To be honest, I thought he was exaggerating and trying to get me riled up (he is good at that). But I went down anyway and WHOA -he was far from kidding. most of our basement was covered with water....2 inches in the most shallow parts and 4 inches in the deepest. Well it was about 9 at night, I was exhausted and Jeff was umpiring baseball games. So I sent Jeff and text message and waited to see what to do next.
By the time Jeff got home that night it was late and we both collapsed into bed. Wednesday morning Jeff was quite surprised when he realized how bad things really were. And he jumped into action (I was gone with the littles taking Caleb to an orthodonist appointment). By the time I returned he had work covered for the day and a sump pump going full force to get the water out.
Mind you, we have lived here 11 years and never had water in our basement so we were more than a little shocked. You can imagine with 8 children how many boxes of clothes we have. And many, many boxes of memories fro our childhoods as well as our children's. Top it off, it was not clean water - it was sewer water.
We know the basement was dry on Sunday evening and Caleb made his discovery Tuesday night...so everything could have been sitting in that icky water for up to 48+ hours. Boxes of clothes or papers can soak up a LOT of water in that time.
In the end a broken sewer line was the cause. Thankfully it was on our side of the sidewalk and not in the street. Saturday Jeff got a backhoe and started digging. Like all projects we have done at this house, it could not go without complications and when the lines were exposed the water line started to 'pop' leaks - one after the other. It was quickly determined we need to replace the water line too - all the way from the city hook-up into the house. Now the good news about that is the old 3/4in pipe was so corroded there was maybe a 1/8in opening for water to come in. So with the new water line it is AMAZING what great water pressure we have now!
We are so incredibly thankful for our friends Duane and Junann who came by that morning planning to help and help they did. They stayed until we had water again - about 10pm! There is NO WAY we could have done it without them!!!
All this time I was also dealing with our insurance company. There were a few headaches....like having to wait for a contractor to give us an estimate on replacing the sheetrock and paneling even though we did and will re-do it all ourselves and like having to try and figure out replacement costs on over 100 little girls' shirts. In the end we have about $40,000 in damages and property loss. Thankfully we had some insurance coverage...but there was a policy limit of $5,000.
Friday evening I went downstairs to get something from the secondary refrigerator and all the lights were on so I looked across wondering why and WHOA - WATER - AGAIN!!!! I yelled for Jeff and then burst into tears. I just could not understand why we had water again. Fortunately, Jeff still had the borrowed sump-pump and set it to work again. Unfortunately, many of the boxes that we had saved from the first round were now wet. What a way to sepnd out 16th anniversary.
Saturday morning Jalissa had to be to the high school early to make the bus for a soccer game. Jeff and I were going to go to breakfast together. Before we left, Jeff went to check the basement and - WATER - AGAIN!!! On went the sump-pump again
We still went to breakfast - had to wait until the water was all out to do anything anyway. And we even hit 'gold' at a garage sale. Then home we went where another dear friend, Alan came to help Jeff and Caleb for a couple hours. They tore out most of the paneling and studs (which were wet again). Jeff and Caleb finished the rest. Saturday afternoon my dear friend, Jen and her sweet daughter Megan came to help go through boxes. We quickly transfered what could be saved to new, sturdier and DRY boxes - UP where they can not get wet again.
What do you learn through something like this?
1. some amazing people have servant hearts and will help with anything
2. no matter how many times you try to tell yourself it is just 'stuff' you still mourn the loss of some things
There is a part of me that is still wondering, what bigger lessons GOD is trying to teach me/us that we have to keep having water visit us....but I am still trying to process that and will have to blog on it later if/when I figur it out.
Until next time......
No comments:
Post a Comment