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April 03, 2006
Water woes
Due to a heavy rainfall and significantly higher than average March snowfall* we now have water in the basements of both houses. Grrr . . .
Surprisingly, the water in the Aberdeen house isn't where we would've expected it. The sump pump's hole is dry, there's no water coming up through the fragmented floor, and there's just a bit of seepage in the south-east corner of the front porch (most of which was stopped with a prodigious application of AquaPlug).
There's one, and only one, significant crack in the foundation underneath the laundry room and kitchen, and that's where the water's been coming from. This is likely a combination of three things: not extending the eavestrough downspout far enough from the house; a significant slope in the ground toward the house; and, several feet of accumulated snow on the deck, which we couldn't shovel for fear we'd fall through.
Anyway, the snow on the roof is primarily gone, as is that which was on the deck, so we shouldn't have much more water migrate into the basement, so long as we don't get any significant rain over the next several days.
The house in Saskatoon, which has no eavestroughing along the front porch, also has water in the basement. This is the fourth time in the last 9 months that we've had water and/or sewer issues down there. This time, it was the result of a combination of rain, snow, and malfunctioning/non-existent eavestroughing. So, we'll get the carpets cleaned in the next day or so, then I guess we'll have to live with the quasi-permanent mold/sewer smell until things dry out. *sigh* The joys of renting, I guess. We'll both be really happy to move.
In addition to all of our water woes, we discovered a mouse in the basement at the new house. Most critters and creepy-crawlies don't bother me that much, but I'm not a huge fan of mice. Yuck. Hopefully the dead one we found was the only one, but, as that's highly unlikely, I got some agricultural grade mouse bait, which is supposed to kill them in one feeding, and laid that out all over the house.
When we dropped the new dishwasher** off yesterday, we checked the water level in the basement, and then checked the bait bags to see if they'd been disturbed, which they hadn't. So, I'm really hoping that we only had the one mouse.
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* We had the most snow this March that we'd had since 1967, not to mention the lowest average temperature in a long time (almost 3C below normal).
** This was the first of two applicances we bought this week. We ordered a new fridge, which should be here sometime after the 13th of April. The one that's there works, but the veggie drawers don't function properly (much like the ones at the rental house, which irritates me to no end) and the plastic brackets that are supposed to hold the shelves are mostly broken, so the only usable configuration means that you can only store stuff (and only short stuff) in the middle of the fridge, with the bottom shelf reserved for very tall items. The new one's almost 22 cubic feet, which is more fridge space than either one of us has ever had.
Then, I bought a dishwasher from Home Depot on the weekend. We'll have to plumb it in somewhere in the kitchen, then extend the countertops and cabinets, but it'll be well worth it. I managed to get a good deal on it, then used the gift card from Lorne & Donna (thanks!) and my growing collection of store credits (from many returns). We're so looking forward to having a functional kitchen, with new appliances (aside from the stove that the previous owner appears to never have used), and more storage & counter space.
Posted by plainstext at April 3, 2006 08:37 AM
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