Day #3

Today is the third day of having no running water and it SUCKS!  On Sunday, Dan spent ALL day digging  and repairing the water line between the well house and the house.  Sunday night, we thought it was all done and I was running water to clean something - renovation is dirty work let me tell ya!  So I'm cleaning away and all of a sudden the water stops running.  I alerted Dan.  Now it must have been around 8 pm when this happened.  They had just finished filling in the hole where the repaired line was buried.  Dan immediately worried that somehow the weight of 8 feet of earth had crushed the new line - despite the fact that the tubing we bought was specifically for what we were doing.  He didn't really know what to think about this.  The pump was still running, he could hear it.  He spent the next several minutes thinking and checking connections in the basement.  Maybe a line had been shut off.  He and Patrick were stumped.  Dan looked like he was about to cry.  Poor guy.  He had just spent more than 12 hours on this project and now he couldn't figure out what was making the water stop flowing.  Just as he was feeling totally defeated and asked me to take him to Rice to pick up his semi so he could drive it back home to Royalton so he could get a quicker start in the morning, he went to look at the well pump one more time.  He immediately saw the problem.  A hose had blown off the end of the pipe that goes into the tube underground, to the house, so the water was pumping right back into the well house!  When he "checked" the pump before, he had only listened and heard it running, he hadn't gone and looked.  There was probably a foot and a half of water covering the bottom of the well house.  He unplugged the pump and we went and ran our errands to let the water drain away.  When we returned home he was able to reconnect the pipe and hose.  The water had returned.

Then yesterday morning, when Dan got up for work, it was off again.  He woke me up to tell me before he went out to check on it.  This time, the other end of the hose had blown off the pump.  Wonderful!  Dan said he could fix it when he got home from work in the evening and I just had to buck up and prepare to live for another day with no running water.  I had a few jugs filled with water to last the day.  What really sucked was that I needed to do dishes after a weekend filled with running around and working on renovations they were totally piled up.  When Dan got home then he immediately got to work.  He primed the pump and water only trickled out.  "What on earth is going on?" we thought.  The line just would not pressurize!  It was Patrick's birthday and we had plans to go out for dinner, so Dan had to put it to rest.  He was exhausted from the intensity of working on it on Sunday and had no desire to work on it when we returned from supper.  He told me I would have to wait one more day and then he would even consider getting a new pump all together.  The current, non-working, pump was a new pump that he just installed last month.  He is thinking that when the hose came off during the night that by running dry all night it burned it out.  Man, I hope not.  I don't know what it could be, I don't know how the thing really works, I just hope it won't be a costly repair.  So, today is the third day (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday!) that we don't have running water.  I've loaded the dishwasher and tried to neatly stack the rest of the-desperately-needing-to-be-done-dishes.  I don't think I've ever been so disappointed not to do them.

Dan is going to work on it as soon as he gets home tonight.  I'm praying for a good outcome  - and water.

Update - w/pics!

Ok, so much has happened in the last few days I don't even know where to start.  Hmmmm, let's see....
Well, first of all I am back online via computer.  Jason (our realtor/contractor/computer parts man ;) hooked us up with an old CRT monitor.  That's the old kind that takes up a ton of desk space for those that don't speak techie.  Please see attached pic of said monitor - taken just before I typed this very sentence!

Look!  It's my blog!  On a CRT!

So yeah, Jason brought us a couple of monitors to try out and see if they worked.  What a great guy!  It was later Saturday evening before I got home to find them waiting in our porch.  I was eager to see if they worked and disappointed when I found that neither had a power cord attached.  So on Sunday, while Dan, Pat, and Christian all worked on digging up our yard, I took Maddie to run errands.  We went to Office Depot and had them look at our old flat screen.  They determined it was just fried and I paid $5 to have it recycled.  I looked at the new monitors, which were all very lovely, but I was fretting over spending $100 or more that I really didn't have in my budget.  Dan's called me the "Money Houdini" for years because I am so skilled at moving money around and squeezing out every last penny to make our budget work.  But, not this time.  Not in the middle of a renovation.  So, I'm standing there looking at these monitors I can't afford this week and suddenly I remember - power cord!  At a very affordable $15 I left with a new power cord and hope that this was all I needed to get back to using my computer.  It worked!

