Tag: house (Page 3 of 4)

Another addition to the list of stories I share so you can make fun of me.

Ya’ll know I’m not the most handy guy in the world. I can do some basic, minor repairs around the house. But when it comes to things behind, below, or under walls that involve electricity or plumbing, I recognize my limits and am happy to write a check to get things done. That need for outside help has been aided in recent years by our next door neighbor, who can handle just about any project. In the four years he’s lived next to us, he’s helped repair some exterior wood damage, installed a new garbage disposal, installed new light switches, and put a new part into our boat, along with a series of other minor jobs. I buy him beer, S. prescribes meds when his kids are sick, and it all evens out.

A few weeks ago we decided to finally put a water softener in. All the nice granite and fixtures we put in six years ago were beginning to look awfully dingy from our hard, Indiana water. Our neighbor had installed several softeners over the years and was happy to help. He went shopping with me, helped find all the hardware we would need, and over a couple hours, helped me get in installed. And when I say help I say he did 90% of the work and I handed him the tools he needed.

Our water was soft. Life was good.

A week later, after getting all the girls showers and to bed one night, I heard a bang somewhere in the house. I checked in each girl’s room to see if they had dropped something. Nope.

I walked downstairs and heard water running, like the dishwasher was operating but open. I checked it, but it was not on. The washing machine wasn’t on. Hmmm.

The noise seemed to be coming from the basement so I went to check there. Maybe the toilet was running or a faucet was on somewhere. When I got to the basement the sound got louder. Water wasn’t running out of a faucet, it was gushing somewhere. I ran into our utility room and found water pouring from our main line where we had run Pex line to plug the softener into the system. I waded through the ankle-deep water and turned the main valve off.

As I got the water to begin draining I looked to see what had gone wrong. One of the seals on the supply lines that connects the Pex to the softener had blown open. Cripes!

I called my neighbor to explain what had happened. Unfortunately, he was out of town so we were going to have to go without any water in the house until he returned the following night. Facebook friends may have seen the notes that L. put on each toilet to remind us not to flush.

The next day I ran out and got a replacement supply and some other materials. After school, he and I got to work making repairs. Things seemed to be ok. He went home, I went upstairs to eat dinner.

Midway through dinner I thought I heard water running. I rushed to the basement and found water pouring out again. The replacement supply line had already failed!

We had used the only supply lines that Menard’s carried. My neighbor had never used that brand before. He sent me to Home Depot to get the ones he had used. We got the new supplies hooked in and, knock on a lot of freaking wood, everything has been fine since.

Thank goodness both times the line failed we were home and awake. Had the first failure happened a few hours earlier, when I was at L’s basketball practice, our basement would have likely been full of water by the time we got home. Fortunately both times I was able to turn the main line off before the water spread beyond our utility room.

To say I’m a little paranoid about the whole thing now is an understatement. Anytime I hear a strange noise in the house, I freeze and listen carefully, then go turn on the nearest faucet to make sure we still have water pressure. Tuesday night everyone was having trouble sleeping after the five-day break. I kept imagining I heard noises from the basement. Once, at around 4:00, I was sure I heard water noises. I went down to check and about lost my mind when I heard the sound of water moving through pipes, like when the washing machine is running. Turned out the softener was just going through its regular recharge cycle, which involves pumping new water in and draining some of the old. No leaks, but I still sat around for 15 minutes until the cycle finished to be sure.

Sure, the same thing could have happened if I had hired a plumber. But the odds were lower. It’s good to have a neighbor with a lot of knowledge and a garage full of tools when we need to knock out a project. But sometimes it might still be worth writing that check.

Long-time readers of this site will recall, likely with great pleasure, my periodic updates on the wildlife around our home from years past. We’re in a bit of a boon in that area, so lets revisit that genre of post.

One night last week I was walking through the living room right at dusk and noticed movement between our deck and trashcans. Like so many times over the past 12 years,¹ there was a big, fat raccoon slinking into our woods for an evening patrol. I called the girls out and stepped onto the deck. The beast turned tail and crept back to its hidey-hole under our deck, giving me the stink eye the whole time.

Now this was not a surprise. The usual entrance/exit hole under our porch has shown clear signs of traffic all year. But we did have to pull a dead ‘coon out from under the deck last summer, so we had hoped perhaps we would have a year off. We’ve had a raccoon, or raccoons, living under there pretty much every year since we moved in. No sign of babies this year, though. Last week the girls and I watched the video from about 7 years ago where a momma and five babies crawled out.

Speaking of babies, though, there are some of those around. Yesterday morning, as I stepped out into our sun room to drink my coffee, I saw a kitten on the deck. And then another. And a then a third. They were all pressed up against the house, trying to avoid the morning downpour. They skittered away when the girls came bounding out. There were still lots of ooohs and aaahs despite the brief glimpse.

Last night, as I walked by our front door, I saw momma cat lounging on our front sidewalk like she owned the place. Scampering around her were the kittens. Momma wasn’t real fond of the attention coming from our side of the door, so she collected her kids and took off. Although one kitten got left behind. Later in the evening I saw the lost kitten sitting on our deck, mewing nervously, waiting to be rescued. Hopefully it got found because the last thing we need is a kitten than won’t go away.

I think the cats could be hanging around because our front yard is suddenly full of moles. Or at least one very active little motherfucker. I think all this wet weather is driving the moles crazy. We often have a mole trail or two, but they generally stick to the safe areas back in our trees. If the cats can catch the moles, I might rethink my feelings on them.

Raccoons, cats, and moles. And you think my life isn’t exciting.

Our top-notch plumbing team finally removed all their equipment from our property this morning. What should have been a one-day project spilled over parts of three days. In the process, a neighbor’s irrigation line was cut, the phone line was severed, the plumber’s tractor broke down in our neighbor’s driveway (and sat motionless for roughly 24 hours – luckily the neighbors had both of their cars out of the garage), three of our neighbors along with our house went without power for seven hours on Monday (only 89˚ that day), and S. and I engaged in an epic argument with the power company regarding who was responsible for the bill.

Fortunately, the pipes have been fixed, the phones are working, our neighbor’s sprinkler was repaired, and the A/C is blowing cool air.

We had the added satisfaction of having the power company agree to reimburse us for the costs of the repairs, which apparently doesn’t happen very often. I had an argument with a supervisor on the phone, and when I asked him to please come take a look at the situation, he kept telling me it would be a “wasted trip.”

When he arrived, he was in the pit for no more than two minutes before he looked at me and said, “Send us the bill.”

My blood pressure, which was sky-high until that moment, settled comfortably into the normal zone. I believe we also set some kind of record for most service vehicles in front of one house.  At one point yesterday, we had two plumber vans, one flatbed truck, one tractor, three phone company vans, a dump truck, and an electric company truck parked out front.

When we say jump, people say “How high?”

Best thing about all of this: our shitter works again!