Family Time Together

July 4^th weekends has been a busy weekend for my family.

We has a heavy rain on July 3 and it flooded our second property. We went there on Saturday to mow and remarked that the basement was about knee high filled of water. It has a sump pump but it didn’t work. That Saturday, my husband mowed a little bit. The property is sitting on a half-acre land. It takes my husband about 4 hours to mow the whole property. So I decided to convert a part of the land the sunny side into a vegetable garden and stop renting my two plots community garden. It costs $50 to rent two plots from our city for a year. I intend to take down my fences and take them to our second property to fence the new garden. Growing food instead of lawn could decrease my husband mowing time. On Saturday, I took from my garden some peppermint plant, parsnips seeds as they started to dry on the plants, few sunkokes plants, elder berry branches, some Egyptian onions, Rhubarb, and comfrey.

With the kids I made few beds at ground level with woods left on the property to define the beds and planted what I brought along. We spent few hours there and went home. I cooked chili the day before for Saturday lunch. That made it easy for me serve lunch when we got home around 4 pm. In the evening I cooked spaghetti and boiled eggs to serve with leftover soup bone stew for dinner.

Sunday after church, we went shopping for food and went to Walmart and Lowes to see what we can find to help with the flood in the basement. We got home around 2 Pm. We purchased a utility pump, a submersible sump pump, a battery backup sump pump, and the battery liquid all at Lowes. A clerk advised us to use the utility pump connected to a garden hose to pump water out of the basement. The difference between the utility pump and the sump pump is that the utility pump doesn’t have a floating ball. Therefore, that would keep pumping water until it is turned off. At home I Cooked rice which I served with the leftover soup bone stew and barbecue chicken my husband and I made on July 4^th. While I cooked the rice, I cooked ground beef sandwich filling. I cooked beans as well to use in chili. The beans was from last year harvest. Some green bean were left on the plant late until the passed the green bean stage but didn’t fully dry either to be dry beans. I harvested them, shelled, and froze them. I wanted to have cooked food in the fridge for dinner in case we came home late.

We went to the property around 4pm. My husband connected a hose to the utility pump. He used and extension cord to plug the pump to an outlet in the kitchen and put the pump in the water in the basement. We put the garden hose in the yard and the water was pumped out. I used a 5 gallons bucket to collect the water from the hose and watered the garden beds I made the day before. After few tries, I stopped and went mowing the yard. We pumped the water out the basement for hours but it didn’t decrease much. I mowed well pass 9 pm. We unplugged the utility pump and left the property well after 10 pm. At home the kids and I showered for the second time that day since they played a lot there. They were very exhausted. They were much existed to have that much space in the yard to play. I Baked the French roll steaks for sandwich I made the filling that day. The kids decided to just have butter in their rolls. Only my husband ate the ground beef sandwich. I served watermelon and few ate it as well. I ate a big bowl of watermelon for dinner. I got the kids ready for bed after midnight. I went to bed close to 2 am. Monday 6:30 am, I got up, cleaned the bathroom (toilet, floor, and tub) and showed. My second daughter woke up shortly after and joined me in the kitchen to cook with me. It was my husband and I’s anniversary. I planned to serve ground beef, hot dog, sausage sandwich, chocolate chips cookies, and ice cream for the celebration. In the morning my daughter and I mixed batters of chocolate chips sheet pancake and chocolate chips cookies.

By the time everybody was awake, I baked the sheep pancake and offered it for early lunch around 10 am. I made few batches of chocolate chips cookies and put the rest of the raw dough in the fridge. My husband made some calls to see who can come and install a new sump pump in the basement. After googling the cost of installing a sump pump our search estimated the cost to be about $1,000. We didn’t think the original sump pump was placed well and decided we might need to redo it. One plumber my husband talked to, seemed more acknowledgeable of the situation and I advised him to go with that plumber even though he was 2 weeks booked in advance already. He told my husband to first call the city and asked them to check if the city sewer was clogged around our property. He said in case it is not, to come and get an adapter kip at his shop for a fee and attach it to the utility pump in order to pump faster because the garden horse is too narrow to get water out fast. He said once the water is completely out of the basement, we need to flush the toilet. If the sump pump whole backs up with water, then we know our sewer line is clogged. We give him a call and he would come and unclog it for us. He said because the house is more than 100 years, people around that time put pipes around the building to pull water all around the building into the sump pump pit. Then the water is discharged into the city sewer. It was before sump pump was used. His guest was the sump pump stopped working and the system reverted to its original use of collecting the water around the building and discharging into the city sewer. But because of the storm we got, the city sewer was full or clogged then the water not having anywhere to go just filled the basement.