Also, last week my van was acting up.  Friday evening after Maddie and I picked up Dan from parking his semi, we were having dinner and when we left the restaurant we got in the van and again - nothing.  Dan went to take a look and found a loose connection to my battery.  He tightened it up and viola! it fired right up and haven't had any problem since.  Thank God that's all it was.  If I couldn't afford $100 for a monitor, I defintely would not be able to afford engine repairs.

Over the weekend, Dan's little brother, Christian, came up to help us.  Saturday was spent running to the home improvement store to get supplies and talk to them about our window problem.  Saturday night we tore out the closet in the front porch to make room for my new office.  Sunday bright and early the guys began digging on both the north and south sides of the house for water line repairs (south) and new electric (north).  I have a ton of pics from all the things that have gone on in the last week.  It's been a week since I had a way to get online with the computer.

Oh, and during the demo of the closet, I dropped my digital camera and messed up the memory card - which has the most pics on it - but I had a spare memory card so I am able to continue taking pictures.  Although, I find it a tad ironic that I nearly demo-ed my camera while demo-ing.  Glad it was just a close call and I hope to take my memory card to a computer geek to try and salvage the pics on it (I Googled it and supposedly it is very possible to do)

So here they are.  Pics from the last week...

Christian and Pat tearing out the closet.

Me.  Happily making room for my new office!

Maddie, on a day off from school, watching Jason talk on his ce --- I mean, install a living room window.



The former closet.  I think I might keep the clapboard siding as the wall in my office.



Digger Dan!

 

The north side of the yard all dug up and ready to be filled back in.

After repairing the water line on Sunday, a connection came loose and the well house began to fill with water.

Do old windows go to heaven?

Some things to look forward to...

Sitting here this morning, TV and computer-less, I am enjoying the very casual pace of eating breakfast and just thinking. Without hurrying to check the news of the morning or to see everyone's latest status update on Facebook. If we do get our satellite re-installed (we all do miss it) after the reno, I'm thinking that regularly scheduled breaks like this one would be in order. Last night after dinner, Dan, Maddie, and I worked on Maddie's turkey that was due today. About a week ago, she brought home a turkey cut from white poster board with the instructions that her whole family had to help dress it up. Waiting until the last minute seems to be my specialty (well to be fair we had other evening activities this week), so last night we settled in at the kitchen table and made a very impressive looking turkey if I may say so! We cut feathers of brown, red, yellow, and orange and wrote something we are grateful for on each one. Maddie wanted to use glitter so we made his head, beak, feet, and gobble sparkle with the appropriate colored glitter. I used scrapbooking stickers to spell "give thanks" across it's body and then used some punched out squiggles and bursts to finish a fun look. I can't wait to post a pic and I told Maddie we would have to use it as decoration every year from now on. That we'd always be able to say "remember making that turkey when Maddie was in kindergarten?" She smiled so big when I said that this morning.

Which brings me back to this morning. I'm sitting here enjoying the calm, blogging again from my BlackBerry, and thinking of the things I am looking forward to. Baking Christmas cookies was the thought that set this train into motion. I should have a working stove and oven again by Monday, maybe Tuesday at the latest. I need to get my family to submit their meal ideas and later when I go grocery shopping I can finally buy things again that need to be baked! What a wonderfully simple thing to be excited about! I love it!

Another thing I am looking forward to - tearing down the wall between the living room and the front porch. We are opening it up to give us more space and then walling off the remainder of the porch to serve as my home office. It's all very exciting. Dan's little brother Christian will be coming up this weekend to help us with some of the work we need to do. Probably will have to demo the closet in the front porch to make room for my office cabinets. We're renting an excavator to dig a new water line and also the electric is being moved under ground so that the boxes on the house can be moved from their current location, the very front of the house, around to the side - without having to take down any trees.

Regarding the windows, we decided to have Jason take one into Menard's and see if they'll give us a discount for the defect in the appearance. If so, we might be willing to live with it. If not, as much as we hate the idea of waiting, we'll probably opt for full replacements and hopefully Jason and Keith can side around the window openings or just get as much done as they can while we wait for new ones.

So yeah, we have a lot to look forward to, including the upcoming holiday's and seeing family and friend's. It's going to be great!

