Sayonara Deck
Thank you deck. You’ve been fairly good to us for a long time. But now it’s time to go.
We’ve been wanting a new deck for a while. We can’t quite afford the deck/patio of our dreams just yet, but our current deck reached a critical point. Collapse when we’re on it or come down safely before that happens.
So we took it down.
It was amazing the deck was still standing. The rot was really, really bad. Researching new decks, it was also so surprising the deck lasted as long as it did, since it didn’t meet any current building codes – none of the posts were secured to the ground and ledger boards aren’t supposed to be attatched to brick houses. I don’t think the wood was pressure treated. Of course when it was built, it had a roof over it – which we removed when we fixed our roof. Still, some of the rot we saw was surprising for just 4 years of exposure.
It was probably in the way anyway for the grease pit removal, so it’s not a bad thing to have it down right now. We’re having someone come out later this week to talk about that. After that project is complete, I’ll probably put up a small deck just so we can use the door again. A real deck will have to be built sometime in the future – one with real cement piers and such, and a new cement patio. All that cement needs to go and be rebuilt, so we have a lot of planning to do.
For now, we’ll live going out the basement door or front door. It’s a pain, but I guess more exercise.
New Sewer Line
So… remember when I stripped off the lawn and put new grass down everywhere? Like, just last year.
Seems that was a little premature.
Sigh.
On the plus side, Ron the sewer guy says this WILL fix our drain issues. We always thought we’d also need to do an overhead sewer line, too, but he says that while he doesn’t want to talk us out of hiring him for more work, he really thinks that won’t be necessary after this repair. Since we live on a main street, our main line is quite large and the village recently rodded it out and relined it so there aren’t any imperfections in it anymore, our drainage issues should be fine.
We’ll see, but I’m optimistic. This is costing us enough, it’d be nice not to have to do more to prevent the same issue.
Maybe I’ll just leave it open and make it a lap pool.
Homeownership sucks
We’ve had some heavy rains the past few days. As a result, we ended up with sewage backup in the basement. 2-3 inches in some of the deeper spots around the drains.
Thankfully we don’t have much down there right now. Just some carpet remnants and some miscellaneous stuff that we should have thrown out long ago anyway. The biggest problems really is the pugnent odor in the house and we can’t use the toilets.
I called our insurance this morning. Service Master is here now cleaning it up – removing the carpet and other garbage and then sanitizing it all. My plumber is routing out the drains to get that cleared up. He thinks the issue is that our connection to the main sewer line under is broken somehow.
Thankfully this can all get done today and in a few hours, we’ll be able to take a shower again. I pray that the insurance claims adjuster will say it’s all covered under our policy so that all this emergency Sunday work can be paid for.
It’s going to disrupt my week too, since State Farm requires that Service Master inspect the drying every day and write a report. The Service Master tech is worse than the cable guy in that he can’t guarantee when he’ll be here since he needs to respond to emergencies first. So I need to be home all those days to let him in for his 10 minute inspection.
Well, our plumber just finished routing out the line. Got some roots in there too, but he’s quite confident that the problem is that connection to the main line. He’s going to call the sanitary district tomorrow and hopefully since it’s on the line and under the easement, it’s their problem and they’ll foot the bill.
We’re still going to want to get an overhead sewer line installed sometime soon, too. If we ever want to finish off the basement again, we don’t want disasters like these to keep happening. But it’s all going to come down to how much each repair/fix costs. Anyone have a winning lottery ticket they want to share?
Rodent Problem
I think I got them all. Caught 6 mice in our attic over the weekend. I wonder if they were connected to the mouse that got into our bathroom last summer. I’m pretty sure they’ve been up there for a long time.
I’m not exactly sure how they would have gotten in. There are no trees overhanging our house anymore. Sara’s theory is that when we moved the boxes back into the house from the garage, they hitchhiked from there. So they’ve been living up there for 18 months or so. I can’t imagine what they were eating. I guess that’s what all the scratching was about – they were eating my drywall.
AC finale
Good news is it was just some wiring issues. Compressor still compresses and freon level is good.
I think I have some holes in the flex-duct from all the construction work that I need to plug. And I definately need to finish the cold-air return so it’s sucking back in air from the cooler first floor than the 100 degree attic.
Other than that, it’s good to go. woot!
Related odd note: I found a dead bird in the attic this morning. Definately wasn’t there the other day. For the life of me I can’t figure out how it got in. I’m sure it died from the heat up there – it’s scorching. I thought I plugged everything, but apparently I missed something. Weird.
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