Making It Home

Down under meaning the basement.  The last couple of months, our lowest level (which contains our gym, garage, and engine of the house) has given us a few problems!

First, one bitter cold morning, we woke up to freezing temperatures and ice cold radiators.  For some reason, the furnace was off.  And not willing to turn back on.

About 12 frostbitten hours later, PSE&G showed up.  The repairman, who was probably younger than me, worked down there for about 20 minutes and the heat came back on.  His explanation – a little dirt on the automatic igniter.

However, not a week later, same thing happened.  This time, Dave went in there himself and fixed it.  His remedy?  “I just jiggled it a little.”  Worrisome answer but we have not had a problem since!

Next, we were getting a little tired of the hard water in the house.  It was clogging up the furnace and plumbing.  It was time for a change.  Our trusty plumber Dan came over to hook up the water softener that was left by the previous owners.  However, he determined the softener was no good and needed a replacement.  We all went to Home Depot the same day and got a new softener.  Fancy!

Because water softeners work by adding salt to the water, we then had to install a water filter at our kitchen sink so we don’t consume all of that salt.

There’s Dan, our man.

And the fancy under the sink contrapment.

And our new second faucet.  Which has even less water pressure than the faucets in the rest of the house, if that is even possible!  But it’s OK, I have gotten used to the leftover shampoo in my hair.  It adds shine.

And lastly, the great flood.  One very rainy day in February, I came home from wedding dress shopping (!! more info to come in another post), and there was water in the garage.  Lots of water and filling up quickly.  Within 10 minutes, the garage was filled and the water was spilling into the basement.  In a panic, I called the plumber, who left his house and rushed over.  I also called Daddy and Mommy, who was on the road heading home, made a U-turn, and came over.  Dave and I scrambled, trying to stop the water from flowing into the basement, but beyond that, not really knowing what to do.

The water also started pouring through cracks in the wall in the room where the furnace and washer/dryer is.  Luckily, the sump pump in that room was not overflowing.  Dave put some tape on the cracks, and that held back the water enough to avoid major flooding.

In the gym room, the water was building up in the window well since the sump pump in that room was just pumping itself right back into the well.  It looked like we were sinking!

That’s when everyone showed up.  My Dad and Dave started to investigate the sump pump in the garage and why it stopped working.  The plumber fixed the pump in the gym so that the well would stop overflowing.  And then Dave hauled out the rest of the water that had accumulated there.

And then the plumber came over and determined that the sump pump in the garage got clogged of dirt and was not pumping properly.  Which caused all of the flooding.  As soon as he cleaned it out and it started working again, the garage and house was de-flooded in a matter of 20 minutes.  As quick as it came was as fast it was over.  It left a lot of dirt and water underneath the laminate floor, but we spent the next week cleaning that all out.

I unfortunately only got pictures of the garage and driveway, after the pump started working again.  There was a lot of water at the base of the stairs because water was also flowing in the door that leads out to the driveway.  The gym and backroom also accumulated water, but only in large puddles.  We were mostly OK there.

Lessons learned –

Periodically clean out the sump pump!

Get battery back-ups on the pumps (which we have yet to).

Build a hump at the end of the driveway to prevent the water flowing down the road from flowing right into our garage.

And get a back-up pump.

Courtesy of Daddy, we are now the proud owners of a small back-up pump!  Mom and Dad came over the next week, when heavy rains were predicted, and built us a levy against the rain.  It helped us out a lot!!  We did have one minor incident where the pipe on the pump disconnected, so it started pumping right into the garage.  But no major damage resulted.

 

Thanks Dad!!!