Ain’t That the Shit, Part 2 (Finale, Hopefully)

After spending a full workweek installing a new sewer line at our house, the crew finished up late Friday afternoon, so Brugger and I headed back from our somewhat extended sojourn in Martinsville. The front yard overall is a bit of a muddy, mucky mess, but the guys re-seeded and put straw down, so I very much hope it will return to its former glory (read with distinct irony) in a relatively short time.

So, at long last, we are able to flush again. Oh, wait... no we’re not! Now the downstairs toilet does not refill after flushing. The water in the rest of the house seems okay. So, we immediately recall the guys, who show up again, much to our mutual chagrin. Apparently, during the job, they inadvertently cut (and then repaired) our main supply line, but somewhere in the process, the fill valve in the downstairs toilet blew. Anyway, since that was clearly a consequence of the work, they repaired it, and I so hope this insanely expensive job is done and we will never have to deal with such a thing again in our lifetimes.

They did have to saw off about half the concrete from the driveway where Brugger typically parks her car, so it would behoove us to restore that, I reckon. The big honking excavator should vacate the property come Monday.

And now I have a yucky cold. At least, I think (and hope) that’s all it is. The covidz test was negative.

For now, I is done.

It’s enough to turn some of us into a basket case.

Ain’t That the Shit, Part 1 (Probably)

Water troubles in the homeplace have always been the bane of my existence. Sometimes, I really hate the fact that water is among life’s critical elements because it has caused the single most financially crippling issues ever since I became a homeowner, way back in the dark ages. Flooding, clogged pipes, broken pipes, backed-up sewer lines, and — in this case — a broken sewer line.

The worst problem here is that, originally, the builders ran our sewer line run far onto the adjacent property, and the break is under our neighbors’ driveway. We had a couple of well-rated plumbing firms come out, and both told us we'd need a whole new sewer line cut on our property, as the code is now such that it can't extend onto the neighbors (and I suspect it might have been that way when the houses were built; of course, the builder is now long gone).

Because our house lies down a steep hill, the sewer line is very long and very deep where it connects with the city line at the street. The exact words of both companies describing this situation were “Worst-case scenario.” One company was somewhat less expensive, but they did not seem as thorough in their evaluation or as knowledgeable about working at the depth necessary. The current complication is that they’ve encountered a massive layer of bedrock between the surface and where the line has to go (which is probably why the builders routed it the way they did at the time).

In any event, the financial damage is monstrous, and the front yard — what remains of it — is currently a disaster. It will cost another small fortune to restore it to any sort of respectable state, since the work crew isn’t obliged to do much more than fill the (currently) hazardously deep pit that occupies the entirety of the upper eastern quadrant of our lot.

I’m certain there will be more lovely updates to come. Stay tuned, especially if you enjoy chuckling at others’ tribulations (no guilt here, for I have done so; well, sort of; maybe).

Till then.

O Happy Day

It's another day in Pandemic Land, and I'm alive and kicking. I suppose that's not too shabby.

I always set the timer on the coffeemaker before I go to bed so that I can head straight for it as soon as I come downstairs. This morning, though, some errant grounds had apparently clogged up the works, and a bunch of my precious coffee spilled all over the countertop. I still had coffee, but that little incident should have warned me it was gonna be one of those days.

A while back, water began backing up in the downstairs toilet. My efforts to remedy the issue proved for naught, so I called my trusty plumber, who determined there was an obstruction in the sewer line that leads out to the road. Using a snake the size of the Anaconda in Anaconda, he cleaned out the line enough for it to be usable for a time. However, he indicated a boulder had somehow gotten lodged in there, created a helluva clog, and that, eventually, that section of line would need to be dug up and replaced. That job was set for today.

Unfortunately, here in Greensboro, we rarely get rain. We get torrents. Deluges. Floods. And last night, we got one. Front porch under water again. The stuff was still coming down this morning, but the plumber called and said they'd come on out as soon as the deluge moved to another town.

Well, I needed to do a small bit of laundry, and I figured I'd do it before the guys came out and dug a hole to China in my front yard. I got it done, all right. But then what do you suppose I found? Yep — due to the deluge, that sewer line had gone right ahead and backed up real good. So good that all the water in the washing machine had flooded the laundry room, the kitchen, the closet under the stairs, and a portion of the living room. Not only that, the downstairs bathtub was, quite literally, full of shit.

Why, yes, I did use every towel in the house, not to mention a lot of paper towels from my almost-depleted stock, to get stuff cleaned up, inasmuch as possible. There was nothing I could do about the shitty tub.

Eventually, the plumbers arrived, dug the hole to China, and commenced to working. Along the way, they discovered an underground electrical line, and — POW! — out goes my power. Fortunately, being kind of an emergency and all, Duke Energy guy popped right on over, and after a couple of hours, got my power restored. (Whew).

The plumbers finished the job right about 8:00 p.m. And it appears that water can once again depart my property unimpeded. In torrents, even. Things are mostly cleaned up, including the shitty bathtub, and I've even set up the coffee pot for tomorrow's early treat.

Ah. Another happy day in Pandemic Land.

So how was your day?