Surprise!
You may or may not remember this incident last fall which was.....well, disgusting. We had a big storm, the storm sewers in Duluth suck, there was a big construction project a block up hill from us and we got sewer water in the basement. Wheeeeee! We called the city, they came out and inspected and we qualified for a grant to put a sump pump in the basement. Good good good. They're trying to put lots of sump pumps in as our city has a terrible sewer system and we are on the biggest fresh water lake in the world...so, storm sewers are rather important.
Anyway - today is the big day! The sump pump is being installed. Last night we moved boxes and pallets and cleared out an area for them to work. We removed a blue toilet from the "bathroom" (such a loose usage of the term there) in the basement so they can remove the housetrap (whatever that is)and we're good to go. I remember saying to Steve last night that I hope they don't find any "surprises." But I knew that as I thought about the project this morning...there would be surprises. There always are. Especially with this house.
Did I tell you that the family that lived in my house from 1939 until well, 3 years before I bought it...well, the Dad/man of the house was a real "handyman?" Another loose usage there. Yeah, he apparently built the family a camper (!) and the garage, and the front enclosed porch, and a BOAT ?!?!?! amongst other things. Things are "fixed" in very "interesting" ways around our house. Sometimes confusingly so....in fact our pipes for our shower are "home-welded" and the guy at the hardware store laughed and told us to just rip it all out (which we did not).
Anyway.....Mr. Handyman put a bathroom on the first floor. Sweet! Houses that old (circa 1896) usually didn't have 2 bathrooms and especially not one on the first floor. This makes my house very desirable in this price range. I love it. It's an awesome awesome thing to have 2 bathrooms. But I digress. The 1st floor loo is just a little (BLUE - everything - toilet, sink - gah!) powder room but it serves it's purpose. Well...sort of. After the Halloween party of '04 we stopped having guests use it in excess because well, we had a major backup/flood in the basement the next day. Boy that was a fun day off of work. Hmph. Nothing like mopping up toilet water with a hangover. But, if it's used sparingly it works fine. And it's great for doing things like brushing your teeth before running out the door, etc. Anyway - my Dad & I figured (mostly him doing the figuring) that it was a broken sewer pipe in the basement floor causing this problem and it was probably causeed by tree roots or general oldness or whatever. The options were to 1) ignore it (and it will go away! ha!) or 2) bust out the floor and fix it. We had already tried snaking it to see if there was a clog. We went with option 1 for the time being and la-ti-dah life goes on.
SURPRISE!
(see, I told you there are always surprises)
Steve calls me from home to update me on the progress of the sump pump installation. It seems that....well, Mr. Handyman has the bathroom draining directly into...the....drain tiles! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I cannot express that enough. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW So yeah, basically? My house is sitting on a pile of shit. Literally.
Now our options are 1) have the contracting company who does this for a living, who has all the tools (including a jackhammer) who is ALREADY at our house doing the work tear up the floor and correctly drain that bathroom INTO THE SEWER LINE where it should ALREADY BE fortheloveofgod OR 2) just have the waste from the bathroom go THROUGH the new sump pump and pump it out INTO OUR YARD.
I'll give you a moment to ponder.
GAH!!!!!!! Just do it already! Is that a QUESTION even? I am so incredibly and totally disgusted by this whole thing yet at the same time relieved that this ongoing problem is being taken care of before any more shitty things happen (yes, pun intended).
I'm not thrilled about the impending BILL that we will now have to pay but the bright side is that we won't have to bust the floor out ourselves and discover that oh yeah, our house is sitting shit.
Why couldn't it be sitting on....GOLD or something? Diamonds? Rubies? ANYTHING but Shit?!?!?
*sigh*
Holly - if you're reading this - don't worry. Our house functions fine and has been sitting on shit for, oh, I don't know...30 years? So if you didn't notice the last 3 times you stayed there you probably won't notice tonight either except for the fact that this time I will point it out! doh.
Anyway - today is the big day! The sump pump is being installed. Last night we moved boxes and pallets and cleared out an area for them to work. We removed a blue toilet from the "bathroom" (such a loose usage of the term there) in the basement so they can remove the housetrap (whatever that is)and we're good to go. I remember saying to Steve last night that I hope they don't find any "surprises." But I knew that as I thought about the project this morning...there would be surprises. There always are. Especially with this house.
Did I tell you that the family that lived in my house from 1939 until well, 3 years before I bought it...well, the Dad/man of the house was a real "handyman?" Another loose usage there. Yeah, he apparently built the family a camper (!) and the garage, and the front enclosed porch, and a BOAT ?!?!?! amongst other things. Things are "fixed" in very "interesting" ways around our house. Sometimes confusingly so....in fact our pipes for our shower are "home-welded" and the guy at the hardware store laughed and told us to just rip it all out (which we did not).
Anyway.....Mr. Handyman put a bathroom on the first floor. Sweet! Houses that old (circa 1896) usually didn't have 2 bathrooms and especially not one on the first floor. This makes my house very desirable in this price range. I love it. It's an awesome awesome thing to have 2 bathrooms. But I digress. The 1st floor loo is just a little (BLUE - everything - toilet, sink - gah!) powder room but it serves it's purpose. Well...sort of. After the Halloween party of '04 we stopped having guests use it in excess because well, we had a major backup/flood in the basement the next day. Boy that was a fun day off of work. Hmph. Nothing like mopping up toilet water with a hangover. But, if it's used sparingly it works fine. And it's great for doing things like brushing your teeth before running out the door, etc. Anyway - my Dad & I figured (mostly him doing the figuring) that it was a broken sewer pipe in the basement floor causing this problem and it was probably causeed by tree roots or general oldness or whatever. The options were to 1) ignore it (and it will go away! ha!) or 2) bust out the floor and fix it. We had already tried snaking it to see if there was a clog. We went with option 1 for the time being and la-ti-dah life goes on.
SURPRISE!
(see, I told you there are always surprises)
Steve calls me from home to update me on the progress of the sump pump installation. It seems that....well, Mr. Handyman has the bathroom draining directly into...the....drain tiles! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I cannot express that enough. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW So yeah, basically? My house is sitting on a pile of shit. Literally.
Now our options are 1) have the contracting company who does this for a living, who has all the tools (including a jackhammer) who is ALREADY at our house doing the work tear up the floor and correctly drain that bathroom INTO THE SEWER LINE where it should ALREADY BE fortheloveofgod OR 2) just have the waste from the bathroom go THROUGH the new sump pump and pump it out INTO OUR YARD.
I'll give you a moment to ponder.
GAH!!!!!!! Just do it already! Is that a QUESTION even? I am so incredibly and totally disgusted by this whole thing yet at the same time relieved that this ongoing problem is being taken care of before any more shitty things happen (yes, pun intended).
I'm not thrilled about the impending BILL that we will now have to pay but the bright side is that we won't have to bust the floor out ourselves and discover that oh yeah, our house is sitting shit.
Why couldn't it be sitting on....GOLD or something? Diamonds? Rubies? ANYTHING but Shit?!?!?
*sigh*
Holly - if you're reading this - don't worry. Our house functions fine and has been sitting on shit for, oh, I don't know...30 years? So if you didn't notice the last 3 times you stayed there you probably won't notice tonight either except for the fact that this time I will point it out! doh.
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Have a great weekend!