Jane of all trades...plumbing

So I have tried my hand at a few handy-woman jobs. Since my hubby travels so much I have had to figure it out...how to weed whack the grass, paint the fence, unclog toilets, turn the water off so the toilets stop over flowing once clogged. I also managed to tile my bathroom, although not complete due to wet saw issues, but I have managed.

Last week my mom was visiting and had turned on the garbage disposal. It made a weird noise like crerereaknkkkk....I said it's. It working turn it off. So we turned it off and like so many other things I forgot about it till Saturday night when hubby was home and he turned it on and now it was just making an electrical humming noise. "why didnt you tell me about this?" oh I'm sorry hon, I completely forgot, which was true. Ok, so he got under the sink and pressed the reset button on the garbage disposal, about 10 times. Nothing happened. The water was backing up in the sink. Did I mention this is my kitchen sink?

Tuesday night 2315, hubby getting ready for bed and to leave on travel...sink has an inch of water in it, no biggie we try to fix it, he tells me don't put anything down it and it slowly drains. Today, it has 6 inches of water in it, and now the whole bottom of my dishwasher is full of smelly brown liquid...UGH!!!

So I put liquid plumber down the drain. This should work, nothing. Still each time I turn on the water the sink fills up quickly. So before dinner I see 3 inches in the sink, great. It is now 1845 Wednesday night. I have called my cousin who is a plumber hoping he would have some magic he could use over the phone, but he was busy. Call my dad he says plunge it. Duh, why didn't I think of this. So I do, ehhhh works for a few minutes. Call my bro in law, he can fix it sure. He tells me what to do, I take a picture and send it to him. Looks like cutting pipes and drains will fulfil my night. But it's 1845, I am 6 1/2 months pregnant, my kids are hungry and it's a school night. No worries, I say thank you, as he is a huge help but I'm not cutting pipe tonight, nor calling a plumber...I can do this. Me Jane. Me fix stuff.

So I leave it be, turn on the dishwasher to see if that helps, fix dinner and sit down. Only to find in the sink when I get up, lots of yuck, food, oily goop, and once again 4 inches of nasty water. So I plunge it, I plunge and plunge and plunge like I'm going to get a medal.

I do, I get the medal! The sink is draining. The dishwasher no longer has a bottom of yucky brown water and all is right with the world.

No cutting, snaking, or Spending unnecessary money tonight! When in doubt plunge the hell out of it! Although I am pretty sure I will do this again tomorrow or until it gets fixed...by a professional.