A romantic getaway for Andrea becomes a frantic and hilarious race to stop an Airbnb rental from being flooded. Meanwhile, Callie learns the importance of calling a professional plumber before tackling toilet troubles of her own. P.S. Don’t raise ducks in the house.
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Transcript
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Andrea Wady 00:00
I've never really at that point been in a hot tub. Oh my God, it was gorgeous. Till I press the button. Oh. I pressed the button I went out into the room to go and get champagne and to say to Chris, come and join me in the Jacuzzi. It was gonna be so romantic until I walked back in and open the door, and it looked like an A B for foam party. I was like, panic struck. I kid you not the bubbles were about a foot off the ceiling. The whole thing had gone up like raised like a Moran pudding. So I'm yelling to Chris and Chris comes in here. He's just like, What have you done? I'm -
Callie King 00:46
picturing the two of you basically tunneling through the bubbles even to get to the Jets. Yeah, to get to the naked -
Andrea Wady 00:55
eye. Jump in with both feet. Go Big. Follow your dreams grab -
Callie King 01:01
life by the reins. -
Andrea Wady 01:03
This is how we live. Where Callie King and Andrea Wady two horse trainers always looking for adventure and -
Callie King 01:10
finding it. Join us for stories of dangerous travels wild animals, new challenges, and in the end, always learning alongside our magnificent horses. So saddle up and follow along. You're listening to grab life by the reins. -
Andrea Wady 01:38
About Us and Airbnbs and fire alarms. We've stayed in two in two weeks and managed to set the fire alarms off on both occasions. I -
Callie King 01:48
think they have the settings too low for sensitivity on the fire alarms -
Andrea Wady 01:52
now. I think it's because you were burning the sausage. Well, they weren't sausages. They were fake sausages. But you are burning them. But this Airbnb is super pleasant. Unlike last week's -
Callie King 02:06
white you don't like going through Delco doors to descend down to a fleet of 12 steps into your Airbnb. I -
Andrea Wady 02:16
honestly thought we were going to die. And I know I'm not I make lots of jokes. Honest to God, I had it in my head. We were going to die. So we arrive. Anyone in England this is just not normal. I know it might be normal for you in America, it's not for us. So we pull up at this Airbnb that Callie had booked. And to be fair, the farm was really pretty, wasn't it? The -
Callie King 02:41
farm was pretty. It was a little bit in the middle of nowhere. Well, that's -
Andrea Wady 02:47
an understatement. And the guy that walked out the garage looked like a serial killer. But that's another story -
Callie King 02:53
we have to describe. So it was one of those styles, where he was he was balding in the middle and then the hair on both sides kind of just stood straight up. -
Andrea Wady 03:03
Yeah, like a psychopath. Well, you were leading me in there, weren't you trying to kind of play down what you could see and I couldn't. But he -
Callie King 03:15
led the way. He met us outside of his garage, around the little trail around the side of the house. And when I saw the doors, I just wanted to look back and see your face. I wanted to catch the moment that you saw where we were going. Did you know when you booked it? No, they were sneaky. They didn't say that. It was in a basement. psychos -
Andrea Wady 03:36
basement. So we walk around the corner and Kelly's giggling and I'm looking going well. I don't see where it is that we're staying. And she walks up to a flat floor that has doors in it. -
Callie King 03:50
Yeah, in America, we call them Bilco doors. You don't have this in England. Oh -
Andrea Wady 03:54
in England, you call them doors that if you go through there, you're gonna die. That dungeon. A dungeon? Exactly. So we have to pull open these doors and literally, they create like and I'm looking I was like there's no way and honestly I really actually was having an anxiety attack. I could feel the panic rise and I'm like, I can't stay here. I cannot stay here. And we go down there and Kelly's like you need to shut the doors behind you. Why? In case the floodwater comes in -
Callie King 04:34
it was raining pretty heavy that night. To be fair, we would have we would have had a wet floor if we didn't shut those doors. -
Andrea Wady 04:42
So I go back outside to make sure that we can open the doors from inside. You went off to the car to get some and she comes back in and why was I on the kitchen counter. You -
Callie King 04:55
