Good morning! Well, things are basically back to normal at home. My back is still sensitive, but after seeing the Chiropractor yesterday... I get it. With a plan in mind of what to do next.... I need to find a new exercise routine. Apparently, the beginner class at the local Y is far too intense for me. I need to hone that back a bit and go to the place where I really liked and bite the money bullet and pay for a set of classes. I think DH will understand. I did get some really good suggestions from the Chiropractor for other options to where I can still utilize the Y and save some money.
Well, last night, I went back to the usual routine of taking the garbage out for the night. Fortunately, I got some help from DH without complaint. That was a nice change. I did get stopped by my next door neighbor that DH coins "the clueless one (aka TCO)". I tend to agree with DH on this one. TCO suffers the same fate as most of the people on our street... Flooding. He just happens to be the only one demanding to sue the village for a solution to only what he sees as his problem. With determination running through his veins, he is always looking for a solution that costs him nothing since his wife finds yet another "project" that must be done for the house. While I envy the fact that this woman (no matter how evil she can be towards her husband) gets whatever she wants, I just happen to have a little pity for TCO. Shooting from the hip every half-baked idea that he thinks would fix the flooding issue to his home with the cheapest cost. He would spend more money on solid oak, raised panel doors for his whole house than invest in something that guarantees better flood protection to his home. His latest half-baked idea actually made me chuckle....
He noticed that whenever it rains, there is a small lake forming on one side of his home. The house next door to him (not mine, obviously), is on slightly higher ground than his and is causing runoff to land on his property. Years of exposure to excessive water has caused a crack in his foundation that needs to be repaired so this excessive water that hits his home does not creep its way in to flood his crawlspace. Has he considered fixing the crack in his foundation? No. He wants to build a drainage system that takes the neighbor's runoff and reroute it down to the street and into the storm drain. While this idea sounds good, he managed to forget that when the storm drain is overflowing.... water does not move. It finds its natural level and will most likely raise back to where it was coming from. Not really a well thought out solution. Also, he thinks that this new drain that takes the seeping rainwater away from his foundation will solve the issue of why the sewer backs up during heavy rainfalls. The storm drain and sewer line are two totally separate things. The cost to do his little "patch" to one problem would cost about $1000 and he wants the village to pay for half. The real solution that has proven effective when it comes to the flooding issue in our homes (of which it is more likely being sewer water than rain water), is to reroute the sewer system to an above grade system with an automatic shutoff and underground reservoir that allows the homeowner to continue using water while the home is temporarily detached from a taxed full sewer line. Cutting off the sewer line avoids backup from returning into the houses. The cost for this... ranges in the ballpark between $8,000 and $10,000 (of which the village will pay half the cost). See my point? Spend $1000 (to get $500 back) and not really solve the issue and still need to manually shut off the sewer line to the house seems wasteful to me. The real solution is the latter thing and that costs thousands. While DH and I would love this system, we just do not have the available money to do so. Shelling out the full cost to wait for the village to reimburse would be too hard of a thing to take at this time. As I tried to explain that his plan has its faults, he actually believes that this will solve all his issues. In fact, he is making plans to do this $1000 "patch" plan really soon.
Knowing that this obviously is not the solution and his belief being as strong as it has been that it is... I wished him luck and went on my merry way. After I got inside my home, I told DH what TCO told me. Apparently, DH is a deep thinker like me because his first question was... "what does it solve when the storm drain gets filled and backs up all that water to his foundation again?" and then he added... "does he realize that this does not stop the threat of sewer water backing up in his home? The sewer line is totally different than the storm drain line.". Yep, I knew marrying this guy he would see what I see. Too bad it is only when TCO bakes up some half-thought out plan. It would be nice to agree on more than that. Oh well, I guess it will be another year of hearing TCO complain that he spent money on something that never really solved the big problem. As for us and our "flood control" plan.... We will just keep using the tried and true system of manually shutting off the sewer line and be in "camping mode" until it is safe to open the line back up again. We just will have to be better at closing it every time it rains more than an inch per hour. When we do have the money... I guarantee you we will invest in that $10,000 fix. Now, only if I could win the lottery or something like that......
Thanks for reading and have a great day :)
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