Friday, September 21, 2007

It never rains, it pours, and then it seeps into our basement


Could one more thing fall apart, please?!

We purchased this home 3 years ago at the same time we finally purchased a minivan for our growing family. Since moving in we have replaces both shower heads, the disposal, the dishwasher, the dryer, parts of the sprinkler system and the sump pump.

On Sunday Bryan and I were emptying the utility/storage room of all 40 or so bins that I store in there so that the room could dry out and we could wipe the bottoms of all of the bins. Why was the room wet you ask? Well, we had a flood down there a year after we moved in and have spent the last two year trying to figure out why. The plumber came and put in a new sump pump and snaked the main drain. We pulled off all of the insulation and plastic sheeting off the cement wall and threw them away. We pulled up the carpet in the adjoining room and put down new carpet padding. We bought a dehumidifier. We dried out the walls in the utility room and painted them with three coats of dry-lock. Still, when there is a hard rain, the utility room gets wet.

I think we finally know the problem. There is drain tile system in the storage room with holes drilled into the cement which allows the water to seep in through the concrete, run down behind some corrugated plastic sheeting to the drain tile system in the floor and them the sump pump removes the water from the house. Well, this system is in place for all of the storage room except about three feet under the sink. There we have the holes (three of them) but no drain tile. Just cement floor. So, when we have a hard rain, I can actually watch water coming in those holes. In the end we need someone to come and jackhammer out the floor in that area and link it to the drain tile system. Nightmare. The one quote I got was for $4000.00.

So on this Sunday morning, we assumed the wet floor that would not dry out was due to the severe storms we had that week. But, no. While cleaning out the room Bryan noticed a large leak in the main water line behind the hot water heater. Conveniently, the leak was below the place where we turn off the water to the home. We could not turn it off and yet it was spraying water on our wall and spreading out into the room.

This story is getting very long. Okay - thanks to my dear friend Lori, we had a plumber over her on Monday evening - along with the city which had to be called to turn off the water - and he replaced the piece of pipe. Total cost? $102.00! That's right folks! If you live in the Twin Cities area and have a plumbing issue, you need to call Hessian Plumbing at 651-681-8252. Truly, they are wonderful - I about cried when he told me the cost. I was envisioning having to take out a small loan. He did mention while he was down there to keep and eye on the furnace because "it will be the next to go."

Moving on to today. The minivan has been "jumping" into gear for the last several weeks and I could not get anyone to believe me. Bryan could not feel it and our regular mechanic checked out the car twice and said it looked fine - granted they do not do major repairs. Today I took the car in to the dealer who had a repair guy ride around in the car with me for about 3 minutes and then he turned to me and said. "Yep, you need a new transmission." We should get the car back by next Thursday.






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