The Flood

Anyone in Northeast Kansas knows its been rainy lately. We have had inches upon inches of it and no sun since last week. I miss the sun. Its my friend.

The lack of sun wouldn't be so bad, if we didn't have solid clay as our soil (meaning the water doesn't sink in it sits on top once the ground is wet). Oh, and the ground will stay wet for a while because clay is really good at keeping the moisture there. Enough of the science lesson, back to the drama that is our house.

Our house has water issues. We had no idea it had water issues when we bought it. They said the neighbors had an above ground pool that broke and flooded the house. They did not say, if it rains more than a couple of inches you will have a flooded house. Obviously they didn't read the definition of 'sellers disclosure.'

Last year it was rainy in the spring, and we didn't realize our house was flooding until we smelled that horrible smell of wet carpet. And, of course, the smell doesn't happen immediately, the vile stench was noticed about 3 days after it had rained last. Um, yay.

Anyway, last spring (early June I believe) with the help of the local missionaries we dug a French drain 3 feet deep and about 20 feet long. We planted grass, and thought, all was well. It was well. You see, monsoon season is the spring. I mean, the rainy season.

Honestly, if Mother Nature hadn't of dumped 5 extra inches on us last month we would have been fine. Maybe its not 5 extra inches, but we are over 5" above average for the rain around here. I don't know if its accurate, but according to the local newspaper website, we have already had 8.43" of rain this month and the average to date amount is 3.66". I am guessing they are counting April or something because it didn't rain that much overnight. Or who knows, maybe it did, I mean I was asleep, so who knows.

Anyway, part of why we flooded is that the attached neighbor never cleans her gutters. Daniel went and cleaned them out yesterday with next-door Steve's help and sewer snake. You see, hand cleaning wasn't enough, and the broom handle wasn't enough. It took about 15-20 minutes of snaking from the top of the gutter as well as from the bottom to get water to flow down her side. They found a dove in her nest in Steve's attached neighbor's gutter. Daniel grabbed the eggs, but when he showed me they were cracked so he coundn't hatch them.

We are going to have a neighborhood meeting about cleaning gutters. All I gotta say is, you need to clean them! Last year the gutter attached to us was completely full and Daniel cleaned it out. He even found a tennis ball plugging the hole.

We also (impulse buy) got a sump pump. After opening it, we learned the details and it totally needs at least 2" of water and a hard surface to do any good. So, we are going to return that. I will go find a less hard core pump that won't need as much standing water sometime today. Maybe even a fountain pump that we can attach to some hosing. You know, sometime after Alice wakes up from her "why are we driving Daddy to work at 6:30am" nap. Its sort of like extended sleep really. Thank goodness I gave our couch and loveseat away. Now, I can move the living room into the dining room and have space to set up the room in there until we fix the water problem and clean the carpets. Who knew cleaning the carpets would be required so often? Oh, and the front water problem is on hold until the roof stops leaking. The part where Daniel patched it is holding great, but we have a leak in our bedroom, and Daniel thinks its from a cracked plastic casing for a vent tube. He noticed they were looking bad when he was up there last time. We just need a sunny day to warm the roof now, and wham bam thank you ma'am he can fix the roof. I have confidence in his ability.

Rain rain go away

Well yesterday evening, on the lovely day of rest, we got yet another rain fall. The Forcasters predicted we would get 3.25 inches. The worst part was that at least 2 of those inches fell within half an hour. Daniel ran around watching the water rise and found out the front corner of our house is the lowest spot around. Not just compared to Steve's duplex which is a foot higher, compared to the other side of our duplex as well. There was a small river of water running from thier side on the sidewalk in front of our house, and just pooling there. We had started digging a big hole, and Daniel got a bucket and bailed water from the hole (which was by where the hosue was flooding (yet again) for about an hour. The neighbor Steve came out and said he hadn't seen it this bad, and that they had put a drain in the front. Supposedly the drain should be routing water away from the front of the house, but the water was up to our ankles and totally covered the Welcome mat, so it wasn't working.

I checked out our home insurance policy and found out we have covereage for drains...so we are going to call and see if this is covered and then maybe get some estimates. It might end up being something that would be cheaper than our deductible ($1000) but if we get it taken care of through the insurance, we might be able to get the carpets steam cleaned, and if necessary, the insulation replaced where the house is flooding. I took some pictures, but of course, not ones that show the water level on the house, though the fact that it was coming inside past the frame is an indication, it was pretty high.

Daniel slept really poorly last night. He was up at 2am, dehydrated and stressed out about the idea we need an extra $1K. It looks like with doing lots of overtime it will take about 2 months. Of course, if we have to spend any money we will jstu use the home equity line, but still. How crazy. Obviously this has affected me too since Alice woke me at 5:30 to eat an I didn't go back to sleep. The worst part, at least in my mind currently, is that the living room is again trashed. Pulling up carpet in the corner and moving furniture to the middle of the room does that. Maybe I will try and get some more sleep, or at least go wake Daniel for scruiptures.