Today's Name of the Game: Aggravation!

I don't mean the game I used to enjoy playing while growing up with the marbles.

Today while more windows were being installed, I noticed a slight problem with the new windows. They look a little cockeyed to one side and several of them appear this way. First we called the store, then the manufacturer. To have a rep come and look at the problem will take 7-10 days and cost $250 if they determine it is not a manufacturer's defect, but we're certain it is considering that even some of the windows that aren't in yet have the same problem. Not to mention I've watched these installations with my own eyes Jason has done a great job on the installs. To get new windows will take another couple of weeks even if we fast forward the warranty process by taking one the defective windows back to Menard's for them to see first hand there. This could potentially be a huge setback! I called Dan and we agreed that he'll see when he gets home tonight. The variance is very slight and more visible on a couple of windows than it is on others. Maybe we can just live with it, but Dan's point is that if we're paying for new windows they better be right. I just hate to think of waiting another 2-3 weeks for our siding, which is scheduled currently for next week. So, if this weren't enough to be frustrated with, our computer monitor isn't working. Can't get on at all (I am blogging today from my handy dandy BlackBerry) and I have business on hold because I can't get on my computer to get the information I need. I can't get a new monitor until tomorrow at the earliest. Jason has a couple extra old ones that might, hopefully, work so I don't have to drop $100 I really don't have anyway on a brand new one.

Also, my van is acting up and the camera on my handy dandy BlackBerry isn't working. The van seems to have a short or loose connection somewhere because the other day it stopped running all together, wouldn't even show any signs of life. We left the battery charger on it all night and still nothing. I needed to move it out of the driveway to make room for Jason to come so I was going to have to push it out of the way. As soon as I slammed the hood, I heard the ding, ding, ding signaling the keys were in the ignition. "You've got to be kidding me!" I said under my breath. Sure enough I climbed in, turned the key and it started right up! The force of the hood slamming shut worked for the time being. I'll be taking it to get looked at soon. As for my BB camera not working, will have to talk to T-mobile. When I purchased brand new BB's for both Dan and myself just over a month ago, I opted to also purchase a protection plan for these way-more-expensive-than-we-should-buy phones, I also bought covers and screen protectors this time, too. I did not for my first BB and immediately regretted that the first time I got a scratch on it! So, hopefully for whatever reason the camera has ceased to function I can get it fixed or have the phone replaced under the protection plan.

Now that I've outlined everything that sucks today, I think I'm going to go take a bubble bath and feel continual gratitude that the house is still greatly improving from where it was - having hot water alone is still cause for celebrating!

Sorry no pic updates until I either have a working monitor or a working camera on my phone. *sigh*

A Rock In a Hard Place

Over the weekend, Patrick attempted to dig the holes for the posts that will support the new entry way. He stopped when he thought he hit a impenetrable root. When Jason arrived this morning, he was dismayed to find that not only were the holes not deep enough, they were even half as wide as they needed to be. So Jason got to digging and when I came outside with a cup of coffee for him, he pointed to this HUGE rock that Patrick thought was a tough root...

That ain't no root!

What a fun way to start off a Monday morning!

Jason said he nearly got stuck in the hole trying to get that rock out - talk about a rock in a hard place!

At this rate....

At the rate we've done laundry at the laundromat for over a year, we probably could have bought a top of the line set by now.  I am so tired of this.  This week we should have the electrical work done and I am going to keep an eye on Craigslist all week looking for an affordable washer/dryer set.  Once we have the electricity all done, it wouldn't make sense to keep spending $30 or more every couple of weeks trying to keep up with "Mt. NeverRest"  

On a side note, while I'm blogging, I am listening to a BlogTalk Radio show that was recorded at the Capitol Rotunda in St. Paul where I gave a speech last Saturday for The Rally to Restore Sanity in Minnesota.  Cool!

Under Construction

Since I last updated, work has been done on the roof and the new entry way.  Here are the pics!

Roof being prepped for repairs and new shingles.

What a mess!  (Glad I don't have to clean it up!)

Won't be needin' this anymore.

Jason sure does enjoy his work!

The new front door and entryway being constructed.

The old door removed.  Yay!!!  One south facing door down, one to go - the other door should get taken out tomorrow.