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I don't know whether to feel more like an Egyptian Pharoh or a guy named Job. Either way the past 24 hours have been a little "sucky" around here.
Last night I came home to find that the beautiful 40 foot white pine tree that was in front of our house fell down during the day. The ground has been saturated by the rain, and the tree has been a little lopsided the past couple of years since it lost one major limb in a storm. The good news is that no one got hurt, and the tree fell away from the house, instead of on it. Both very good things. The tree service came today and hauled it away. Don't know what that's going to cost. And we still need to get the stump ground down.
Today I was conducting a workshop at the end of the workday when I got a page to call home. "The basement's flooded!" We had about a foot of water down there. Not from the recent rains we have gotten, but from our sewer line getting clogged up. It's probably been clogged for a couple of days. We don't go down there much, as our laudry machine is on the main floor. 5 hours later and the plumber just left. The waters draining again, but tomorrow he'll be back to snake a video camera down there to see what's what. I'm so looking forward to that. The good news is that the basement of our 128 yeare old house is unfinished, and also has a step in the middle. Only the lower part is flooded so there's half as much to clean up. The furnace is on the flooded side, but is working OK for now. I know what I'll be doing this weekend. If anyone has any tips on disinfecting your basement after it's been flooded, bring them on.
Whatever it is that I've done wrong, G_d, I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. The kids would love the frogs or locusts, but if it's all the same I think I'll pass, if it's OK with you.
9 comments:
You should call your insurance company, but if you don't have flood insurance, it might be useless but they could recommend a disaster recovery company that specializes in remediating these things.
You are indeed being given many opportunities to practice patience. It sounds to me, though, as if you already got that skill pretty well down, so I can't see what you are being given all this extra practice for.
Hopefully, you won't be able to take advantage of this information, but just in case, I thought I should let you know that I have heard locusts are quite tasty fried in peanut oil.
get a dehumidifier down there pronto...then lots of bleach. Don't forget circulation. I remember when we first moved into our house, I was pregnant with Bubba and our skylights leaked, our basement leaks, the backyard floods, I have extra fluid, they thought Buba had hydrocephalus...our brand new washing machine nearly count on fire...the sink leaked, the shower has leaked. I don't know what we did to the water gods, but apparently we really ticked them off. We have water related stuff go on a few times a year.
Good luck!
Oh crap! I wish I had great tips but all I've got is sympathy. That totally sucks!
Good luck!
If it is the sewer line, your homeowner's insurance may actually help, and having it professionally cleaned is a good idea. If not, I'd go with two dehumidifiers pronto, and plenty of bleach. If there is any surfaces down there that are porous, they have to go- wood, drywall, anything. Sewage is nasty stuff to deal with.
Bleach is good. Borax will clean, but won't kill bacteria. Definitely fans and/or dehumidifiers to help get the moisture dried up, and quickly.
And the locusts? I hear turkeys eat them. Get yourself a turkey or two if those flying critters turn up.
Yesterday we got all the unsalvageable stuff out of there, and hosed the place down. Had the dehumidifier working Thursday evening, and dried it out before and after the hosing.
Today we cleaned all the stuff we are saving (some extra siding for the house, bottom level of the shelving, some lawn furniture, etc.) and totally bleached the place down. What a pain.
But the dehumidifier's going again, and everything's been cleaned and is drying in the garage while the basement dries off. It felt good to take my "N95" respirator mask and safety glasses off and get a shower, though the whole house smells somewhat like chlorine now. We've aired it out as much as possible.
By tomorrow we'll be as good as new.
The plumber came back yesterday to video the drain out to the street, and found that it's not cracked, which is a very good thing.
Joe
So sorry to hear about this, Joe.
We have ice dams and are leaking through the ceiling all over the house. We'll have to redo all the ceilings and most walls. Thank heaven we have homeowners insurance that will cover this.
I'm depressed, it's going to take a year to get this all done and back to normal. I'm wondering who's puppy I kicked to have Karma whack us this bad.
I am really just catching up clearly-----this makes our squirrel-in-the-pipe problem seem more than minimal......hope the disinfecting has been working!
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