daniwithtea | Entries tagged with house

we have water!!!!

many thanks to our friendly local mason whose name Mer has forgotten for putting a nice-sized hole in our foundation, which allowed our new favorite plumber/HVAC guy to melt the damn pipe, and take measures to keep this from happening again.

Shameless plug for local small business:
Hinkle's Heating & Cooling
Based in Phoenixville, PA
610-917-8552
Dennis Hinkle is the owner, and he's a helluva guy.

arcadian72, can you please post the name & number of the mason the Mer ended up calling? I'd like to shamelessly plug him also, but Mer doesn't remember his name or number...

All in all, this cost us a helluva lot less than I thought it was going to.

I'm going to eat, and then take a shower. A very, very, very, very long shower.

we still have no water. we're working the plumber angle now; hopefully we end up with a plumber and not a jackhammer.

my spirits are a bit improved, though. while waiting for the heat tape to do its thang, i studied for my algebra exam, and am fairly confident. i also found out that i have no econ homework this week, which is good.

the best part, though? i'm clean! proving that everything i need in life i learned in girl scouts, i modified the 1-shot water bath we used to do at camp (do everything from one basin in a certain order so you have fresh water for everything), combined it with my mom's "sink bath" technique, and i have a nice clean body and head of hair, which makes me very happy.

two more things that make me happy?
veronica mars tonight.
mer's mom made me an iolite necklace, and it came today. shiny!
( pic behind cut )

borough plumber dude has come and gone.
--the records show they were here in January 2005 for the same problem - "if you plan to stay here, you need to take care of this."
--long-term, his recommendation is to rip up the porch and backfill, which is the same thing our neighbor told us last night.
--it looks like someone tried to fill the porch with spray foam via the hole that the pipe comes through - unsuccessfully, of course, since you'd need probably 75-100 cubic feet of foam.
--short-term, he recommended trying heat tape and filling the hole with some kind of insulation.
--i got the last package of heat tape from the local home depot, where i was told that it's out of season. Tell me, who needs heat tape in Pennsylvania in summertime? That's the only time they actively stock it.
--heat tape has been taped to the pipes (despite its name, it is not sticky in and of itself, and requires electrical tape for attachment purposes)

I am now cold, covered in spider webs, and have no options for hot beverages, unless i want to heat up some diet pepsi. yes, i could venture out for hot caffeine and a shower, but it is Todd Todd Fucking Cold (TM) out there, and I'd like to be able to move tomorrow, thankyouverymuch.

two side notes:
1. while searching for plumbing stuff online this morning, I discovered that someone bought the Hechinger's logo, paired it with the hechinger.com domain, and is now running an online hardware store. from a business perspective, it's a smart deal, because hechinger was a known and trusted brand for a long time. from a personal perspective? i feel like someone exhumed the body of loved one and is parading it around on the interweb for profit.
2. all things considered, i'm damn proud of myself for how i'm dealing with the current plumbing crisis. no panicking, just severe annoyance that i can't shower and/or make coffee, and crankiness at the money this is going to end up costing us.

i'm in desperate need of a day off, but couldn't really take any time this week because of the prep for this week's trip. so, what do I get?

the main water supply to our house is frozen solid.

the problem, as far as we can tell, is outside the foundation, underneath our (concrete) stoop. completely inaccessible. find out from a neighbor last night that the area under the concrete is apparently completely hollow, and the only way to prevent this from happening in the future would likely be to dig up the concrete and fill the whole thing in.

right now, i'm waiting for the nice man from the borough water department to come out and verify that yes, there's nothing to be done. (he was out on a lot of these calls yesterday.)

for right now, it appears that the only thing to be done is to keep the taps open (we have NO water - not even a trickle), and wait for temperatures above freezing, which we're not expected to hit until next week.

this is not the day off i wanted.

item the first
*ping*

bunnyjadwiga and other cookery-engaged scadians in the lehigh valley - any idea if the rest. supp. store by the airport is open on saturdays?

item the second
in response to several comments from my last post: the hole in the basement is not meant for a sump pump; it's a 4" diameter hole leading directly into the storm drain system. we have checked with professionals, and the best way to deal with it, what's recommended by the city, is a special cap that gets cemented in. (we just haven't done that yet, and bad on us for that.) but thank you everybody for your suggestions!