were trying to open the window above the kitchen to see if we had and alternative escape. Yeah. And -
Andrea Wady 05:02
then we find out that there's a door that comes down from their house into our basement. So my thing I'm envisaging, they're going to come down. They've stuck a stick through the Bilco doors. We're all dead. That's what my head was doing. Because you just, you don't belong underground. It's like it's just not normal. And you don't charge people for the experience. Like -
Callie King 05:26
I did get really sick from that muffin that I ate. Remember, -
Andrea Wady 05:30
I told you there was these two like random muffins on the countertop, what we call cut cutting, and well, we call them muffins too. And I'm like, don't eat them. They might have drugged them. And that's how they're going to get us in calories. Like don't be so ridiculous. eats the muffin. Yeah, well, what happened to you then? Chucking your guts up an hour later. -
Callie King 05:51
But you didn't even know this until the morning. But you did tell me that so we had that we had the the smoke alarm go off. And there was no reason yeah, we did. We smelled smoke. We couldn't identify exactly where it was coming from disaster. But finally it kind of dissipated. We suspected maybe there was something on the stove so we could let it slide. But then you woke up in the middle of the night? second guessing. Yeah. And keen out to see if I was alive. -
Andrea Wady 06:19
I did. I was actually really scared. I was proper scared. I was just like, Well, I think I have reason because I'm telling you the next morning there were jars of the previous Airbnb clients outside the garage. -
Callie King 06:32
That was pretty good when when you walk outside of your Airbnb, and you see a huge metal That was pretty good when when you walk outside of your Airbnb, and you see a huge metal cooker with about 20 jars -
Andrea Wady 06:42
of blood and gore, unlabeled red sauce. -
Callie King 06:46
If you're not used to Pennsylvania farming, it could raise some suspicions. You -
Andrea Wady 06:51
think I literally there's a table outside with serial killer cooking something outside. I'm like, Well, that's the last Airbnb people. That's what's going to happen to us. And even better than that we edged on to the killer cornfield. -
Callie King 07:06
Oh, yeah, that's a core design these days. But we survived to tell the story. -
Andrea Wady 07:12
Yeah, and it did teach me a lesson that you know, different cultures. But honestly, I was probably scared. I was think I'd just done a bit of a number on myself. But I don't know. It's just you're going into other people's spaces other people's homes. I do. I love it. But equally, it's a bit weird in that -
Callie King 07:31
we're air b&b is are so common these days. All right. Damn phlegm. Plus -
Andrea Wady 07:36
the rest of that muffin. -
Callie King 07:40
Poisoned for like Airbnbs are so common these days. And we stay in them all the time when we travel. But you told me a really good story of a jacuzzi, Airbnb. -
Andrea Wady 07:51
Oh, no, that was so bad. So that was in Costa Rica, actually. And I think it was Chris's birthday. And we were going to have a night away down the coast in an air b&b. Called I'd forgotten about this. So it was called the jungle room. And she had like a little guest house but some people when they have guests house, they put their rooms on Airbnb, don't they? And it was beautiful. It was like this corner room and everything was glass and looked out on the rain forest. It was absolutely beautiful. It had like this big double beds free standing in the middle of the room. And it's all glass windows. And in the bathroom. It had like this hot tub Jacuzzi I thought oh my god, this is amazing. Also had windows out onto the forest. And we were on the second floor. How romantic. Oh, it was so gorgeous. And we've been working really really hard. Just lovely to have some time away. So Chris was like, I know that you love a hot bath and I'm in England. I love a bath. You don't get bubbles in Costa Rica. So this hot tub in the bathroom was a treat. So we're running it with the hot water. I just thought Oh, I love a bubble bath. Love a bubble bath. So I squeezed like shampoo in there. To get bubbles. I just saw how lovely I'd never really at that point. Been in a hot tub. I'll be honest. -
Callie King 09:19
And this was a hot tub like with the Jets. Yeah, that squirt water and the whole the whole deal. -
Andrea Wady 09:24
