Future me's problem

 Turns out something's wrong with the kitchen sink (well, more than the leak in the cold-water line that (ahem) DEVELOPED* overnight). It's a metal double sink and the drainpipes are attached with some heavy, almost asphalt-seeming material - which has bubbled on one sink and one corner is peeling away, so the sink leaks when you use it.

(*I had wrapped the drainpipes, the critter bit that line in its search for water. The water intake to that sink is now OFF)

So: when I return in January, I must

- clean house extensively and probably move some stuff into storage for a while

- get an exterminator out because obviously this critter is NOT leaving

- get the plumber in to put in a new sink and I'm just going to have them replumb that whole area as much as possible - new drainpipes, everything. I don't care any more, I am tired of things being kludgey and broken. 

- get someone to work on the subflooring

- get a new dishwasher and get it installed BUT ALSO MAYBE get someone in to box off that area better - there is actually no "wall" between where the dishwasher goes and the under cabinet space and this seems wrong to me, and also it tends to admit rodents a lot more than it should.

I have traps set all over the place, and I set out pans of water if the dang thing is seeking water, and I sprayed the place hard with the repellant (which made me smell like repellant, so I had to shower again, and I can smell it in the house - I sprayed a "aromatherapy calming spray" in my carry on in case the stuff picked up the stink, and then just tossed the little bottle into my purse in case there's diesel stink on the train again.

Am trying hard to say all those other things are Future Me's problem - I can get paper plates and plasticware when I come back and eat off that until I can get the sink fixed (or fill a bucket in the tub and wash dishes in that - one side of the sink still drains okay). But I'm ready for things to stop being broken and hard.

Oh, I know: this is the old-house thing, you're basically living in the Ship of Theseus, but it's extra-hard when you've been through a year and a half of pandemic, a time of unprecedented quitting-of-jobs, and a building boom which means a lot of workers don't want to work on existing homes, they want to build new ones. (I am not QUITE sure I am ready to contemplate looking for a new house, and trying to budget for a mortgage, and all that)

Here's hoping the traps do their thing