It rained again all day yesterday and most of the night. Big downpours on an already super saturated ground. I've done a lot of work on drainage around my place, but since the basement was hand dug it wasn't surrounded by a 'french drain' system. I used to get massive waterfalls down the basement stairs, but it hasn't seen any water in about 2 years after I changed some things.
Of course last night was the exception, 10 inches of water or more in 48 hours and there was some water on the stairs. It's a concern but I have a basement drain and I'm going to fix it when I fix some of the basement walls that are cracked. Hand dug basements have some issues when the dirt flexes and pushes on the concrete (or red brick in my old ass house). Just don't wear socks down the stairs for a few hours.
The real emergency happened when my phone was blowing up this morning while I was in the shower singing along to 'me and you and a dog named boo'. The phones at work are down and of course nobody knows how to dial a phone but me to get something fixed. That's ok, I love my job and I am employed but when 6 people in the same office all call me one after the other (and they sit next to each other) it really can chap my ass. An hour later my weekly meeting started with all 7 people asking me if I knew the phones were out (they are all sitting at the same table). I told them I was late since I was making a phone call to have someone dispatched, I understand it's business and we need the phones, I didn't sabotage it and would prefer if things just worked right all of the time. You know, it's not my fault, it's going to get fixed, get your big boy pants on and understand it from my point of view.
Bleh. My eggs got cold and now I'm really craving something from the vending machine. Tomorrow I'm heading to Denver for the Self Reliance Expo and I'll be home running in 6 hours. I haven't sworn at anyone or about anything in 10 minutes, must be getting calmer around here.
Sorry, Max, I've had one of those weeks too.
ReplyDeleteWell the good news is the expo has the 3 vendors that I wanted to see, so I'm hopeful there will be show specials.
ReplyDeleteugh. basements and rain. i hate those words!
ReplyDeletewhen we first landed here at our 3-season BOL in the beginning of the winter, our sump-pump was working. so we put a pile of our belongings, trinkets, mementos, photo albums, extra clothes, etc. in the basement. and on the eve of our 10th anniversary together (i had a big meal and all kinds of romantic stuff planned) our sump-pump stopped working, the basement flooded, all of our plastic bins of stuff were floating in 4ft deep water, hubby was dragging bins out of the basement, trying to dump them and brought them up to the step where i went through each one. in the freezing rain and 50km winds. at night. pitch black. lots of crying. didn't have boots or coats on. 4 hours later and 9 years of journals are destroyed. almost all of our photos destroyed. all of the notes and cards to each other that we had religiously kept, destroyed. oh man!
we immediately went out and got a replacement sump-pump and a back up. ya know - three is two, two is one, one is none. hubby also got a hand-crank pump as a third. when we have the money saved we will get several more.
anyway - sorry to blather. sometimes can't help myself.
basements and rain. i hate those words.
your friend,
stassja
No blather at all. We have a drain so I'm not worried about a flood and I have a 12V pump that I use for my yard and garden just in case. The floor drain is also the sewage line and sometimes that will back-up based on how the roots are busting into it.
ReplyDeleteI keep everything important on shelves or at least on 2x4's. If it's on a shelf, the bottom shelf is stuff that can get wet and won't get damaged. I'm actually working on wrapping all my shelves in plastic in case a pipe busts. Just some simple sheet plastic will work great, covered in moving blankets to keep the temperature a little more stable. It would suck to have a big flood so I try to do everything I can to prevent it and to reduce damage in case it does happen. Sorry it happened to you, that would be horrible.
thanks buddy! it was awful and we have learned a very valuable lesson. we are now digging trenches so that gravity will do all of the work. we also have just purchased attic stairs - we have a wonderful attic just no way to get there. we plan on ripping a nice, giant hole in the ceiling on sunday. then we install the stairs. our attic is dry and cold and there is a ton of room up there - woohoo!
ReplyDeleteanyway - thanks for commenting back and not sure if you care - but after prompting from several friends - we have started a blog. only one post up right now but we plan to update regularly on all of our projects and plans. would love your advice, comments and suggestions. you can find us at http://framboisemanor.blogspot.com/
keep on keepin' on!
your friend
kymber who used to be known as stassja!