So, how’s your week going? Are you having a good one? I’m not. Life in the Ann’s Entitled Life house is never dull though!
Remember I mentioned we had water in our basement at some point when we were down in Florida? Well Hubby has spent the past two weeks shoveling out the basement, tossing trash, cardboard and anything that may have been in water. One bagster was already hauled away, and a second is nearly full enough to go. The poor recycling guys have taken away 10 blue bags plus two giant containers of cardboard, and there is more to go. Hubby kept nothing cardboard, everything went into plastic totes. I will say that the basement hasn’t looked this clean since the day we moved in! He’s done a wonderful job of tossing, cleaning and disinfecting.
He decided to take down a section of wall to determine if the water came in through there. When it has really rained in the past, we’ve occasionally gotten seepage at one of the corners of the house. We thought it might have been a downspout issue, even though I know I’ve had the plumbers clean the drain tile regularly.
After taking down the wall, we couldn’t see anything obvious. It was clear water had at some point leaked in, but it wasn’t wet (it had poured here the 2 days prior) and there were no cracks. Stumped, we decided to call the plumbers back.
The plumbers were here all day yesterday trying to figure out our problems. Seems like there isn’t any one thing. They did discover an issue with our sewage pipe, and were shocked we didn’t have raw sewage backing up into the house.
Oh goodie.
They are due back out here today to stuff the camera down the sewer pipe – assuming they can get it clear of the mud that keeps falling into it. They know there is an issue, they just want to find out exactly how much work is necessary when they dig down 8 feet into our front lawn.
I have already called the landscapers. They were due for a spring clean-up, but not only will one side of the front be torn up, we need to remove between 3-6″ of dirt from the gardens on each side of the house to bring the front gardens below the sill plate. This is in addition to the 12″ of dirt that was removed 8 years ago when I had the whole joint re-landscaped.
Fun wow!
I have a call into the irrigation guy, and will have to put the front lighting on hold until this mess is finished.
Besides that, the banister for our staircase still isn’t installed. Yesterday he tried every which way to get the railing to install, and it was a no-go. He has to order a new piece of wood for the handrail, and fabricate it in the house. I felt so bad for the man! He was definitely more upset than I was! I just looked at him and said, “What are you gonna do? You aren’t the worst news we had today.”
The good news in all this is we haven’t had raw sewage in our basement, so that was caught on time. I have a much better idea what I want for the front landscaping than I did 8 years ago, so that is a plus. Another positive is we hadn’t installed the front lighting yet, so that doesn’t have to be yanked out.
Now I just hope we can save the boxwoods. Those took 8 years to finally grow together as one unit and frame the front porch. The plumbers also know that with the colored concrete, it is imperative they only dig up the lawn and gardens. The plants and grass are easy to replace, matching the colored concrete to the fade-color would be impossible.
As a real upside, looks like I’ll have some interesting How Does Your Garden Grow posts this year.
Sooooooo are you having a good week?
Stephanie K says
Oh wow. You poor thing! Like you said, it keeps life from being dull…
Ann says
Thanks, Stephanie. I can always look at it as an opportunity to blog about it…
LOL
Ann
TB says
Hang in in there, Ann! This too shall pass. When we had hard frost a couple of weeks ago I covered my veggie bed with plastic, but did not uncover it during the day so all the veggies got cooked/burned inside. I already had nice radishes etc. going. I think I started them back in early march so everything was growing like crazy and was about ready to be harvested. And yesterday my car would not start when I was leaving office garage. Had to call road side assistance, then tow truck and the dealership shop is so backed up they wont even look at my car until Monday! May not sound as bad as the the raw sewage, but believe me everybody got something!
Ann says
Oh no, Tatiana! I hope your car is under warranty and gets fixed fast.
Ann
Barb says
You sure know how to have fun Ann!
Ann says
Oh yeah Barb! Fun is my middle name. Either that or black cloud.
😀
Ann
Shell says
When it rains, it pours! Sounds like it is all working out for the best though.
I have been sick for the last few weeks. Hoping to get better soon, but it is very slow going.
Ann says
I hope you feel better soon, Shell. Being sick is definitely not fun.
Ann
Stephanie B says
That is one rough patch! I hope things turn around for you quickly!! On another positive note – be thankful you are able to afford to fix these issues. Many people would be in a lot of trouble. I hope you get some good news soon!!
Ann says
That is very true, Stephanie. In that we are very fortunate. Thanks for giving me perspective. 🙂
Ann
Marie says
I read this to my husband and we were wondering if you have city sewer or a septic tank. Just curious.
Ann says
City sewer, Marie. This is the connection from the house to the sewer though. The plumber didn’t make it out with the camera today, that is now scheduled for Monday, so we don’t know how extensive the problem is yet.
Ann
Skirnir Hamilton says
We had some sewage issues in Wisconsin before we moved. The plumber sent a camera down and thought the problem was under the front lawn, but he was new with the camera and admitted it. They had just gotten the camera and were learning to use it,. Then the company who would really do the work, came and used their own camera and it turned out it was under the basement floor. Once they had access to it, it wasn’t a hard fix, but they jackhammered the floor, which put cracks in it, fixed the problem, recement it. In the end we wound up having all the cracks filled before we moved, to hopefully not scare buyers away from the house and it seemed to work. I hope your fix turns out to be an easier one than you expect.
Ann says
Thanks Skirnir, that would be nice!
Ann
Didi says
Oh for the love of Pete! I say, let’s get together for some cocktails!! 🙂
Ann says
I’m always up for cocktails! You know that, Didi!
Ann