item the third
our electric bill, with air conditioners ablaze and 'puters running constantly, continues to be about 1/3 of what it was in the apartment. seriously. what we're saving on our electric bill more than makes up for the difference between our old rent and our current mortgages. life rocks.

ok, i need to stop relaxing in front of the a/c so i can work up final numbers for the flea food and bring in all the shelving that's in my truck. I am about to have a garage lined with shelves of tools and cooking stuff! my life keeps getting better. oh, and? the roads seem to be mostly reopened, i got out of work early today, and I get to see my sister (and the rest of my family, of course) on sunday. yay for weekends!

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: in front of the air conditioner

Our real estate agent neglected to tell us that when we bought a house in Pottstown, we should have bought a boat as well.

This morning, every single road out of Pottstown was closed except 422. So, I took 422 for as long as I could stand the traffic, and got off at 29, planning to shoot down through Great Valley into Frazer. No dice - 29 is closed just south of the Redner's in Collegeville. Double back, cut across to 113. Shoot down through Phoenixville to the other end of 29...which is closed. Cut back across Pothouse Road? Nope. Closed. Ookay...23. I can take 23 into Valley Forge and shoot down 202...nope - 23 is closed. Call the office, find out how one of my co-workers got to work - cut back up 113, down the back road he suggested. Total commute? 32 miles over *three hours*. Whee! Two hours later, head to King of Prussia to run a training class, then home (via 422) so that there was a chance in hell of me making my 6:00 appointment with the sleep specialist.

Sit at home and watch the news, read the news, wish we had a boat...because according to the local paper, a boat is the only way we're leaving the city tomorrow. Of course, I have to be back in KoP at 8 for another training class...and I'm the only one who can do it, because the training materials and the tech equipment needed are all in my truck. Call my boss, let him know what's up. He says I can drive to KoP tonight, stay in the hotel, and get reimbursed, or leave at 5 in the morning (!) to beat the 422 traffic and leave around noon.

Since I'm sitting at home watching ~~so you think you can dance~~ crack tv, it's obvious what i chose.

Mer had a similarly crappy commute today, driving 2 hours from Pottstown to Phoenixville. Bleh.

The appointment with the sleep doc was interesting, and I get to go be hooked up to wires in july to find out what's actually wrong. apparently, my symptoms are weird, which makes me a challenge, which the doctor likes.

in happy homeowner news, the basement is very, very wet, and instead of buying the parts to finish mer's new 'puter, we'll be buying a dehumidifer, shelves for the catering stuff, concrete to fill the drain hole that the water is coming out of, and possibly a shop vac. also? i really need a dry day so I can mow the lawn, because the back yard is turning into a jungle, and electrocution via electric weedwhacker and rainwater is not on my list of fun things to do.

but? i had a really good bar of dark chocolate today, we're financially stable enough to buy the stuff we need for the basement, and i have an anacrostic that's calling my name. life is surprisingly good.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: one of the few streets in p-town that's not flooded
Current Music: crack tv

Dad is doing well. He came through surgery like a trooper, is in a lot of pain and cranky - which is as it should be (the cranky, not the pain.) Last I heard, he was still in some kind of holding tank; apparently there's a room shortage at the hospital.

Today has been otherwise extremely crappy. I fucked up something in AD at work, our basement flooded, the malted milkshake I got at DQ to make me feel better is a substandard cup of malted milk, and the headache I've had all week is back.

But, in better news, I'm home, I'm wearing my "Joss Whedon is my master now" shirt, and we're having bacon cheese fries for dinner.

This weekend...mow the lawns, buy shelves for the basement and move everything out of the wet boxes onto shelves, catch up on sleep, pay bills.

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: \\home\living room\couch
Current Music: the rain on the air conditioner, soon to be mer frying bacon

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soft, fuzzy, warm, and plaid

Entries tagged with house

three days later...

the continuing adventures of the waterless

update

be careful what you wish for.

catering and house stuff

well, gee.

Dad update

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September 2008

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