Today was the day we were supposed to leave for Texas. If you looked in
to see how far we had gotten, you may be surprised to see we are still
in Sudbury.
On Good Friday night, we got back from visiting with Kim, Mike and the
girls who were visiting for Easter Weekend. Everything looked normal
when I parked and I settled into the rec room to watch some TV. After
midnight, I heard a strange hum that I traced to the water pipe coming
in from the main. No water was flowing into the house but I could feel a
vibration in the pipe.
Whatever was causing it wasn't in the house so I went outside to have a
look. To my surprise and, if I may say so, horror, the ditch in front of
our yard was full of water and it was overflowing into our front yard
and onto the street. Figuring I had broken a water pipe, I called the
City emergency number and someone arrived within fifteen minutes.
While I was waiting, I saw that at least six peoples' yards were
flooding and that drainage through the ditch was blocked by snow two
doors down. The City had been cleaning ditches in the subdivision on
Thursday but hadn't gotten to our street yet. In fact, I could see the
big shovel parked at the playground as the water level rose ever higher.
The City worker took about 45 minutes to shut off both ends of the water
main because he had to break through some ice to get to the valves,
which are about seven feet down. In this time, the water rose another
foot and started to overrun our driveway. When he did get the line shut
down, the hum in the house stopped immediately. I figured we were home
free, but that was not to be.
We have an outside sump in the garage due to a screw-up in installing
weeping tiles by the previous owner. Over five feet deep, it has a
submersible pump that takes water that flows in and discharges it to our
inside sanitary sewer line. What I did not note was that, as the water
flowed into the driveway, it ran down the far side, under the garage
door and straight into the sump. When I went to check why I hadn't heard
the pump in a while, I found that it was not working and the sump was
full of water right to the brim. Bypassing the float switch didn't do
anything so I assumed the pump had failed. Later, I found that the water
had carried enough silt from our crusher dust driveway into the hole to
plug the bottom of the pump solid.
When the water gets to a certain depth in the sump, it starts to flow
into the basement. When it is full, it appears that where the pipe goes
into the house to the sewer line isn't well sealed and a trickle becomes
a flow. On the other side of this wall is what you could loosely call
our rec room, complete with a carpeted floor that has been there since
we moved in. The water soaked the carpet as it flowed diagonally across
the basement to the real sump and then out. Luckily it did not build up
any depth, but I spent the night (who can get a sump pump at 2:00 AM?)
watching the water flow and the carpet get wetter and wetter.
In the morning, I got a new pump and some water line first thing and
dropped the unit into the hole with the line going out to the back yard.
It didn't take long for the sump to drain its contents into the duck
pond that will become my back yard in a few more weeks when the frost
leaves the ground.
A word about the recreation room. It is a curious kludge of wall
coverings, floor coverings and ceiling bits that was here when we moved
in. Not being too concerned about appearances, I never did much to
change that. Sandy and I spend most of our time down here but, as my
daughter Kim said, we would probably enhance the value of the house by
gutting it and making it a basement again. We have a totally suitable
four bedroom bungalow and moving to the main floor would be totally
appropriate. Because we don't intend to rebuild the rec room and the
current sump configuration is patently against code, I didn't want to
deal with the City or put a black mark on my insurance record.
On the plus side, if I hadn't checked the odd noise we would have been
under a lot more water by morning. And if we had already been on the
road, the ramifications would have been a lot worse. So there was a
bright side.
Sandy and I spent the next few days tearing out wet carpet and flooring
and hauling it to the dump. We further decided that this would be the
kick we needed to start decluttering the house because, some day in the
not to far distant future, we will trade home ownership for a nice
apartment somewhere. Then, when we go away, we can just lock the door.
No grass to mow, snow to shovel or structure to maintain.
Anyhow, the Texas departure date was the 8th. The bike had new tires and
was in the trailer. The noise in the truck engine was deemed to be not
significant. Everything was on schedule except for the house. But I
didn't feel that we would be able to enjoy the trip with that hanging
over our head so, after speaking to Sandy, we decided to cancel. I
notified Sherm and he was able to take on Lanny as his new room mate.
The cleanup and junk removal is proceeding well, and I expect we will be
on our way to SEVROC in Maggie Valley, NC on Mother's Day as planned.
