And He Did It With No Butt-Crack

There were some things too distracting this past weekend that I never posted about the Full Wolf Moon, although there was some howling going on here.

Our basement is a finished "in-law suite" and that is where I have my office for work.  And where the kids have a computer and where they play PS3 and have sleepovers.  And where people stay over if we have guests and where Hubs and I slept and showered for a month while our master bath was being redone.  I am just so glad that we had no guests for Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

And there is a full kitchen.  It doesn't get used except one year when we did have Thanksgiving at our house.  Although its cupboards are full with items that don't fit in the "regular" kitchen so very often I yell down the stairs, "Bring up the crockpot please!"

During Christmas there was a lot of "Bring up the large roasting pan!" and opening of the cupboards.  And it seemed a little dank and mildewy.  On December 30th Hubs pulled away the refrigerator (which we don't use) which is against the front wall of the house (underground) and realized that the wall was wet.  And a third of the cupboards (cheap stuff) were wet.

Just picture that scene from "A Christmas Story" where the dad mutters all sorts of obsenities.  So New Year's Eve Eve was tense with sounds of, "#$!@#$#!! Money Pit !@%$!@#$>?!!@#"  Soon he put up plastic up barricading the kitchen and a respirator on his face and thank goodness for the little truck to haul away the walls and cabinets and debris. That was New Year's weekend.

Contractors were called in for advice and estimates and it was presumed that rainy weather over time was too much for the foundation and water had gotten in over the wall.  There were plans made for re-arranging of downspouts and additional sealing of the foundation wall.  It has been very educating, actually, seeing the ceiling removed and learning what pipe brings the water into the house and what large white pipe brings everything (and I mean everything.....foreshadowing) out of the house.

Everyone went back to work in early January and this past Saturday, before it began to rain, we were staring at the wall in the basement and a little water drop emerged from the wall and dripped onto the floor.  Hmmm, water goes down and not up and right above that drop is the large white pipe--a depository for every pipe in the house.  And we had been doing laundry and flushing toilets.  There had to be a crack in that pipe which is the "sewer pipe". 

Hubs went outside to the front of the house with a shovel.  Well, he did not have to dig very deep--who knew how shallow the sewer pipe was.  And finding a crack in it was no mystery.  The entire 4-inch pipe WAS BROKEN IN HALF.  And this is RIGHT in front of our house.  Just several feet from where I had planted peppers, which were very Prolific.......

He dug all around the pipe and basically we now had an open cesspool in front of our house.  Oldest asked if he could go use the bathroom and brush his teeth.  I described the situation to him in further detail.  Next thing you know he had several friends at their homes yelling out to their parents that Oldest was in dire straights and needed a place to shower and use the bathroom immediately!  So he grabbed his bike and was gone.

We had a plumber coming over on Monday to replace a part of the pipe that brings water into the house.  We called him from the crappy scene.  He was busy.  I thought we would be going to a hotel but Hubs had other plans.  He declared that this was not brain surgery, hopped in the truck, went to Home Depot and came back with clean, white 4-inch pipes of all shapes and sizes.  And proceeded to use power tools, hand tools and elbow grease and fixed it. 

He then called into the house for Youngest to flush the toilet, who did so after yelling, "3-2-1, Fire In The Hole!" (cracked me up)

All is well again for now for just $70.  Except that the foundation still needs to dry out and apply sticky sealer all over it and rebuild the studs and walls and ceiling and cabinets in the in-law suite kitchen.  The plumber came on Monday to fix a 5-inch piece of pipe that was "galvanized" and needed to be copper.  Took no time at all and was $200. I truly think he was bummed that Hubs fixed the sewer pipe situation. 

Had to get all this off my chest to be able to concentrate and enjoy the new master bath.