The Joys of Owning a Home

Guess what I did last night? Go on, guess. Need a hint?



Still can't figure it out? Here's another.

See all those containers gathered around the sump pump in our basement? See the water dripping down the walls of our basement? Now, take a guess.

Yup, you got it! We had a sump pump disaster last night. Wanna hear about? No? Too bad...

It all started with the recent thaw, you know the one that melted the 12+ inches of snow that had accumulated all winter in one, warm and windy day? Yea, that one.

That thaw created an adorable little pond in the empty lot right next door (see first photo - that's not snow, that's water). That little pond immediately started dripping its way into our basement, prompting the sump pump to kick in every two-three minutes.

We weren't too concerned at first though we realized that because the house was a foreclosure and it sat empty for nearly a year, there could be some problems. That's why we checked on the pump and basement every hour or so.

Everything was fine until 8 p.m. last night when I checked on the basement and saw water, lots of water, seeping in through the walls! My shouting quickly sent hubby outside where he found the pipe thingy that was supposed to take the water from the sump pump to the sewer system had frozen and was instead spewing water right along side the house. When too much water accumulated in one place, the ground became saturated and the water started coming in through the basement walls. Ugh

Mark quickly set me up with a lemonade pitcher, all the garbage cans/coolers/large storage bins etc. we had in the house and instructed me to "scoop" the water out of the sump pump to keep it from running while he frantically called plumbers and both of our dads for advice.

The plumbers were not helpful, but thankfully our dads came to the rescue. My dad rushed over with a hack saw and some large black tube material, while Mark's dad gathered the tubing he uses to drain their sump pump water away from the house. And I kept scooping.

My dad and Mark sawed off the offending, frozen portion of the sump pump pipe and attached my dad's temporary tubing while I - finally taking a break from scooping - ran to my father in law's to get the "good" tube. (As seen in the second pic.)

Thankfully after some experimenting, Mark and my dad rigged up something they thought would work to get us through the night. By this time it was nearly 11 p.m. Guess what my sweet hubby had me do then? Get back on my very sore knees on the hard cement floor so I could strain my already very sore back to dump. the. water. back. into. the. sump. pump. hole.

By this time, I was treating that water like liquid gold! It took a lot of hard work to keep up with that scooping - as fast as I could remove the water, more was rushing in because of that gosh-darn-stupid-little-(gigantic!)-pond next door!

So I dumped the water back in and crawled into bed...only to be awoken two hours later when the alarm went off signaling me (or hubby) to check on the sump pump. And that's how the rest of the night/morning went - getting up every two hours to check.

Today (I'm off work) I am aiming to get everything up off the basement floor and onto the shelves Mark made, just in case there are more sump pump problems (there better not be!). I'd better get to it, that pond isn't getting any smaller....

Ahhhhh the joys of owning a home.