^{This is an AI image. Because: 1. The job was too dirty for my camera. 2. My partner won't even put his hands online. AI solved the problem for me!}

The Joy Of Living In An Old House

Living in an old house has its advantages and disadvantages. And one of the disadvantages we have discovered over the years of this old house is that the drain here is illogically made. And not only illogical, but it also gets clogged quickly, even without you doing strange things. I mean, in all the houses where I have lived before this house, I have never had a problem with a clogged drain, but here in this house, it seems to happen every 2 or 3 years. One time it is at the toilet that tree roots grow into, the other time there is something not quite right at the kitchen drain ... and if something is annoying, then it is a clogged drain!

Unfortunately, we have been suffering from this problem for a while now, and after I had already tried all the known home remedies, which did not provide a breakthrough, we knew that the blockage would probably be hidden deep down in the drain. Baking soda with vinegar is fun when it's right at the front, the drain unblocker didn't do what it was supposed to do either. I couldn't get the drain snake to turn the corners, so we knew we had to use 'brute force' here. And that means ... high pressure behind it and spraying the drain clean. Then you have two options, you do it yourself, or you have it done. Having it done is easy. Someone else will do the dirty work for you, but it will also cost you a fortune here in the Netherlands. Since we already knew from previous experience that the blockage could be deep, we also knew that we would never be ready for the standard rate they advertise here. The last time we were 400 euros poorer before the blockage was cleared. It was nice that it was cleared then, but not nice to have to pay that amount every 2 or 3 years. There had to be another way.

We now have a high-pressure cleaner ourselves, the only problem we had was that nothing fitted standard to the connection of our high-pressure cleaner, only the things that were supplied, and of course there was no sewer hose included. So we had to tackle that problem before we could start.

China to the rescue

Luckily my partner is super handy, and when he put his mind to it he quickly found a solution. Not in the Netherlands, it was either impossible to find here, or again for a fortune. We weren't going to do that. If you have to survive on a low income, you have to think creatively. And we have learned that in recent years. In China, we were able to find what we needed, and also for a reasonable price. This week, everything had arrived and was ready, and this morning, when we woke up, we only had one thought: Today we are going to tame the kitchen drain. Not because we like it (it’s not fun at all to bring up sewage waste while you have to hang upside down in a sink cupboard on your knees), but because we simply have to. The water had been draining agonizingly slowly for weeks, and we were tired of waiting for the sink to decide after 10 minutes that it might be time to empty. And if by tackling this dirty job ourselves we could avoid having to donate at least 350 euros to a drain cleaning company, we would have won a lot.

We rent this house, and in the Netherlands, it is regulated by law that drainage problems here are always at your own expense. Unless you have proof that the blockage was caused ‘through no fault of your own’, but hey, you only know that after a plumber has fought his way through your pipes and writes his report… and therefore also after you have paid the bill. You’re welcome. Even if it wasn't our fault, we're still dealing with a landlord who doesn't do a damn thing and we knew for sure that he wasn't going to take over such a bill from us.

So this time we thought: DIY is THE solution.

Sounds cool, right? Well, let me tell you, there was little cool feeling about it, with your head halfway in the sink cabinet, a pressure cleaner in one hand and a hose that's several meters long in the other is not cool. It's not fun at all, it's just a shitty job. And certainly also because the pipes in this house seem to have been installed by someone who was either drunk or a sadist. The hose had to be forced through all sorts of strange, sharp bends, twists, and angles.

But anyway, we didn't let that get us down. Hose connected, pressure washer behind it, towel on the floor (because this was getting dirty), and off we went. And finally, after much cursing (even Skipper crawled away from us), even more work and quite some time of being busy, we stumbled upon the real culprit, at about 9 meters deep! Everything before that was just some accumulated junk, but at that point, there was a big lump of resistance. No plunger, baking soda, or vinegar trick would ever have solved this. Don't ask me how and what it was, I don't know, but we got through it ... The high-pressure cleaner on jet fighter mode for the water jets and a sewer hose with attachments from China turned out to be the salvation.

Now it was test time. Plug in the sink, fill to the brim, pull out the plug ... and yes, empty within one minute. No gurgling, no slow sighing of the drain, just: floep.
We tested extra: tap open, bucket of water added — everything drained even faster than we poured it in.

We had won.

Then: cleaning, mopping, and putting everything back neatly. And then with sore knees and muscle pain in your back from the impossible position we could finally say: "There, we earned 400 euros today."

The smell was awful, the position inhuman, the job dirty ... but the feeling? Priceless.

If the drain changes its mind again, we are prepared!