Surprises, And Not Good Ones

This is becoming a really difficult few weeks.  Some of which I have mentioned, but it is worth listing all of  it (and positively noting that none are matters of life and death)...

First, I got the riding mower back from the repair shop after a month with only half the work I THOUGHT I was getting done.  Granted, they didn't try to charge me for what they didn't do, but they wanted another 3 weeks to get to get at it, so I passed.  I CAN actually change the oil and filter and sharpen the blades (the undone work) myself but its a pain and they could have done it so easily while they had it.  I had even called them later in the day I brought it to them to confirm it was on the repair list (they said yes).

Second, the monsoon damage (6"+ of sudden rain) Monday flooding the drainage easement.  When I moved here almost 33 years ago, I knew my new street was at the bottom of a large sloped neighborhood, but it seemed that the drainage was well-managed with drainage easements and storm drains.  I was wrong.  Also, I was not aware that property owners were responsible for the drainage easement further than 6' from the storm drains.

Storms usually bring tree debris down that covers the storm drain grate.  That can be removed easily sometimes, and the County willingly does it when stuff is all wedged together and called about it.  This time was different.  For reasons I do not know, cubic yards/meters of clay and gravel flowed down the easement for the first time ever.  The storm drain grate was entirely covered with it.

The easement itself (which WAS almost 2' deep) is entirely filled to lawn level with gravel about 20' upslope and most of that is NOT County responsibility.  I spoke to my neighbor about it (we are co-responsible for the easement maintenance).  I have no idea what it would cost and return the easement to full functionality.  My neighbor is upset because they are they are nearly broke.  I can legally enforce shared costs, but I'm not looking forward to having to fight about it.  But if it isn't dredged, future storms will make matters worse and they care less about their yard than I do.

Third, the monsoon damage again. My basement got soaked an inch.  The builder did poor work on the sunken patio originally (no drainage), and I've had water in the basement several times over the years.  I learned after the first time that if I dug a 4' deep ditch through the lawn downslope, all was well.  But those fill in over time and I usually redig it each year before hurricane season.

We are getting heavier rains here earlier each year and I waited too long.  Climate change is real.  The last Spring frost of the year is about a day earlier each couple years and the first frost in Fall is later.  The first heat wave of the year  comes sooner and occurs later too.

I need to at least bury some perforated drainage pipe along the lawn edge of the patio and attach it to solid drainage pipe emptying into the lower front lawn.  But it always seems there is something more immediately to do.  So I didn't do it earlier this year or last year.

The basement was a real mess!  This time I had a lot of boxes on the floor.  The stuff like lawn fertilizer have plastic bags inside, so they weren't damaged, but I had some boards standing up against walls, cardboard boxes I was planning to use to store books while the computer room going to be changed from 32 year old carpet to linoleum.  And Iza likes to poop outside the litter boxes, so that was a real mess.

I used the wet/dry shop vac to suck up most of the water and moved the litter boxes to dry area where Iza wouldn't "go" is the wet spots.  Today, it dried enough for me to scrape the cement floor of all the kicked-out scoopable litter and poops.  I love Iza dearly, but pooping in the litter boxes is not one of the things she does best...

After that, I mopped the whole litterbox area with soapy water, mopped it with clean water, and sucked up the remaining water with the shop vac.  It wasn't a thrill.  I rinsed out the mop frequently in the laundry tub, but it wasn't exactly dry,  and I don't have a mop-wringer tub so I had to squeeze the mop dryish by hand.

I should mention that I was the oldest child at 15 when my younger sister was born.  I changed a LOT of diapers.  And that was when you had to slosh soiled cloth diapers around in the toilet before you could even put them in the bucket the diaper cleaning truck came by to pick them up for professional cleaning.

Fourth, monsoon damage again.  I had a masonry repair company estimator here today.  Here is what he told me after investigating all the broken cinder blocks and spaces around it...

The wall is a "retaining wall" (there is soil filled in behind it).  A retaining wall should be set outside of the cement slab and 3' deep so that water pressure cannot push it in.  The top caps need special  grout to help hold the top solid.  My retaining wall was built ON the cement slab and the tops were attached with regular grout.

He said the entire 2 1/2 sides needed to be removed, a 3' deep trench dug outside the cement slab, and that there was rebar involved and removal of the old cinderblocks.

Quick estimate - $15,000

And I should have a drain installed to prevent future basement next to the sliding glass doors $2,300.

I said no way!  I could have my failing asphalt driveway removed, the foundation rebuilt and pounded solid, and a new concrete driveway installed for that.  I have an estimate for that...

I asked about just forcing the existing cinder block wall force back into place, using construction adhesive against the broken edges and bolting a 2"x10" board or serious metal bar on top.

He said he wouldn't do that as a professional and that his insurance company wouldn't warranty the work if he did.

I thanked him for coming by to explain all that and that I understood his reasons for not doing some cheap patchwork and that I might be back in touch because the repair does really have to be done.  I might add that contractors generally hate being the first ones on site because the customer learns things about what to ask the next estimator.  And it's true...  I learned a lot.

So after he left, I decided to see if I could lever the broken wall parts back in place.  There are 2 6"x6" wooden deck support posts in the patio set 3' deep and surrounded by 2' wide in cement.   I found a 4"x4" post that straddled them, and a 4x4 post that just reached  cinderblock wall.  I figured that with the right angle of leverage, I might be able to push the broken parts back in place after liberally covering the broken edges with construction adhesive.  That stuff is stronger than the grout used between cinder blocks so it ought to hold.

I understand how levers work most effectively.  The longer the lever, the more force is applied.  I set 4x4 posts up as efficiently as possible.  I couldn't move the wall at all!  30 minutes work at 92F and 95% humidity and pulling as hard as I could left me exhausted and drenched in sweat.  I may take the car jack and see if I can get some better force tomorrow.

