Great Goofs®

Sewer with a secret; shower in the kitchen; and the wrong way to warm up your fuzzy slippers.

We bought our home six years ago and have had problems with the sewer backing up. After having the sewer line snaked, jetted and scoped, we learned that the backflow valve cap had broken off and likely become lodged in the line. We hired someone with a backhoe to dig up the line, but we couldn’t find the broken cap. Puzzled, we again called the company that scoped it to locate the lodged cap.

Meanwhile, the backhoe operator asked my husband if he’d checked the cleanout drain. “Cleanout drain?” my husband repeated, turning pale. Sure enough, under a piece of carpet in the basement was the drain, and inside it was the broken cap. Then we went upstairs to take a good, long look at our dug-up backyard. It was like buying a price tag with no clothing attached.