Plumbing -- Round 2

Problems continued with our kitchen sink. It was taking so long to drain we were starting to consider eating on paper plates! After our Padrone was out to see for himself, a plumber was summoned. As written previously Larry hates plumbing as much as he hates yardwork but in a pinch (like last week when he melted the plastic drain tube -- the new one is shown here) he'll get the tools out. He thought this installation was pretty bad as the tube runs almost horizontally and the level of the sink drain is barely above the hole in the wall the tube exits through! He was amazed at the quality of the incoming water, all stainless steel braided lines and threaded connections -- but the drain is this cheapo plastic flex tubing! The plumber took one look under the sink and said pretty much the same thing- just in Italian with a few "porca miseria's thrown in. He and his assistant pulled the oven out of the cabinet to access the second (darker) tube and its connection to the drain pipe, cleaned a small amout of debris out, then attached an air pressurized gizmo to blow any big clogs out the other end. They said they found nothing seriously wrong except the hole in the wall should not be where it is (or the sink should not be where IT is) and that the setup will never work very well (vindicating Larry's earlier opinion) and that they'd advise the padrone of their findings. At least the thing drains better now so we can avoid those paper plates! Turns out this apartment was never intended to house cooking facilities -- in the medieval times folks dined at osteria-type places or picked up street food, only the rich folks had kitchens. And yes, that is a catch pan underneath as their reconnection of the whole works is a bit less than drip free. Now if we can just get the knack of knowing which electrical stuff we can turn on without blowing the circuit breakers we'll be fine.