#16 - When It Rains, It Keeps Raining and Raining and Raining and Then Your Umbrella Gets a Hole, too.
Oh, the events of the past week!
I didn't have the gumption or time or energy to put any more effort, beyond just typing words, into my last post about our washing machine. My fingers were even hurting by the time I got to the end! PITIFUL.
So now, lucky you! You get the motherlode. I am energized by a Jimmy John's bing bong! #12 The Beach Club (have you tried it? Try it. Subs--especially the kinds on calorie-laden white bread--are my most favorite lunch food EVER. I'd like to add banana peppers to my #12 The Beach Club from Jimmy John's but I'm afraid to wreck their system because they are pretty proud of the fact that they are not Subway. I think they would maybe short-circuit if I ask for a change, so I haven't tried to.
Here are some brief highlights from last week:
1. No Money. We were getting nowhere fast with getting money from the bank, as I mentioned before.
2. Broken Printer. We had the first night of a kids' club I facilitate at our church. Matt and I also teach a class together. There's lots of stuff to print. And our printer decided to quit being reliable.
3. No Air Conditioning. The HVAC crew removed our unit AC Friday - which was part of the plan, not a problem at all - and then the temperatures hiked back up into the 80s!
4. No Washing Machine. You know.
5. Huge Mess. We debris needing to be cleaned up. We ordered a dumpster. We started off thinking we would get a 5 yard. Thankfully, we realized that 12 yards would be a better choice BEFORE ordering a dumpster! It's just about full!
So that's the set-up. Now, imagine with me a fine Saturday morning. The plan is for the HVAC crew to come over early Saturday. (Side note: I don't know if all workers across the board are as amazing as the workers we have had on this job, but my goodness, we have been blessed! Every single expert that has come here to work on our house has been top notch-in both personality and work ethic. We are THANKFUL!) Matt and the girls will go rent a trencher so he could start digging the trench for our new water line, and I will take Ezra to his football game.
And that all happened. The HVAC crew arrived, I took Ezra to his game, Matt & girls went to get a trencher.
At football, I was emailing a guy from Craigslist about a washer/dryer set and arranged for that to be dropped off anytime after 1. Around 12:30, Ezra and I got home from football. The girls were insidecleaning their rooms and brainstorming ideas on how to solve world hunger watching YouTube (they love Brooklyn & Bailey. Do you all know Brooklyn & Bailey?), and Matt was outside digging the trench from the addition to our water meter near the street. He had already dug the trench from back of the addition to the electrical pole where our power will run. (We're moving our electrical service underground.)
Everything was going along wonderfully. Sky was blue, birds were chirping, kids were getting along with one another. And then BAM! (not a literal BAM, a storytelling BAM) Matt came inside to inform me that he had hit our sewer line with the trencher. Can we flush? Can we run water? Don't flush or run water! He called the plumber. The plumber assessed the situation over the phone, told Matt that it's really no big deal, it can be fixed later, we can keep flushing, it's not an emergency, everything will keep running down hill. We don't need to worry and it's ok to keep flushing and draining sinks, etc.
So we kept flushing and Matt kept trenching. Trenching takes FOREVER. It's a really slow machine. The trencher has a meter on it to keep track of time and Matt had that thing running for SIX HOURS total from Saturday-Monday. That was just running time. That wasn't all the in between time of hand digging, shoveling, stopping to check on broken sewer lines, etc! It took him all weekend to dig the trenches. (But at $250 to rent a trencher, it sure beats paying someone else to do it!)
On Sunday, we went to church, came home and had lunch, and then got to work. Ezra and I are the football watchers in our family, so we opted to skip the 1:00 game, go outside and work (I am 100% a rest on Sundays kind of girl, unless there are 12 yards of debris in my yard and then I need to do something.), and to come in for the 4:00 game. The Bengals weren't playing ("playing" if that's how you define what they do.), so we were indifferent to which game we wanted to watch. Matt went outside to continue trenching. The sewer line was still sliced open. The phone line had been hit a lot earlier in the process, but we no longer use it, so that's an unimportant detail. We can have it patched and move on with our lives. But he had only rented the trencher until 9:00 Monday morning. We were racing the clock! He had to finished the 42" skinny ditch on Sunday.
Ezra and I worked on carting load after load after load of debris from the side yard to the dumpster, while Matt stood behind the trencher and every-so-slowly meandered toward the street. Totally a Sunday Drive for him, while Ezra and I hauled like crazy! I was sweating so much that I smelled like an Italian. I am not even Italian, I only have the name by marriage, but MY GOODNESS, I stunk something awful (Don't worry teens and twenty-somethings, you can say stuff like this on the internet when you're in your 30's. It's not embarrassing at all.). My face was as red as my shirt and sweat was pouring off of me, while I managed to get 70 million splinters in my arms from pieces of plywood.
Finally, 4:00 rolled around and I went inside for a quick shower and to watch the game with Ezra. (BY THE WAY. I HAVE A FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM AND I BEAT MY FF ROOKIE NEPHEW ON SUNDAY. GO, AUNT JESS!!)Matt remained outside for the next 3 hours trenching and trenching and trenching.
