is able to access the section of pipe where the ice is located – a good hair dryer is your best friend. ($300 to diagnose the problem – less than $30 to fix it.)
After all that – things are looking up.