The Sewer Saga Continues…

People can make mistakes. Life is about imperfections. It’s not what happens, it’s how you handle it. Blah blah freakin’ blah!  

Oh I do believe all of that but it’s still pretty darn annoying that the several-thousand-dollar disruptive dig of our front lawn and our basement ended up making the problem worse instead of better.

Last Sunday morning, 4 days after the dig and sewerpipe replacement, I was doing some laundry and it became like the opening theme to the Beverly Hillbillies in the laundry room. Up from the floor came-a-bubblin’ water with black silt that smelled like grim death. This was new. There’s a drain in a far room we call manland and water also came up there. We called the plumber and ruined Mother’s Day for his wife, but he didn’t complain. He was embarrassed and wanted to get to the bottom of it.

I watched with him as he lowered the drain camera and we couldn’t believe our eyes. Where there used to be a small belly in the old pipe there was now a longer, deeper one and it’s causing a more troublesome backup more often. In other words, the problem not only didn’t get fixed, it got bigger and more serious.

I calmly listened as he suggested several options.  At one point he said, “instead of flushing your toilet paper, put it in a bag next to the toilet.”  That’s when my humour left me. “Are we settlers?”, I asked?  “That is not going to happen”, said Derek.  What an insane suggestion. The already pale plumber paled further.  It was clear that he felt terrible and frankly, I was okay with that.  We also talked about using a sump pump or installing super powerful toilets. But the bottom line is, they said they would fix something and their actions made it worse instead of better.

Another dig appears inevitable. I had just smoothed the leftover dirt into some semblance of a garden and filled the holes left behind by the backhoe. Derek cleaned up the basement and put down new flooring. It appears to have been all for naught. After the plumber left on Sunday I wanted to just sit down and weep. Instead, we fired up our motorcycles and hit the road for a while. Stay tuned.

2 thoughts on “The Sewer Saga Continues…”

  1. Or, you could get a tip from “Extreme Cheapskate” and try reusable t.p.! 😀

    Okay, that’s gross. 😉 I hope this gets fixed. In the meantime, you’ll be using the work stalls quite a bit. lol

  2. That woman is INSANE!
    She is truly crazy if she doesn’t factor in her time… ugh. Poor kid!
    Annnnnyway. Thanks for the smile!

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