UNTIL something went terribly wrong.
He got near where The City had marked our water line, so he was digging away from the mark, when BAM! Or should I say GUSH, GURGGLE, he hit the water line!
To our house! The water we need for everything. Thank you Jesus that I opted for a quick shower before watching football! Otherwise I would've stunk to high heaven for the rest of the night!
This was around 7:something on Sunday night. The hardware store closes at 8! Talk about racing the clock!
Meanwhile, our neighbor diagonally across the street was out mowing and noticed something was amiss, so he came to check on things. We explained what happened and he went home and informed his wife. She came down a little bit later to see what we needed and offered to bring us some water from their house (They returned later with 2 cases of bottled water and 4 gallons of drinking water!). While she and her husband were outside, they informed our other across-the-street neighbor, Mark, about our problem, and he came and offered help. In the midst of all of this, I had texted a friend to see if I could bring the kids over to shower so they could be neat and clean for school the next morning. Matt was at the store buying parts and I took the kids to take showers.
The major problems were:
1. The trencher was due back Monday morning and Matt still had about 20 feet of trenching to do. Bring it back late and it costs more. $250 was quite enough, thankyouverymuch
2. The water line was broken, YES, but that doesn't mean it was visible. The hole instantly turned into soppy, soggy, mud. Matt couldn't really even tell where the line was and see what kind of damage he was dealing with.
3. It's a copper pipe. How do you repair, let alone solder, a copper pipe in a trench that's only 6 inches wide?
When I returned home, it was dark, Matt and Mark were in the hole digging. They had widened the hole, climbed in and were able to find the damaged piece of pipe, cut it out and repair it. THANKFULLY, the repair worked. There were no leaks and we've been back in business with water ever since. We gave it 24 hours before using it again, but we were at least able to flush, shower and wash hands!
The thing is, we are abandoning that water line. We're installing an entirely new water line. It would have been horrible to pay 40 million dollars to repair this broken line only to entirely abandon it in a month. So, all of the trenching was simply to lay the new waterline in preparation for the switch.
We are so grateful for our neighbors and friends who jumped in to help us. Even though we have completely destroyed the beauty of the neighborhood and the whole street looks like it's going to pot thanks to our dumpster, discarded appliances and giant mud piles, they still took pity on us.
Also, I'm a teeny tiny bit thankful that the bank finally came through for us and cut us a check today! Okay, I'm totally grateful; I'm just holding a grudge because it took a really long time.
But, God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.
All's well that ends well. For today, we have water and we have cash, and we have Jimmy John's #12 - The Beach Club.
Life is good.
I didn't have the gumption or time or energy to put any more effort, beyond just typing words, into my last post about our washing machine. My fingers were even hurting by the time I got to the end! PITIFUL.
So now, lucky you! You get the motherlode. I am energized by a Jimmy John's bing bong! #12 The Beach Club (have you tried it? Try it. Subs--especially the kinds on calorie-laden white bread--are my most favorite lunch food EVER. I'd like to add banana peppers to my #12 The Beach Club from Jimmy John's but I'm afraid to wreck their system because they are pretty proud of the fact that they are not Subway. I think they would maybe short-circuit if I ask for a change, so I haven't tried to.
Here are some brief highlights from last week:
1. No Money. We were getting nowhere fast with getting money from the bank, as I mentioned before.
2. Broken Printer. We had the first night of a kids' club I facilitate at our church. Matt and I also teach a class together. There's lots of stuff to print. And our printer decided to quit being reliable.
3. No Air Conditioning. The HVAC crew removed our unit AC Friday - which was part of the plan, not a problem at all - and then the temperatures hiked back up into the 80s!
4. No Washing Machine. You know.
5. Huge Mess. We debris needing to be cleaned up. We ordered a dumpster. We started off thinking we would get a 5 yard. Thankfully, we realized that 12 yards would be a better choice BEFORE ordering a dumpster! It's just about full!
So that's the set-up. Now, imagine with me a fine Saturday morning. The plan is for the HVAC crew to come over early Saturday. (Side note: I don't know if all workers across the board are as amazing as the workers we have had on this job, but my goodness, we have been blessed! Every single expert that has come here to work on our house has been top notch-in both personality and work ethic. We are THANKFUL!) Matt and the girls will go rent a trencher so he could start digging the trench for our new water line, and I will take Ezra to his football game.
And that all happened. The HVAC crew arrived, I took Ezra to his game, Matt & girls went to get a trencher.
At football, I was emailing a guy from Craigslist about a washer/dryer set and arranged for that to be dropped off anytime after 1. Around 12:30, Ezra and I got home from football. The girls were inside
Everything was going along wonderfully. Sky was blue, birds were chirping, kids were getting along with one another. And then BAM! (not a literal BAM, a storytelling BAM) Matt came inside to inform me that he had hit our sewer line with the trencher. Can we flush? Can we run water? Don't flush or run water! He called the plumber. The plumber assessed the situation over the phone, told Matt that it's really no big deal, it can be fixed later, we can keep flushing, it's not an emergency, everything will keep running down hill. We don't need to worry and it's ok to keep flushing and draining sinks, etc.
