Over the past week, utter chaos has descended upon our house, at our request. In fact, we paid for it. It came, of course, in the form of having a second bathroom installed.

This shouldn't have been such a big deal, but the house sits on a slab instead of a basement. Those of you in the know are already nodding your heads, knowingly. Everyone else, let's just say that, given the choice, don't buy a house on a slab. We had already decided that the house was good for us, right size, good neighborhood, and we didn't entirely realize the house was on a slab until we had already made up our minds that this was good for us... and for the most part, it hasn't been a big deal. One stair in the entire house, makes it practical and safer, blah blah blah.

But putting in a bathroom means plumbing, and plumbing means pipes, and pipes mean... well, I can't think of a single-word way to complete that sentence. But it means that instead of running pipes under the floor, they have to run through my kitchen, up at ceiling-level, and a jackhammer was involved to get the tank into the floor, and who knows what-all.

In other words, not a do-it-yourself project, and I don't care WHAT Home Depot says to the contrary.

So, we called around, got increasingly high estimates, and decided to go with the last place we called because we were afraid the estimates would only continue to rise. Dan the Plumber showed up on time, and he had obviously prepared: he had the dark blue coveralls and a big truck with the company's logo on it. He had big complicated power tools and he knew how to use them. And as soon as he got ready to work, and was warming up through the mere effort of expending all that manliness, he took off the top of his coveralls, to reveal that he was doing plumbing in a shirt and tie. It was all a bit reminiscent of the Brawny paper towels commercial from a little while back, a commercial which never failed to crack me up while watching Willem glare imposingly at the screen.

Speaking of whom, Willem would like it generally known that, despite Dan's clear overabundance of testosterone, he had a very weak handshake, and so the only laying of pipe that occurred was actual, literal laying of pipe.

So Dan and his large-gutted friend spent two days imposing pipes upon my house, and the pipes brought their friends, dirt and chaos. But they're done, and we have operational pipes into what was once a closet. We also, as of last night, have lights and electrical sockets in the room. I'll spend the weekend priming and painting the walls, and then priming and tiling the floor, and on Tuesday, Manly Dan will return to install a toilet and sink.

Wicked exciting, y'all.