Home Sweet Home

The first thing we did after The Husband retired, was build a new house. The house we were in was old, had been moved from one location to where it was when we bought it, and needed a lot of work done to it. No matter how much money we would have sunk into the place, it still would have been an old house that had been remodeled...and it still would have had some of the same problems. The biggest problem was the damp/wet basement that had a very low ceiling. There really wasn't much we could have done to fix that, so we tore the old place down and had a new house put on the same lot. We did this in anticipation of future age and health problems. We wanted a house with no stairs--or a minimal amount. And this was done nicely...there are only two steps to come into the house and the only stairs of any consequence are the basement stairs. It was very lucky that we built this place, because the health issues came a lot sooner than either of us ever expected. We never could have continued with the upkeep on the old place, and I probably would have had to find a new place to live, had I been in the old house last winter...I don't think I could have managed by myself. All well and good...and costs are kept to a minimum. HA! Owning a home ain't for sissies...or people with no money.

In this part of the country, we get snow. It is expected, it is no surprise. But last winter was one for the books. I had so much snow in the backyard that it was higher than the railing on the deck. The ground was frozen much deeper than usual and that caused a lot of issues in the spring. The snow started to melt a lot faster than the ground thawed, so the water had nowhere to go. My sump pump in the basement did all it could to keep my basement dry, but the water had nowhere to go, so I had water that I never expected. It could have been much worse, but I never dreamed I'd have a wet/damp basement ever again...and it was a big disappointment. As the snow melted, the water table just kept getting higher and higher. The water that the sump pump pumped out, went into the backyard...and it soaked right down into the ground where it drained for the sump pump to expel it back into the yard and on and on. It was a vicious cycle of water recycling...and it would have continued for most of the summer, but we put a hose directing the water to the front of the house and that FINALLY took care of the problem. But, this left me with needing a solution to what might happen NEXT year. So, I called in the plumbers...

Last week the work was done to fix my water issue. The drainage from the sump pump was redirected to a pipe running underground to the front yard and ending in a perforated pipe that should just let the water seep into the ground. I won't know if it takes care of the problem until next spring, but I'm hoping. Of course, this wasn't the entire story...

The plumber noticed where water had leaked from around the sewer pipe going out of the house. This is something we were aware of for a couple of years. The Husband was going to seal it, but never got around to it, so the plumber said he'd take care of it for me. Great! Go for it! When he was down in the basement, I was washing clothes, and he noticed that there was more than a leak that needed sealing. He opened up the sewer pipe and it was cracked inside of the basement wall! YAY! I got to spend even MORE money than I had planned on in the first place! But, it needed to be done, or a very, very big disaster could have occurred within the next couple of years. I am thankful that he was in the right place at the right time and caught the problem early.

I'm also waiting for the gutter guys to come and install gutters on the entire house. Right now, there are gutters over the front porch, but they don't work properly...I'm not convinced that they were installed correctly. Now, the experts are coming in to do the work the right way...just another thing to keep the water away from the foundation, hoping to keep the basement water free. Again, I will have to wait and see if this corrects the problems. I can only hope.

So, as much as I wanted to believe that a brand new house was going to be close to maintenance free as possible, it hasn't happened. I'm not faulting the builder or the sub-contractors or anyone else...it is mainly the fault of Mother Nature and our wanting to build over an underground stream. (I was told there probably is one under the house.) You have to take the good with the bad. I love where I live and will do what needs to be done so that I can stay here. Even though it might continue to cost me...