Adventures in the Art of Owning a Home.
We came home yesterday evening and the hallway was wet. My first instinct was to blame Gizmo, until I realized that there is no way that a puppy can saturate a hallway that thoroughly without a water hose. Then I slipped into panic mode and we started checking for obvious water leaks. I expected the worse case scenario automatically because I have experienced the worst case scenario before. After verifying the the bathroom, while it did have water on the floor, was not the culprit. We started to suspect that the source of water had to be coming out of the hallway. This seemed like further proof that a pipe had busted under the foundation and we were about to be living in a marsh land unless we did something soon. So we ripped up the carpet and carpet pad. 7pm on a Sunday evening and we are deciding to remodel. Yes, the foundation slab was wet. However, there was no water bubbling up, no streams coming from the walls, and certainly no marsh expanding towards the living room and office intent on destroying every electronic in its path. So, yes, we were perplexed. We had checked everything that was possibly in proximity to the wet spots. Nothing seemed out of sorts and we rarely use the guest bathroom for anything more than a spare toilet in case of emergency and the shower hasn't been used since I last bathed the dogs. Just odd.
We waited a couple of hours to see if anymore water just suddenly appeared, but nothing did. Finally someone mentioned that it might be the septic tank. We checked the access pipe and it was indeed full of water. At least I'm calling it water because the idea of anything else seeping onto the ground would make me ill. Anyway, that pipe should not have water in it at all, let alone spill its contents onto the ground when the cap is removed. Yes. Ew.
This morning I was happy to find a company who could come out immediately and handle the problem. I needed to take my morning shower, so the faster the better in my opinion. The technician (is that would you would call a septic tank cleaner?) came out and quickly assessed the problem as a clogged drain pipe. He got down to the lovely business of unclogging the pipe and pumping the liquids out of our septic tank. What I saw in that tank and the smell wafting up out of it is not something that I ever want to experience again. Calling it 'sludge' is a much nicer name for what is probably 10+ years of human (and puppy) excrement.
However, aside from all the frustration of dealing with the septic woes, it was nice clearing our hallway of all the carpet and tackboard. Our carpet is horrible and we've been talking about replacing it, so this just puts up once step closer to our goal.
We waited a couple of hours to see if anymore water just suddenly appeared, but nothing did. Finally someone mentioned that it might be the septic tank. We checked the access pipe and it was indeed full of water. At least I'm calling it water because the idea of anything else seeping onto the ground would make me ill. Anyway, that pipe should not have water in it at all, let alone spill its contents onto the ground when the cap is removed. Yes. Ew.
This morning I was happy to find a company who could come out immediately and handle the problem. I needed to take my morning shower, so the faster the better in my opinion. The technician (is that would you would call a septic tank cleaner?) came out and quickly assessed the problem as a clogged drain pipe. He got down to the lovely business of unclogging the pipe and pumping the liquids out of our septic tank. What I saw in that tank and the smell wafting up out of it is not something that I ever want to experience again. Calling it 'sludge' is a much nicer name for what is probably 10+ years of human (and puppy) excrement.
However, aside from all the frustration of dealing with the septic woes, it was nice clearing our hallway of all the carpet and tackboard. Our carpet is horrible and we've been talking about replacing it, so this just puts up once step closer to our goal.