12 May 2008

This rain has got to end. I've been a slave to my basement all day! Here's the routine: lay down rolled up towels on the floor under the basement window. Check on them after a half hour or so. Wring them out into the sump well, then put them in a plastic bag and lay down dry towels. Wait till I have 4-5 soaked ones, then carry that very heavy load of them upstairs and put them in the washing machine on the spin cycle, then into the dryer. Vacuum out dirt from the washer and dryer in-between loads. Every now and then go out in the rain with a bucket and bail out the 'lake' in the back yard that the sump pump empties out to. Can I say WAHHH?


I thought the big problem was that the gutters above the window were overflowing. It just might be that the ground is so saturated that the water has no place else to go. Or, it might have to do with waterproofing of the foundation. I don't know...not my area of expertise. All I know is that I'm tired of doing this, but don't know what else to do. I decided to spin the last load of towels twice through the cycle. The dryer made a terrible noise, and when I lifted the lid, the barrel wasn't spinning. I'm so afraid my almost 15-year-old dryer might be broken. I'll be switching out the towels soon, so I'll see.

Update: I just came up from a *hopefully* successful mission. I brought my shovel and gardening gloves outside. I shoveled the dirt and grass away from the foundation, and lo and behold, the water filled up the space. I decided to shovel a channel from the corner of the house out to the yard, and the water was channeled away from the house! I lined the channel with garden edging. The water stopped coming into the basement immediately. I just set up a fan to try to dry that area. I'm so hopeful! I took all the towels away and I'll go down in a minute or two to check.

Here's my handiwork. The grass is torn up, butI think it's working!


I laid down 14 towels just to be on the safe side. I'll check on it first thing in the morning. Then I'll check the dryer. For now, I'm going to bed!

16 comments:

JOY said...

Oh my goodness What a mess ,Good thing you were off today and could fix it .Good thinking on your part and a load of hard work.
Thanks for looking in on my Blog and the kind comments and yes you are welcome to come over and view my art .See ya tues.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

That was clever thinking. I hope your channel continues to do its job.

Mary said...

Your day to relax became a day of hard work and stress. Hope tonight brings peaceful sleep

Moohaa said...

Oy!!! Here's to a long night's rest and a dry day tomorrow!

Summer said...

You poor thing. Has this happened before?

SOUL said...

you are brilliant !!! i HOPE it worked !

we had a house that did the same thing-- only soooo much worse once. we had a sunken living room, and oh maaaan.. every time we got a couple inches of rain.. the entire LR FLOODED.. we finally ripped out the carpet-- tiled the floor-- dug ditches.. we did everything..until we finally moved out.

i hope your drainage system is ALL you need to fix your prob.. add some half PVC pipe to it, and voila!

good luck!
happy tuesday

as for the dryer-- check your belt first-- the heavy towel loads may have only broke the belt-- cheap fix if you know someone to change it for ya. hold the button in like the door is closed if the barel isn't turning, the belt is busted)
happened to us once)

latah.

CRUSTY MOM-E said...

you are incredible!! You are what my mother in law would say is a true balehboostah!

Good job Cheryl!
Always,
Elizabeth

Happyone said...

There you were doing all that work and I was sitting around reading and knitting.
It's good you found what the problem is though.
Hope today you can find some time to relax.

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Now that was a clever solution. Hope it works out.

jAMiE said...

Hi Cheryl

I hope it's stopped raining by now but if it hasn't i hope your channel worked.

Hope you got some much deserved rest.

Lynx217 said...

Did you get the sun yet Cheryl?

The idea on the dryer is probably right. I think if it was the motor it wouldn't have even tried. So give the belt a lookie-loo and if you cant or don't feel comfy, get some smart man to do it for ya :)

And it sounds like you have a leaky foundation. Even with poor drainage like that, water shouldn't have been able to come in.

Andrew said...

Hoping things were dry this morning. That was some clever thinking, Cheryl. Glad it worked!!! Be well, friend.

Martha said...

I'm glad your water-drainage plan worked. I'll keep that in mind the next time my basement starts flooding. What a mess!

CRUSTY MOM-E said...

are you rested yet?
I read your comment on one of the other moms blogs..I fear my children growing older..it really scares me the issues that will rise with it.
and I think it's hard now..and that's with recent anxiety meds, and extra as needed..
I don't like that.

Happy dry towels and no dryer issues? Did you get it fixed?

Hang in there my dear!
Always,
Elizabeth

SOUL said...

i just remembered i have pix on one of my dozens of several year old undeveloped film of my flooded house-- if i ever develop it-- i'll post it-- you are very lucky to have fixed your flood prob.

good for you.

hope you can fix your dryer too.
let me know. k

happy humpday.

Portia said...

Uh-oh. The trench was such a wise idea. I'd rather have some torn grass than a flooded basement too.

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