Lorien and Wyatt had their birthdays in the middle of our moving mess. It was also election day...so there were a lot of emotions. I couldn't even watch the results. Lorien got to pick dinner, Will had to work and I just did laundry. The kids opened presents and I tried to ignore the TV while the most shocking and disappointing election new I could hear was announced. I disliked both candidates but I dislike Trump more...I wrote in my presidential vote. I couldn't pick either one...and a jar of sunburned mayonnaise is going to be our next president. Ugh.
Never mind. That is not what I wanted to blog about. The big kids turned 15 and 13. Wyatt is officially a teenager and Lorien is one year closer to driving. Very exciting (sort of)!
When it was Wyatt's turn to choose dinner he picked going out to eat (yay!). We made a trip to the Black Bear Diner so he could have country fried steak. Poor kid had to wait a full week after his birthday to have his birthday dinner but somehow he managed. It was everything eating out with five kids presumes to be. A little rowdy, lots of laughs and mediocre food (because you get what you pay for...even when paying for five kids).
So that was Tuesday the 15th. We moved over the weekend and life was predictably chaotic. The kids still had a full week of school to attend before the Thanksgiving week off. We've been living in and out of boxes for almost a whole month now and it makes everyone stressed out. Not to mention, we were missing a part to hook up our new washer and dryer so we were all running out of clean clothes. We still had access to our previous home and washer and dryer so I had done a load or two but it wasn't nearly enough to keep up with seven people's daily offerings to the dirty laundry gods.
Wednesday was a day of unpacking and normal we-just-moved busyness. Will worked from the east bay and took Lorien to wrestling practice. Did I not mention Lorien is on the high school wrestling team yet? Well, that deserves its own post so look for that in a bit. Will and Lorien came home, I tried to shovel food down the kid's throats before they had to leave for mutual. Wyatt was getting a ride from our friends, the Smiths. Ann came a little early to pick up Wyatt and see the new house. As I walked her around each room downstairs she said "Uh, is that water?" pointing to a huge puddle pooling in the hall and family room floor. I started freaking out! Yes, it was water...and even worse, it was toilet water! Hot toilet water!? I tried to turn off the water to the toilet but hot toilet water kept pouring out.
Ann frantically helped me spread beach towels around (thank heavens I knew where those were!). I started screaming to Will who was in the shower (as was Lorien--post wrestling work out). Ann scooped up all of my kids and headed out the door (God bless Saint Ann). Will came out of the shower and figured out that the reason the toilet water was hot was because it was from his shower and Lorien's shower. We had a sewage back up. AWESOME! Once he got Lorien to shut off her water the deluge stopped. But the floors were still soaked with sewer water. Ugh.
So we've been in our house for less than five days and already had a major disaster! Overflowing toilets are clearly classified as a major disaster. FEMA has to be called in.
**Post edit** 11/20/2017 It took a few days for a plumber to come out to the house. In that time we didn't run the water at all. For some reason, even though we had an overflow "mushroom" in the yard the blocked pipe caused the overflow to happen in the downstairs toilet. Likely because of gravity...the downstairs toilet is lower than the overflow "mushroom". Anyway, the plumber had to cut off the pipes in the downstairs bathroom sink to run an auger through. He broke up a bunch of debris blocking the pipe and discovered the contractors who renovated the house used the drains as trash bins. There were nails, screws, dried grout, hunks of plaster, all kinds of renovation garbage blocking the pipes. He cleaned out as much as he could but we will likely have this problem again. If they dumped grout down the drains it probably hardened in places and will cause a backup. So annoying!
**post, post edit** it did happen again. Over Christmas. We couldn't get anyone out to fix it. Thankfully, the overflow "mushroom" worked and it backed up into the front yard...but still. Will ended up going to buy a 50 ft snake and clearing the blockage himself. We are trying to find someone to come out with a camera to find where the blockage is exactly and see if it can be removed. Bummer.
No comments:
Post a Comment