If that doesn't work, I think I will find some less-perfectionist company to suggest something less expensive.

I have several home renovation projects in mind.  But given the numerous ones and these new problems, I think I might be better off combining them into a large list and hiring a general contractor.  I did that once and the total cost was about half of the estimated costs from individual contractors.  The downside of that is that I need to empty whole rooms (and OMC the cluttered basement!) at the same time (almost like moving out)...

I wish I had had the nerve to move away 5 years ago...  Maybe I should consider that again and leave it as a fixer-upper.  I get offers in the mail every day.

Damnable But Small Problems

It's the smaller problems of life that get at you the worst sometimes.  I mean, Really Bad Problems, you know they are, and you have to deal with them.  Family members die, you break a bone, you lose a job.  Those are bad.  And everyone understands.

Its the smaller stuff that is sometimes harder to deal with, because you are all alone with it.  The splinter in your finger, the sore shoulder, the car that doesn't like to start, those don't get so much sympathy. 

I've been plagued with the latter recently.  I don't need much sympathy, but I DO want to gripe about them.  And its MY blog, so here goes (LOL)...

My left thumb is inept.  For years, I've had a spot I stuck with a thorn and it caused a tiny hard spot that just won't go away.  I keep noticing it with the index fingernail.  I've opened it a couple times with a sewing needle, but I can't get it to heal away.  And I cut the base of my right thumb years ago and it formed a hard spot there too.  I just keep noticing it when I grab things.  So when I got a half-inch splinter in That Left Thumb from the new deck I just got all freaked.  I couldn't get it out.  Turn the inside of your left thumb towards you and put the back down on a steady surface.  Now try to get at it with a needle and tweezers. 

Maybe I'm not as flexible as I used to be, but I just couldn't.  It took a week for the skin harden over the splinter like a callous, and I managed to loosen it after that.  Its healing fine.

But sometimes, it is just stuff like that over and over.  I damaged the left shoulder rotater cuff 10 years ago, and I thing I've done it again.  I don't even know specifically how or when I did it.  I just woke up one morning and OUCH!!!

My aging Mother used to say "getting old isn't for sissies".  Hmmm. I've been enough heavy work on my own for a long time and had a lot of "ouchies" (and enough "ARGGGHS" too), but they seem to be coming more often these days.  I hope I'm not becoming a "sissy".  But let's just say that I used up a tube of muscle rub ointment before the expiration date for the first time this year.

I wish that was the only problem.  I garden a lot and I get a lot of unwanted tree saplings that need to be dug out.  Usually, its not a problem.  Oh, work for sure, but I get them out.  Well, I was surprised this week. 

I am rebuilding my old rotting framed garden beds.  Aligned better to the sunlight, wider and higher, and to have a chicken wire enclosure to keep the varmints out.  Well, with the season moving on, I decided to redig the beds that will be outside the enclosure so that I could have some Summer plants growing (cukes, beans).  Meaning the old less-productive asparagus bed had to be dug up. 

There were 4 tree saplings I've been cutting back in there for several years.  So it was the right time to REALLY dig them out.  I couldn't.  I mean, I used the same techniques I always used before, but they just would yield!  I have tools.  A sharp all metal spade, an axe, a 5' pry bar.  I finally got one out and it about killed me...

Talk about realizing that you aren't 30 anymore...  I'd be happy to be 40 (I'm 64).  I did the sensible thing.  I left the other 3 in and planted around them.  Its just for a few months.  Come Fall, I will cover that bed with plywood and plastic and let them DIE next year.  All problems can be solved with time.

But I only mentioned all this to tell you about today's problem...

I have historically had basement water problems.  The old gutters filled with tree debris and would overflow onto the deck and then down to the sunken patio.  The patio had ground level drainage.  But over the years, the soil build up (fallen leaves, mowed grass) and formed a pool that build up to the level of the basement door.  Water got in.  I solved that temporarily by digging a ditch through the lawn downslope. 

In Fall 2012, I had the roof reshingled, new vinyl siding, and new larger gutters with debris-proof tops.  No more gutter overflow filling the basement patio!  Yeah.

Right...  With the new deck, there was a lot of digging involved.  Lots of soil moved around.  They did a good job moving the extra soil to a corner of the yard.  So far, so good.  What I didn't notice was that some of the extra soil got spread into the remnants of the patio drainage ditch.  So I had a 2" wall of dirt around the lawn connection to the patio.

It rained really hard today.  I was glad for the rain because it has been about 1/4" per week the past month.  BUT!  The rain that fell through the deck filled up the basement patio (I bet you saw that coming).  FORTUNATELY, I happened to go into the basement to get something and saw the rainwater seeping in.  I threw some old towels on it and went to the toolshed IN THE TORRENTIAL RAIN to get my grub-hoe.  Shovels work, but a grub-how makes a nice 4" wide and deep trench.  In the rain. 

Even with a raincoat on (and I wished I still owned a poncho) I was soaked to the skin just making a 4" wide and deep ditch from the patio downslope 12' long.  It was a pleasure seeing the water draining out in a rush...

But that is still a temporary fix.  I thought the bigger rain gutters would solve the problem, but with enough hard rain, even just the water falling through the deck will fill up the patio.

The real fix is to lower the level of the lawn where it meets the deck, AND installing a below-ground drainage system to move the patio water downslope.

More work.  Just what I needed.  And I'm sure not going to do THAT before my shoulder heals.  I'll just have to make sure the grub-hoe surface dug ditch stays clear for a while.

ARGGH!

And I won't even get into the new adult groundhog and rabbit I saw around the garden this afternoon.  Well, OK, I just did, but you know what I mean.