Oh my God, it was gorgeous. Till I press the button. Oh. And it was it was great. So the water was ready. I put the bubbles in. I pressed the button. I went out into the room to go and get champagne and to say to Chris, come and join me in the Jacuzzi. It was gonna be so romantic until I walked back in and open the door and it looked like in a beef or foam party. And that shit got real. I was like panic struck. I kid you not the bubbles were We're about a foot off the ceiling. The whole thing had gone up like raised like a Moran pudding. So I'm yelling to Chris and Chris comes in. He's just like, What have you done? Washington so he's trying to turn the jets off. There's foam everywhere. -
Callie King 10:18
I'm picturing the two of you basically tunneling through the the bubbles even to get to the Jets. Yeah, to get to -
Andrea Wady 10:24
the control naked. -
Callie King 10:26
Is it slippery? Is the floor slippery? No, -
Andrea Wady 10:28
no, no, that we hadn't really gone on the fluid just gone up, like up over the top of the jacuzzi. And it was just growing. It was like a mad science experiment. So of Pam, like what we're going to do, what are we going to do? We're going to this is going to cost us a fortune. Do you know what I mean? Because we're in this closed unit now with this volcano of foam. So Chris had a brilliant idea. He said, scoop it up and throw it out the window. Genius. So there I am. But a naked grabbing armfuls of foam and throwing out the window now, I do pride myself on being an environmentalist. So I was a bit gutted about, you know, polluting the rain forest. So I'm grabbing handfuls, throwing out throwing it out. So it's Chris who just can't stop laughing. And it becomes manageable. We're like, -
Callie King 11:25
so you got your romantic bath. And -
Andrea Wady 11:26
we did actually nice. Yeah. But that's for the only fans page. So we went downstairs in the morning because it's Bed and Breakfast. She's looking at us, like, stony faced with like, how does she know? How does she know? Like maybe she heard us Lulla Lulla Lulla know, her kitchen window was directly underneath our bathroom window. -
Callie King 11:56
And what time were you throwing bubbles? Oh, -
Andrea Wady 11:59
seven o'clock in the evening. -
Callie King 12:01
She's down there cooking meal. The evening meal for her family. And bubbles. Yeah, have their hellish Airbnb guests are flying. Yeah, -
Andrea Wady 12:11
by the bucket load all pouring down past her window. Well done. Yeah. She wasn't best pleased. But it was funny. I mean, you got you got a laugh at you. But we didn't go back. We definitely did not go back. So I -
Callie King 12:31
have a story lit much less romantic. But it also involves plumbing, water and a rented home. Oh, no. So I, I worked a bit in real estate as I was getting my horse business started. Okay, my riding stables started. And as part of that work, I happened to acquire a foreclosed property. So I was able to get it pretty cheap. Nice. I found out about it. So I was working in in the business. Got this place, got it fixed up, rented it to my first tenants. So I was really excited. Really proud. Feeling very accomplished. Very proud that I was a landlord of all things. Well, how -
Andrea Wady 13:16
old were you then? -
Callie King 13:17
I was 22. -
Andrea Wady 13:18
Sure. Yeah. Brilliant. -
Callie King 13:20
So got this place. First tenants move in. About two months after they moved in. I get a call. You got to come down. We've got a problem with the plumbing. toilet won't flush? Oh, no. Okay, I've heard this is the stereotypical, you know, your landlord, you got to go fix the toilet. So I loaded up my truck with my plunger and various equipment and drove down confident that I would be able to figure this out and fix it. So this is an old home with the old like copper main. Oh, that goes out, you know, to the to the street plumbing to the street sewer line. So I get down there. And I'm like, Okay, well, what's what's going on? It won't flush. Yeah, they're like it won't flush. So I walk in and I noticed that there was a strange odor in the home. Oh, no, don't. And then I noticed that there was shavings upstairs. -
Andrea Wady 14:12
shavings like Hall shavings that you put in a stall like wood shavings wood chips? Yeah. -
Callie King 14:18
Yeah. So I'm a farm girl. I know what wood shavings look like. And I also then place the smell to birds of some variety. -
Andrea Wady 14:25
Oh, no. Like an Avery -
Callie King 14:28
like an Avery. So my tenants Oh had decided to raise ducks in the home. In the upstairs classic. You do like you do. You live in a townhome? Oh, no. And they were disposing of the duck manure mixed with shavings in the toilet. What is wrong with a people flushing it? -
Andrea Wady 14:54
So Oh, no. Can you kick them out? -
Callie King 14:57
