Tag: cellar

Fresh Leak Hell

We have an appointment to have a new tankless water heater installed tomorrow morning. I still have a bucket under the leaky pipe in the current water heater and it’s kept the floor dry for a week now.

Or has it.

(insert ominous music here)

My wetvac is falling apart. Whole chunks of it have fallen off. It still works, and I could probably change the filter and all would be well, but now…

I emptied the drip bucket by stickin’ the wetvac hose into the bucket and sucking it all up. I’ve been doing that for a week now. Today, a few hours after emptying the bucket, I went downstairs for laundry reasons and saw water on the floor. WHAT THE HELL?

A little investigating has lead me to believe that the wetvac is actually leaking now. The water this time was next to the wetvac but a little down hill. I cleaned it up, knowing how goofy it is to use the source as it’s own fix, which clearly will have to be done again later tonight.

Oh well. I will be spending some time down there tonight to clean out the storage area where the folks will be working tomorrow and while I’m there I will empty the bucket and the wetvac and hopefully that will be the end of it. When the bucket gets emptied some time tomorrow, the water heater will have been replaced.

Fingers eternally crossed. I am so sick of having water issues in my cellar. It’s enough to make me want to move into a house that doesn’t have a basement. Houses in San Diego generally don’t have cellars, do they? If that’s the case, let’s go!

Ready to Go

I’m just about to punch into work for a while. Working on Saturdays is the pits, but there is a chance I can help a customer through something huge so I don’t mind it.

I checked the cellar. The bucket under the leak is empty. So is the wetvac and the dehumidifier.

Jen just did some massive upgrades to our wifi and the down and up speeds are through the roof. Thanks, Jen!

Okay. Time for some work. Wish me luck.

Hosed

Work has been insane this week. Since Friday, really. In:Sane.

I took a minute to check on the Lake Asshole Bucket. It was maybe 15% full. I put the wet vac’s hose into the bucket and sucked all of that shit right up. Bucket:Empty. That worked much better than trying to get the blender out from under the pipe without spilling anything (which was impossible).

The dehumidifier is still cranking away. I had to empty it once. The floor is pretty much dry. Oh happy day.

Two weeks (approximately) until they come to replace the water heater. Two weeks of Lake Asshole monitoring.

Now I will have time to have dinner with the love of my life, watch What If with the love of my life and possibly with my step son (via a watch party), and then add lead guitars to the four songs that are currently ready for them. The finished 50/90 song count is currently sitting at 38. Four more are ready for leads, six are ready for vocals (car music in the morning?), and two barely exist.

Hopefully going to make a push over the next couple of days… assuming work lets me. Have I mentioned work has been insane this week? In:Sane.

Slight Improvement

This holds more water than the last thing and I can empty it by sticking the hose from the wet vac into it.

The blender thing is I used yesterday overflowed a little last night so I felt the need to upgrade. It only works if I check it regularly though.

Screw you, lake asshole.

The Source

Our meeting with the plumber today uncovered the source of Lake Asshole. Hooray!

I did a little experiment. First, I dug around the cellar and found a container that would fit under the offending leaky pipe, as so:

Next, I let some time pass. I don’t remember how much time but I’m guessing around six hours, give or take. I then brought the container upstairs to dump it in the sink and also took a picture:

At the time this photo was taken, the cellar floor was bone dry. Yeah…. We found the leak.

Tankless

Just had a plumber looking at our water heater. It’s time to go. I think there is a tankless water heater in our future.

Things I learned today. Tankless water heaters are mounted to the wall. We might be losing some of our shelving in the cellar storage area. I’ll take that in trade for not having water on my floor anymore. Another thing I learned today. Apparently our current water heater (and our furnace too? Maybe?) vents out of the chimney. That’s what the guy said. Who knew? Is he referring to the fireplace chimney or is there another vent out of the roof that is just called a chimney? I don’t know.

All I do know is that tankless water heaters are supposed to produce fewer carbon emissions which, along with driving a hybrid car, makes me feel better about my place in the universe. Not a lot better, maybe 0.01% better as I do expect I’ll be making use of air travel again at some post-Covid-19 point, but better.

Also, I am really really sick of Lake Asshole, so the sooner we get that thing installed the better.

Oh, the Crazy

For the last few months, going to work has often seemed like a break from all the rest of the stuff going on in the world. That is kind of the opposite of normal, right? Being away from work is supposed to be the more enjoyable part of your day.

Welp, we’re officially back to normal! Oh, the crazy stress right now. My head is spinning! WHEEEEEEEEE!

Jen just made an appointment with a plumber to come and look at the source of lake asshole. They are coming for the first look tomorrow. Oh happiness! I am so looking forward to a day when I can go into the cellar without getting my feet wet. That’s going to be a good day.

So much music work to do. So little time. When am I going to finish all this stuff off? When, oh when?

Source

I just paid a visit to Lake Asshole. I think it’s pretty clear that the source is not the Merrimack River but instead our water heater.

Oh yippee.

Once the Covid quarantine-esque thing is over, we’ll have to get a plumber in here. Insert a frustrated sigh here.

I’m so tired of all of this. Covid, my parents situation, not being able to help in any way that makes any difference, water in the basement, all of that shit. It’s just piling on and there is nothing I can do about it. I’m just so tired.

I’m going to eat a bag of Reese’s Pieces and hope E.T. gets his alien ass over here to do that glowing chest thing and make all of my hurts all better. I just hope he gets here before The Walking Dead comes on at 9:00. I don’t want to make him wait until after tonight’s zombies before he fixes my broken ass.

Holding it Together

The first half of the work day was nice and busy so I didn’t have time to freak out over the future or anything freak out worthy. The afternoon might be a little slower, so I could let my mind wander to things that scare the hell out of me.

On the upside, we’re going to try to do our Wednesday burgers and Marvel thing with Harry. Jen and I are planning on having burgers for dinner after I finish work, and we’re going to sneak in today’s episode of What If while we eat. It’s not set in stone yet, but Harry is going to try to join us via an group watch thing. He won’t be here with us, but he’ll be watching with us. I’m looking forward to that enough that I haven’t even let myself look up the topic of today’s episode. It is not set in stone yet, of course. He might not get back to his dorm in time. That is perfectly all right though.

The floor in the cellar is still wet, but when I last went down stairs to check there wasn’t a lot of standing water. I’ve gone there 2-3 times this morning and vacuumed up whatever I found. Also, the dehumidifier has been working it’s tail off. I know that at some point after I leave tonight the dehumidifier will be full enough to auto-shut off, and then there will be nothing to fight the flood until I come back tomorrow night.

It’s going to be a long second half of the work day. Then once I get to my parents’ house it’s going to be a long night taking care of things there. Then tomorrow… I don’t want to talk about the rest of the week because I am afraid of jinxing things. Shut up, fat boy.

Okay, back to work. The email is piling up and I have a couple of meetings to get to.

Rock on, constant readers*

*Constant readers! It just popped into my head! In a post a couple of days ago I was trying to remember the phrase Stephen King uses to address his readers in his afterwards. Constant readers! That’s it! Kick ass, Mr King!