So we kept flushing and Matt kept trenching. Trenching takes FOREVER. It's a really slow machine. The trencher has a meter on it to keep track of time and Matt had that thing running for SIX HOURS total from Saturday-Monday. That was just running time. That wasn't all the in between time of hand digging, shoveling, stopping to check on broken sewer lines, etc! It took him all weekend to dig the trenches. (But at $250 to rent a trencher, it sure beats paying someone else to do it!)
On Sunday, we went to church, came home and had lunch, and then got to work. Ezra and I are the football watchers in our family, so we opted to skip the 1:00 game, go outside and work (I am 100% a rest on Sundays kind of girl, unless there are 12 yards of debris in my yard and then I need to do something.), and to come in for the 4:00 game. The Bengals weren't playing ("playing" if that's how you define what they do.), so we were indifferent to which game we wanted to watch. Matt went outside to continue trenching. The sewer line was still sliced open. The phone line had been hit a lot earlier in the process, but we no longer use it, so that's an unimportant detail. We can have it patched and move on with our lives. But he had only rented the trencher until 9:00 Monday morning. We were racing the clock! He had to finished the 42" skinny ditch on Sunday.
 |
| Now you see him |
 |
| Now you don't! |
 |
| Repaired sewer line! |
Ezra and I worked on carting load after load after load of debris from the side yard to the dumpster, while Matt stood behind the trencher and every-so-slowly meandered toward the street. Totally a Sunday Drive for him, while Ezra and I hauled like crazy! I was sweating so much that I smelled like an Italian. I am not even Italian, I only have the name by marriage, but MY GOODNESS, I stunk something awful (Don't worry teens and twenty-somethings, you can say stuff like this on the internet when you're in your 30's. It's not embarrassing at all.). My face was as red as my shirt and sweat was pouring off of me, while I managed to get 70 million splinters in my arms from pieces of plywood.
 |
| CALIFORNIA! I had been smiling. It takes my youngest photographer 3,000 years to snap, so this is my "okay, California is heavy, please just take the picture" face. But, I love finding states. So the picture is published, smile or not! |
Finally, 4:00 rolled around and I went inside for a quick shower and to watch the game with Ezra. (BY THE WAY. I HAVE A FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM AND I BEAT MY FF ROOKIE NEPHEW ON SUNDAY. GO, AUNT JESS!!)Matt remained outside for the next 3 hours trenching and trenching and trenching.
UNTIL something went terribly wrong.
He got near where The City had marked our water line, so he was digging away from the mark, when BAM! Or should I say GUSH, GURGGLE, he hit the water line!
To our house! The water we need for everything. Thank you Jesus that I opted for a quick shower before watching football! Otherwise I would've stunk to high heaven for the rest of the night!
This was around 7:something on Sunday night. The hardware store closes at 8! Talk about racing the clock!
Meanwhile, our neighbor diagonally across the street was out mowing and noticed something was amiss, so he came to check on things. We explained what happened and he went home and informed his wife. She came down a little bit later to see what we needed and offered to bring us some water from their house (They returned later with 2 cases of bottled water and 4 gallons of drinking water!). While she and her husband were outside, they informed our other across-the-street neighbor, Mark, about our problem, and he came and offered help. In the midst of all of this, I had texted a friend to see if I could bring the kids over to shower so they could be neat and clean for school the next morning. Matt was at the store buying parts and I took the kids to take showers.
The major problems were:
1. The trencher was due back Monday morning and Matt still had about 20 feet of trenching to do. Bring it back late and it costs more. $250 was quite enough, thankyouverymuch
2. The water line was broken, YES, but that doesn't mean it was visible. The hole instantly turned into soppy, soggy, mud. Matt couldn't really even tell where the line was and see what kind of damage he was dealing with.
3. It's a copper pipe. How do you repair, let alone solder, a copper pipe in a trench that's only 6 inches wide?
When I returned home, it was dark, Matt and Mark were in the hole digging. They had widened the hole, climbed in and were able to find the damaged piece of pipe, cut it out and repair it. THANKFULLY, the repair worked. There were no leaks and we've been back in business with water ever since. We gave it 24 hours before using it again, but we were at least able to flush, shower and wash hands!
The thing is, we are abandoning that water line. We're installing an entirely new water line. It would have been horrible to pay 40 million dollars to repair this broken line only to entirely abandon it in a month. So, all of the trenching was simply to lay the new waterline in preparation for the switch.
We are so grateful for our neighbors and friends who jumped in to help us. Even though we have completely destroyed the beauty of the neighborhood and the whole street looks like it's going to pot thanks to our dumpster, discarded appliances and giant mud piles, they still took pity on us.
 |
| The portion of broken water line |
 |
| The Two Major Casualties of Trenching |
Also, I'm a teeny tiny bit thankful that the bank finally came through for us and cut us a check today! Okay, I'm totally grateful; I'm just holding a grudge because it took a really long time.
But, God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.
All's well that ends well. For today, we have water and we have cash, and we have Jimmy John's #12 - The Beach Club.
Life is good.
Oh my Goodness!!!
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