My husband called the city. The city asked him how was the water. He said it was clear. The city checked and called him back to let him know that the city sewer line is not clogged. Another indication for them that the city sewer was not backing into our basement was that water in our basement was clear. We left home around 12 pm to go to the property. My husband took the utility pump and went to the plumber’s shop. The plumber sent two of his teams to come and access the situation to see if he could replace the sump pump within one hour in case we will pay the same day. My husband told them yes we would pay them the same day. They came and lifted the lid of the sump pump pit. The sump pump just started to work. They told us that the floating ball of the sump pump was held down by something but once they touched the pump the ball was released before they even have the chance to know what held it down. Because the ball was held down, the sump pump didn’t automatically turned on. Once the ball was released the pump turned on and started to pump water out. The water started to come out of the basement into the yard. They suggested to replace the old sump pump with our new one and did it. The new one pumped the water out even faster. I asked them if we didn’t need to reinstall the sump pump with hard pipe lines in the basement. They said no the soft hose that was installed was fine. We paid their service fee a little over $150 and they left. We showed the water heater that couldn’t heat water. They couldn’t turn the heat on either. They said the water heater was 16 years old and it was time to replace it. Their quotes was around $1,000 labor and water heater included. They suggested the new water heater been put on bricks high enough that a possible flooding doesn’t touch it. They said the water heater has a screen at the bottom and few inches of water could destroy it compared to the furnace that could be destroyed only if the water level is very high. They also stated that the water heater life expectancy is around 10 years. Since we were satisfied with their service, we asked them a quote to replace the furnace and the air conditioner units. They said the furnace and AC could cost around $6,500 including labor, the units, permits, and disposal fee.

I told them that the ventilation would need some upgrades as the property is half story and the upstairs bedroom has a window AC. They suggested we budget another $1,000 for vents upgrade. We are not ready for these installations but we will get them down at some point and I am glad I was able to get a quote to know what to expect. My husband finished mowing the lawn and I cleaned the kitchen as the house was little smelly and has a lot of spider nets. When we removed the previous owners belonging and trash out of the house over the winter, we gathered soda cans some empty many full into many trash bags and left them in the kitchen. I moved them to a shed during my kitchen cleaning. Hopefully that would stop the smell. We might have to call a professional to shampoo the carpet. We got a quote for $300 to 400 but I put it off since the carpet would be replaced with a new one later. But if the kids play on it a lot then we might just have to get it shampooed. But for now they enjoy the yard more. We left the property right at 4 pm and returned the battery back up sump pump and the battery liquid to Lowes. The plumber said the battery backup sump pumps don’t work and he doesn’t recommend them. The submersible sump pump we purchased at Lowes that was installed cost about $184. The battery backup one was more expensive and I am glad we didn’t have to use it. We went home. I showed the kids, gave them chocolate chips cookies, and my husband after shower took them to the mobile library to check out book for them. I boiled the hot dogs and sausages. I fried French fries. I put the ground beef sandwich filling in the oven to heat it up, and continued to bake the chocolate chips cookies. When the kids returned, I baked the French steak rolls and my husband served the kids, fries, ground beef, and hot dog sandwich. I cooked creamed corn as well. I dusted the floor in the kitchen and living room and cleaned the kitchen. I laundered the clothes we wore to the property while I cooked. The kids ate dinner and ate ice cream later before I got them ready for bed around 9:30 pm. It has been a busy weekend and I have requested Monday off for our anniversary. Far from what I envisioned, I am nevertheless glad that my husband, our children and I spent our long weekend together on our investment property fixing a flooded basement, mowing the lawn, starting a new vegetable garden, playing around, cleaning the kitchen, and the bathroom.