Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween Sewer from Hell

We woke in darkness to Frost shouting "Mom, Mom, get up get up.  GET UP NOW"   I thought I might have overslept but it was barely 6.30am.

"Why?" 

"The basement is FULL OF WATER!!!"

We staggered around a bit but eventually discovered that heavy rain overnight had backed up the sewer into the shower drain in Frost's bathroom and there was sewer water - no sewerage we could SEE though - was spread from Frost's bathroom, through the downstairs living room to the game room, halfway through the laundry and deeply in the furnace room. 

We mopped and drained what we could and arranged a sewer specialist to come and clear the line.  The first one who came to the house was one who had done refused to do it, saying he was worried that the blade of his rooter would become stuck.  Finally, a Ukrainian "expert" came from another rooter company and proceeded to wrestle his snake into the sewer through the toilet drain in the basement.

In the interim, Josh had ripped out the sodden wood floor of the bathroom and found that the sub-floor was rotten.  He ripped that out and I mopped the rotten wood sludge into a contractors industrial strength waste bag.

The "guest" bathroom now has a cement slab with the remnants of past linoleum clinging to it.  The toilet it outside.  The basement carpet is rolled up and we have a heater.

We need to borrow a dehumidifier.

I shall post tomorrow about Halloween.

Pictures from easier days:


Beautiful amanitas I spotted on a ride home from dropping
Wren at school.  A few of these were ones I had drawn.

Wren so enjoyed shellfish at Google for lunch that I bought him a
number of mussels and prawns and sauteed them for his dinner.
He ate almost all of them, including big fat jiggly ones that needed two mouthfuls.
Wren was insulted and angered by this street sign. He said
"It is rude and it is NOT LEGAL to change a sign
so that is says only buddhas can cross here!  What
about people who are not buddhas!  They feel bad."