- Last night we realized that the small trickle of water under our kitchen sink is now a constant drip and has leaked all over everything under the sink. Upon closer inspection it seems the pipes have rusted all the way through leaving holes in the pipe where water can leak out anytime the kitchen sink is used.
- For some reason all the water downstairs is ice cold. Dan thinks it could be the pilot light in the hot water heater that has gone out. An easy fix...I think.
- This morning the toilet in our master bath overflowed all over the floor before church.
- And then after coming home from a Christmas party at our next door neighbors, Dan discovered that our basement was completely flooded...about 4" of standing water...EVERYWHERE! With all the rain we've been having, water has been building up.
When I got home from the gym this evening, Dan was under the sink trying to fix the leak.
Here's Dan trying to rescue the insulation from the wet basement floor.
As you can see, it's all the way to the stairs! See the mop we bought today at Home Depot (on the bottom step). At the time I thought it would be a good thing to have to mop up the puddles...little did we know we should have been buying a sump-pump!!!
Our friend Scott called sometime after 10:30 pm and offered to come over and help with our flooded basement. I went to find Dan to see what help he needed, but he was no where to be found. About 15-20 minutes later Dan knocks on the door with this. He pulled it out of the drainage pipes down where the driveway meets the road.
It appears to be some kind of root system all matted up with other organic matter.
Dan thought it would make a nice hair piece. I had to agree, but told him it couldn't come in the house!!!I guess we were just spoiled in our first home which was only 2 years old when we bought it. In the short time we've lived here, we've been faced with some pretty costly issues to fix. Remember our major ant infestation? It cost several hundreds of dollars just to minimize (yes they are still getting in). Our central vac began not working over a year ago, but it's not real high on our list of things to fix. During the winter months we have a horrible draft coming from about 90% of the windows in the house causing the house (especially the floors) to be super cold until about noon (when the heat has been on a while). Windows are not in our budget right now either, so Dan bought that plastic film (you use a hair dryer to seal up your window) and I hope it does the trick. Between the damp basement and the drafty windows it's no wonder we've been so sick since we've moved here.
I am trying to look at the bright side of this...I mean, at least we didn't have anything on the floor of the basement. And hey if it gets cold enough, we could have our own ice skating rink! Maybe if we charge admission we can come up with enough money to repair all the water damage!
Sorry this was such a bummer of a post. I'm sure I'll be better by tomorrow. I just really needed to vent...carry on!
5 comments:
Welcome to some of the joys of older home ownership. We had a similar a problem at our hours on Breeze, the day we were moving in I went to get a drink from the kitchen faucet and my feet started to get wet. The supply ling to the faucet had ratted away and was running all over the place. So before we were able to do anything else, I had to replace the faucet and supply lines.
Then in this house one winter Sunday morning when I wend down to take a shower I heard running water. When I opened the downstairs door we had about six inches of water in the basement...one of the pipes for the shower had frozen and burst, needless to say we did not make it to church that morning.
We had a drain in the basement so the water eventually drained into it, but I still had a lot of mopping up to do as well as a lot of things that we had to throw out.
Our drain was not connected to anything, it just was filled with stones and rocks kind of like for a downspout.
I have also had to replace the metal pipes under the sink a couple of times in different places. I now use the plastic ones as they do not corrode like the "metal" ones do.
In fact when I was taking the plumbing out of the old upstairs bathroom, the pipes there were so bad that they crumbled as I was taking them out.
Needless to say, I have put plastic ones in when we put the new sink in.
Good luck,
So much fun, isn't it! Dan did get the plastic pipes when he was at Home Depot and I'm sure they will not rust!
We call our house The Money Pit, too! We can't even keep up with everything - it is always multiple problems at once.
I was thinking of getting some of that plastic film for our windows, too. Can you see through it? We have had some estimates for new windows, but there is no way we will ever be able to afford it.
So with all the charm of these old houses, there are many hidden costs that most people don't realize we have.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
Thinking of you during all this. I hope you have a Merry Christmas despite the drama. Good luck with the repairs.
You just wouldn't let Dan in the house because his rat tail was longer than yours!
Indoor swimming pool--nice!
"...you better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout..." (I know, shut up Debbie!)
Merry Christmas!
Much love,
Deb & family
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