This is a long post, but if you’ve bothered to subscribe to the Bulletin Board and like what it offers, it’s probably worth your while to at least skim through to the end.

Periodically, someone asks for suggestions regarding plumbing issues, and there are simple ways to find those previous discussions as noted below. But first, in case people have some new input, here’s the latest request:

We’ve been living with a slow drain situation in our shower for a long, long time. We’ve tried plunging, baking soda and vinegar, denture cleaning tablets, boiling water, and every conceivable combination of each, but nothing has worked for us. Trying to use a snake ourselves, we can’t seem to get very far before we can’t turn a corner somewhere in the plumbing behind the wall.

Has anyone hired a plumber to deal with anything like this and found success? We’re afraid/suspicious there’s a clog narrowing the pipe beyond our reach, and we’re curious if a plumber with one of those camera snake doohickies might find success getting to it. Or, we welcome any and all recommendations!!!

I’ll save my own latest input regarding de-cloggers and knowledgable plumbers for the comments so I can move on to other info here.

This website, or at least part of it, has a search feature that is wonderful for finding useful information. The Bulletin Board and the Neighbor-to-Neighbor sections are both searchable; just click on the white magnifying glass in the green box. This allows typing in a key word—”plumbing” or “meeting” or “drain” or “trash” or “remodeling” or whatever—to find all the comments and suggestions and advice that residents have offered via this site over the past 8 years. Take said advice with a grain of salt since it’s not official or coming from professionals, and some of it may be out of date, but it’s there and easy to find.

The rest of the website, however, uses different software and does not have a search function. But the Useful Links page available via the navigation bar (on a smart phone click on the menu icon to find it) is loaded with goodies. I’ve had a couple of people ask lately for info about approved disposal companies for large items; the link is on that page (although I probably should have put it under “Links for Residents” instead of “Government & Services”) There are various other links there about disposing of unwanted items, including one for the city recycling site. The city recycling site has its own set of links; I recommend folks check out the Waste Disposal Guide available there. Granted, as a large building, the curbside pickup info doesn’t apply to us, but there’s lots of other info.

Also available on this site is the Condo Living page, a reasonably complete, informal overview of Canal Place policies, although the page is currently in need of an update or two. One rule that isn’t mentioned there is that our common area electrical outlets are not for private use. This means a unit’s residents or contractors are expected to use only that unit’s electricity and not any common area outlets. This also means that running cords from the lobby outlets outside for any reason is unacceptable, especially since it prevents the doors from latching and allows just anyone to walk in, thus making it impossible to keep the building secure.

And, finally, if you’ve made it this far, for anyone who wants to have a voice at this year’s annual meeting but can’t attend and has misplaced their proxy, a downloadable version can be found here. Please note, the time shown on the proxy is wrong; the meeting will begin at 6:00.