and the problem that started this whole ordeal was not solved

Since the new flooring is in, the plumber came yesterday morning to reseat the toilet and to snake the kitchen drain. They left after putting the toilet back for another job and to get the snake they needed and returned in the afternoon. In the meantime, Marc used the toilet which did not completely empty when flushed which is why we called Rocky in the first place and which caused the whole replacing the plumbing under the house and in the walls of that bathroom. Apparently we all got blinded by replacing the plumbing and completely forgot about the clogged up toilet.

So after they cleared the kitchen sink drain yay! they tried the snake on the toilet. It went in and in and in but never encountered any obstruction and never emerged in the pipe to the septic system as viewed from the clean-out about 6' or 7' from the toilet. It went up the vent pipe instead. So they tried from the clean-out and the snake went to the pipe from the kitchen sink and not the toilet. So they removed the toilet again, tried the snake again with the same result.

Now master plumber Bill is talking about having to dig up the sewer pipe from the toilet to the septic tank or at least to the PVC where the clean-out is. So Gunnar gets the shovel and starts digging and encounters roots from the Chinese fringe flower tree right outside my window immediately and also having to dig up a large clump of liriope and there's bricks and stuff and so now Bill wants to bring in the little Kubota but that means tearing down a section of fence because they don't think it will fit through the gate and he says the fringe flower tree needs to be cut down, that it's most likely roots have gotten in the pipe, none of which I wanted to do.

So after muttering fuck and what a bunch of shit and again fuck, I told them that they should go on to whatever job and give me the rest of the day to dig. They didn't like that idea and so while they discussed their afternoon plans I got in the with the shovel and started digging, using the long handled nippers to cut roots when needed and then Gunner started digging and we finally found the concrete sewer pipe from the toilet and while we were uncovering that Bill called Rocky to get him over here to help and when Rocky got here he took my shovel and told me to get out of the way so Rocky and Gunnar got it all uncovered and found that there had already been a repair where the concrete pipe joined the PVC to the septic tank at an angle (which is why the snake went awry from the clean out though why it went up the vent pipe from the toilet instead of the sewer pipe is anybody's guess, well we did understand why later) and it looked like they just mixed up a bag of concrete and poured it over the whole mess so they had to use what looked like a mini jackhammer to bust that all up along with the concrete sewer pipe until they finally got enough of it removed to find the clog...a huge solid 12" mass of tree roots and sludge. Pulled that out, ran water into the sewer pipe from the bathroom, no water flowed out so they dug more and broke away more and more of the concrete pipe until they came to the part under the house that was completely encased all around by tree root and also filled with tree root from the old tallow tree across the yard (so yay, I don't need to cut down my Chinese fringe flower tree since it wasn't the problem after all). 

They hacked away at that until they finally got it all clear and the old pipe removed and the new PVC installed and the toilet now flushes completely and we have not only all new plumbing under the floor and in the walls of the bathroom but also new underground sewer pipe from the toilet to the PVC to the septic tank.

Good news, right? Not so good news on the water heater. I called the manufacturer to honor the warranty and cover the cost of repair or replacement and the customer service woman asked me a bunch of questions the upshot of which was that it needs to be registered (which hadn't been done) to honor the warranty and it couldn't be registered until it was installed properly so when you get it installed properly, send us pictures and we'll talk. What!!! Currently, the water heater is in a closet in the bathroom where the previous water heater was installed. According to the manufacturer, gas water heaters cannot be installed in a bathroom or a bedroom, it has to be in a closet with a solid self closing door with weatherstripping and an air supply/vent from outside. Moving the water heater anywhere would involve all kinds of expense involving moving gas lines and water lines not to mention building a closet with all that they require and we're supposed to do this for a water heater that doesn't even work right now. Our current plumber Bill says this water heater would probably crap out on us in a few years from now anyway if we did get it fixed since everything made these days is engineered to fail in 5 to 7 years. The one we replaced 3 1/2 years ago had lasted 27 years.

So here we are, still no hot water, waiting for the part to come in to see if the previous plumber can fix it or not.

Geez. Why does every problem have to be a fucking can of worms!