Uh, well, first, I had a lot of cleaning Still, they decided, Okay, I'm going to I'm going to trace this line. Now I know there's obviously know what the problem is. My lines are clogged with duck shit. No, but I thought, well, maybe I can maybe fix this. The Hide feller. So I went down, I knew where where to open up the line went out to the street, that's like, down in the basement, you know, the place to open it. So I go down there with my big old pipe wrench, crank it open. And all of a sudden, it comes flying out of there. It was buckets upon buckets, it ended up because it was so backed up and they're up on the second floor. So we've got like, 30 foot at least 40 foot of pipe that had been filling. Oh, -
Andrea Wady 15:44
when it's under pressure at this point under pressure. -
Callie King 15:47
The whole basement filled up to about four inches of backed up sewage. No. Oh, hello, Brenda. So I had a lot of cleaning to do. I had a call to a real plumber to pay to fix all of the damage that had been done. Did you -
Andrea Wady 16:10
kind of have to pay for that? -
Callie King 16:13
I tried to get it out of them. But my novice landlording skills I didn't end up not getting the whole bill recouped. I did get the ducks kicked out of the closet. They rehome the ducks. Oh my Oh, they stayed for another six months. And then they they remind ourselves -
Andrea Wady 16:32
as well. Oh my god. Plumbing. That's a job, isn't it? Gosh. Yeah, thank God for all the plumbers in the world that come and rescue us at situations like that. Actually, didn't you have a plumbing issue this week? I came around the corner in the field and you you were fixing something and you should put like the Bellagio fountain in the middle of the Horsfield. Yeah, that's -
Callie King 16:55
what happens when you go to fix a float on an automatic water. And instead of fixing it, you end up just pulling off the whole mechanism. And water sprays. -
Andrea Wady 17:06
Oh my gosh. Well, there's a bit of a theme here, cow here. Are you fixing things yourself? I mean, I applaud that. I do applaud that. But what what sort of success rate if you could this point. In -
Callie King 17:20
the end it gets fixed at us? Yeah, maybe not very efficiently. Yeah, I get the job done. -
Andrea Wady 17:26
You get the job done. We always used to have problems actually with water in Costa Rica because obviously, it rains like you cannot imagine if you haven't lived in the tropics. The rainy season rain is literally like someone turning a hose on you. And I remember when we were first setting up the trucking business, and we used to have to dig trenches everywhere to move water to make sure it kept flowing otherwise everything would flood. And it was this day was raining so hard. And Chris could see that the water was coming up over the trenches and it filled up with Celt, he was like we got to do this now I'm like, Oh my gosh. So I have shorts and a T shirt on because even though it's raining, it's still really warm. wellies, you know? What do you call wellies? I would call them muckety muck boots. Okay, rain boots, rain boots. Okay. Well, he's in England. So I'm out there in the muck boots, tiny shorts little vest top digging for all I'm worth Chris is round the other side of the tack shed doing his thing and I'm just looking I'm looking at everything my clothes a just ringing wet. It's like someone had just turned a tap on my head and I thought that -
Callie King 18:42
sounds like you were ready for the only fans page. I -
Andrea Wady 18:45
literally was it wasn't invented them but if it had I might have made a fortune because I was a lot younger farmer girls wet t shirt contest. Absolutely. Well, Chris came round he was digging faster than me and he comes round and he just looks at me and it's like, Oh dear God, there I was butt naked in my Welly boots. Digging my little trench like a trough because I'm like, well, what's the point of having these clothes on? It's just pointless and it's making me cold. So I took off the clothes, stood in my gum boots and dug a trench like a good farm girl. -
Callie King 19:19
Love it. When all else fails get naked. -
Andrea Wady 19:24
Well, why not? Hey, naked in the rain forest digging a trench there's worse things you can do in life. Mosquitoes might have been paying no in that right now to dry. -
Callie King 19:36
Better drowned, better for you. Thank you for listening to grab life by the reins. If you want to see ridiculous photos from our adventures be the first to know when we release new episodes and be a part of war shenanigans. Join our email family at grab life by the reins.com -
Andrea Wady 19:59
we'll see you in the next one. roadmap