Today in Old House Angst, we are featuring backed up drains. Went to do a load of laundry, started the machine, and noticed the floor drain well is full. Then I check another floor drain well, and it is full.
Why, fuck it all.
Fuck Yeah!
So now we have a call into our plumber's emergency service, and a backup (no pun intended) call to Roto-Rooter, which I loathe having to call. The Rotor Rooter call can be canceled at any time.
While a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, a hand in the bush is much better, so I have heard.
So Cookie has options covered.
Nothing seems to have burbled out from the sanitary lines into the floor drains, but we do not want "effluent" in our basement.
And why-o-why does this have to happen on a Sunday?
Obviously, the fates are testing me.
In any event, the weather has been - in Auntie Mame speak - nothing but Diedre weeping cruel tears. The whole yard is underwater. I heard from the granddaughter of a previous owner that our backyard had a spring-fed pond. Filled in many years ago, and gardens around it. I believe it. Maps of this area from the 1890s show tributaries to a brook. Lucky us.
Good lord, looking out over the acreage, I am wondering if we will need a boat. And we are not even in a low spot, either.
In other news, the Husband and I have started watching Harlots on Hulu. Personally, I love a good girl fight, although the mention of things gleety and gleamy can make me queasy. Still, I recommend it.
I'll let you know when our "full" house turns into a Royal Flush.
Plumbing and drainage problems are a nightmare! We had next door's (both flats, upstairs and downstairs) "grey water" pouring into our side passage for months last year, and finally the "solution" was that their contractor dug a hole and "patched" the pipe into another drain - the hole's still open, and we've had rats galore taking advantage of it! Deep joy.
ReplyDeleteOn a more pleasant subject, we loved the scandal and intrigue of Harlots for the first couple of series, but we lost interest in it when it started getting a bit "pantomime" - and, to be honest, boring - by series #3... Jx
I think that One and Two will be our limits. By Three I have heard (from others) that they start becoming cliche.
DeleteMy mother's apartment has a seasonal lake in its yards, as does my brother's next-door neighbor. Incidentally, have you kept up with John Carroll's shenanigans in taking over parts of Shaker to build dormitories, or use the apartment buildings they have been buying up exclusively for student use? This incursion into Shaker bodes no well, and I am surprised and suspicious at the alacrity that Shaker Heights is granting all these requests. Warrensville in University Heights has been pretty much trashed by student lodgings; apparently Shaker is to be next.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Oh, dear. You had to mention those muther fuckers at JCU. Well, now I have to let it all out.
DeleteWe are UP IN ARMS over this land grab by John Carroll University. I have been reading the online Shaker chatter groups and someone came into the groups and pishing this and poshing that.
She was pishing all over the idea that apartment buildings are communities, and poshing that "when you rent, this is what happens." Honestly, is she so shallow as not to remember the lessons of Urban Renewal when whole neighborhoods were wiped out to build them, and the long term residents lost their communities to the "greater good"? Another member addressed her and told her she was dead wrong. And she is.
And look what John Carroll student rentals have done to Warrensville Center Road between Fairmount Circle and Washington Blvd! They have turned it into a Corn Hole Ghetto. Those duplexes were deluxe, but always pristinely maintained. Up until 2010 or so. Now it looks run down and shabby.
And why in the Hell would Shaker allow that to happen along North Park and Fairmount? Afterall, JCU owns plenty of property off campus that they could bulldoze. One of Cookie's childhood homes is on Fairmount. I could see that tower from my bedroom window. So it makes me sad, and mad as hell.
And why is Notre Dame of Ohio merging with Cleveland State, when it would have been a wiser move to merge with JCU? JCU could have put that campus to work. But no, they have decided to trash up Shaker and get out of paying taxes.
Same thing in Orange, California with Chapman University, it used to be Chapman College, a diploma mill. Now it's grown from 3000 students to 10,000 and they want to double its size and student population. It has had the effect of the University buying up property and driving up apartment rents and home prices to even more unaffordable levels.
DeleteNow there's talk of the University using imminent domain to get properties, at the same time they always want tax breaks and city funding. The city fathers kiss their ass, and this is a private institution ! :(