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A Bathroom

What do you see in this picture? A bathroom, a small cabinet, a marble top, a sink and a mirror. Is that all? I knew it. I knew that you would not see the two months we spent with a broken cabinet, shattered marble top, exposed bricks and rotten pipes. Yes, the broken pipes, they were the cause of it all.

This began when we discovered a wet spot in the place where the wall and ceiling meet. For the first few days we didn't pay any attention to it, of course. But the stain grew. We looked at it, silently pleading. We measured it with our eyes every evening. We hoped it would get smaller and disappear of itself. But, of course, it grew and grew. The paint on the wall started to fall off and showed signs of mold. And then we realized that there was no alternative and we got in touch with the "shiputznik", our handyman-plumber.

He looked in silence and then asked for a ladder. He climbed to the roof, remained there briefly and came down with news: "You are lucky. Maybe I'll be able to exchange the rusty pipe with a new one without breaking the marble counter and the wall". And, indeed, we were lucky. He took out the pipe, put a new one in its place, and we rejoiced in our good fortune.

But a few days later a spot of moisture began to expand between the ceiling and the wall in the shower on the first floor, which is below the bathroom. We called the shiputznick. Again he looked and was silent. And then he said: "Bring an insurance adjuster, this time it's something serious." Why? Because the problem is the connection of the pipe that was fitted with the pipe that goes down to the first floor, and this connection is exactly behind the cabinet. It has to be taken apart, and the wall behind it has to be opened. And also take into account a new marble counter top, because yours is full of cracks and fissures and as soon as we pull it away from the wall it will break.

And so it was. The cabinet was dismantled, the marble broke and the wall was opened. But at least the pipes were fixed. The insurance adjuster came, took pictures and authorized the work. But then, when we thought that all was behind us, the plumber came up with this: now we leave the walls in the bathroom open and wait at least a month. Only then, when we are certain that there are no more leakages, we'll close everything. The insurance guy approved the idea. And thus began the longest month that lasted a month and a half, and the bathroom remained like a building site.

All's well that ends well. The episode is behind us. The above picture, that seems so ordinary to you, is a picture of great happiness. Finally we have a new marble top, a sink with running water and a mirror! Simple everyday things that became for a month objects of longing, and their return to us seemed the restoration of the world order, or at least our little world.