When it Rains...

11-10-26

I mean since I love to write about silly things... things to make you chuckle, eye roll, think wtf?, I figured this IS the perfect story to tell. When it rains, it pours.

Where do I start? Without going into extreme detail, we had a mishap in the laundry room. water was left on in the wash basin ( might have been me) and at some point the ejector pump in the well in the bathroom, that sent the water and waste into the septic, decided it was a great day to just finally give up. I mean, living in a black hole and being covered in shit, urine and dirty water for 30 years, I think I'd finally give up too.

I came home on Friday at 4 to find the water filled about 2" on one side and rose up to affect about 2/3 of the basement. Once the pump had failed, the water just continued dumping into the well and then had no where to go but rise. And it was hot water. I threw on rubber boots and sloshed through. It was warm and humid. It was quit lovely. My geckos were so Happy!

Not knowing exactly what to do, I ran to Ace hardware and got a small utility pump that would pump down to 1/8". I put my boots back on and took the pump to the lowest place I could get it to. We turned it on, grabbed beers, and sat out on the front porch and waited.

By about 7 pm, that water was out. That little pump was just pumping its little heart out!! By 10 pm the concrete in the storage room was almost dry. But mitigation didn't start until the next day. I started the process. Removing wet things, moving things out of the wetness. And seeing the water already affecting the drywall, the vanity, anything particle board was puffing up. And my concern was the mold that would surely begin to grow.

The ejector pump had to be replaced so Nick tackled all that on his own. The new pump arrived and he installed that. For the next three weeks we moved things to clean and moved them back, we purged, we moved stuff up and out, we sold things we no longer used, we reorganized, we removed all the carpet, all the floor, the built in cabinets that were all over and puffin up by the second. We pretty much gutted the basement. All the animals living quarters were moved and disrupted. The adjustment for everyone was a lot.

With all the in and out during the process, the bathroom rug upstairs had a huge dirty footprint on it and i wanted to wash it so I threw it into the washer and then when I loaded it into the dryer it was a little wet but i didn't have time to wait around, the next morning, i found the backing on the rug pulled away from the yarn and the adhesive smeared all over the drum of the dryer. I tried to clean it with acetone and then window cleaner but quickly realized it would take forever and I just didn't have the time of the patience. So i dragged myself out to go buy a new dryer. $700 later. It was to arrive on the following Saturday.

The Friday before that delivery, we heard this very loud strange metallic whirring sound late at night. We couldn't figure out what it was until the next day. The spring on the garage door broke. The door was too heavy to open. One side of the garage was filled with basement stuff while the other side that had my car was the one that broke. Nick was at work, and i needed to get my car out for the dryer to be delivered and get moved down stairs. Luckily my FIL came over and got the door open so I could move my car and get the dryer in. The door was fixed the following Monday. $300 later.

At some point amidst all this my car battery had died and it was stuck in the driveway. At least it wasn't in the way in the garage as it was in the middle if getting stuff out of the basement. Luckily Nick could change that out for me. $300 later.

About the time everything was mitigated and we were put in a holding for the basement repairs, we thought maybe wed finally have a break.

I was driving Joe to school and we heard what I thought sounds like a nut flop around my tire. We pulled into the parking lot and checked the tires and noticed nothing. Joe told me to head home and watch that tire!

About 6 blocks later my tire lights lit up.... and I watched those pounds drop down 15 between there and home. So there my car sat in the driveway pissing air with a screw in the tire. Luckily it wasn't the sidewall. Nick and Joe were able to fix it.

And that is where we left of.

I always heard things happen in 3's. We're up to 5.

Stand by while we eagerly await the ending of the second round of the 3's.