water in the basement part two

The clean-up continued on Sunday 7/24.  Neither Baker nor Amanda helped at all.  Both were available.

I am delighted that the mildew smell is all but gone in the basement.  It is Thursday night 7/28.  I did not finish the clean-up job.  But I did buy boards and built a mini dike across the sliding glass door opening in the basement.  I screwed boards to the bricks and attached them to a long board that went from the inside of one side of the opening to the other.

The patio is not perfectly flat.  For much of the length of the long board, which is about 11 feet, there is a gap of about 1/2 inch.  I used two tubes of sealer.  I checked the sealer 24 hours after I had put it in.  It is as soft and wet as it was when I applied it.  I do not understand what has happened. 

The sealer should have hardened.

A friend of mine named Tim who is in the landscaping business and lives in the area stopped by tonight.  I had told him about my basement flooding problems.  He came over with two of his kids.  They were out for a bike ride.

I showed him my backyard.  He said that he thinks that I need to add some top soil to direct water away from the basement but more importantly he said that he thinks the two back down spouts from my gutters are draining into the lower patio and causing flooding.  It was kind of him to come and take a look and offer his suggestions.  I will follow his advice.

It is horrible to have to worry every time it rains.

water in the basement

There was ominous lightning high in the clouds when I looked in two or perhaps three directions last night.  I checked the weather on the radio and looked at radar on line.  I went to bed full of worry. 

I woke to the sound of very loud thunder and pouring rain. I went into the basement and checked the sliding glass door.  Everything was fine during the first hard rain.

Later that night more thunder and vicious rain woke me.  This time the ground was saturated and it rained harder, much harder, and longer. 

The water level in our patio off the basement sliding glass door was becoming a pond.  This is nothing new.  It rained like hell. When the level of water reached a depth of about 6 inches in the middle of the pond, ...er patio, the upper level of the water was at the bottom of the sliding glass door and it started gushing in.

I put towels down along the door but if that slowed the water coming in it didn't slow it very much.

I tried to hook up the little auxiliary pump.  You attach a hose to it and put it in water and it pumps.  I couldn't get it to work.  It was raining very hard and water was pouring into the basement and I was outside struggling with hose and the extension cord.

I realized that the little pump was not going to help very much and abandoned the task.

I went back inside and called up to Sarah to come and help.  I expected that she would wake the kids but she didn't.  We fought the water coming in.  Both sump pump holes overflowed. 

If I were a real man I would have stayed in the basement and lifted lots of things off of the floor and stacked them on high things like the washing machine.  Instead I just told Sarah that we were fighting a losing battle, that we couldn't stop the water and that we might as well go to bed.  The rain had nearly stopped.

I felt terrible.  But I slept fitfully and in the morning I stayed in bed rather than face the mess in the basement.  And I did that even though I knew that Sarah was down there working.

Not much more water had come in after we had gone to bed last night.  That last sentence is an awkward construction. Most of the basement had about a half inch of water on it, maybe more like a quarter inch.  Most everything that would otherwise be on the floor had been placed on two by fours a long time ago.  The problem is that the two by fours absorb the water and it wicks up to the top of the board and gets the things sitting on the board a little wet.  It's still a lot better than having the stuff on the floor.

When I finally got up Sarah was in the basement mopping up.  Both kids were up but neither one of them was helping her.  I am ashamed of both of them.

Sarah and I worked.  Finally, in anger, I called to Amanda and made her help us.  She was a big help even though I spoke harshly to her.  We got a lot done but there is still plenty to do. 

I sure hope that it does not rain again tonight.

A Complaint About Life

Okay, I am extrapolating. The complaint is about one of our old cars.  But it seems to apply to life, you fix one thing and soon another thing is broken.

Specifically the driver's side lower ball joint on my 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis failed.  Luckily I was driving on a side street 3 blocks from our house.  I knew the ball joint needed to be replaced so when I heard nasty scraping noises I headed home slowly and was lucky to pull into the driveway before the ball joint popped out completely.

That was in October 2010.  If you know me you know that I did not get on the job right away and replace that ball joint.  I thought about it, I researched it on the internet, I  bought the replacement ball joint and rented the tool to press the old one out and press the new one in.

And then it got cold.  Winter came as though someone flipped a switch.  And from that day, sometime in November, until spring there were very few days when a person would be comfortable working on a car.

Did I write comfortable?  It's not a comfortable job even on a nice day.

I replaced the lower ball joint after much fighting and swearing and pain, in June!

It needs an alignment but I have been driving it a little bit anyway.  And then on Monday of this week I was driving on a four lane road four miles from my house and I pressed on the brakes to stop at a light and my brakes felt very funny and the car took a longer time than usual to stop.

I pulled into the nearest parking lot and discovered a leak just forward of the driver's side rear wheel.  A brake fluid leak.

I drove around the parking lot and realized that the car would stop but the brakes were not good.  I took side streets, drove very slowly and made it home.

I have a hole in one of the brake lines and they are all severely rusted.  Running along the frame of the car right along with the two rusty brake lines are 3 rusty fuel lines that also need replacing.

Replacing all of those lines is a big job.  I am not happy.  You fix one thing and soon another thing is broken.

airconditioning redux

The air conditioning unit that I had serviced to the tune of $450.00 is not working.  I suspect that the leaking valve that was merely tightened before refrigerant was added two weeks ago needs to be replaced.  Perhaps I think that only because it would be a cheap, easy fix.

Today, Friday July 1st, was supposed to be very hot and humid.  Last night a big storm blew through Chicago.  Sarah and I sat outside and enjoyed the cool air, dramatic winds and quietude.  It didn't rain in Roselle but areas closer to the lake had heavy winds, rain and hail.

The storm interrupted the heat.  It's cool today, cloudy and windy. 

Baker has the day off.  Sarah took a vacation day.  So everyone is home.