Thu 11 Jun 2009
Storm-watch mode our 1st house anniversary
Posted by Pri under house
[3] Comments
After the rain on/around May 13…. WOW! We got scared…
David left me a message in gmail around 4pm saying: “Pri you’d better come home help me with the water entering in the downstairs floor”. [David: I was running around in a swimsuit and didn't know where my phone was! Rather than look for it while another 50 gallons of water gushed in, I sent her a gchat!]
Neil (other designer that works at the office) promptly offered a ride. So nice- thanks!!
David looked like he’d been swimming, and I saw that he had been working hard trying to keep the water out of the active room with towels and some of our mulch bags. Drains were clogged - partially taken care, but other part I cleaned. The rain was less strong at that point, and we kept drying and cleaning the downstairs. [david: it was not enjoyable work, but it was effective. When I went down to my office the next morning, I was struck by the sensation that I couldn't tell that anything had happened! Over time, I grew to see this as a good thing: no more speculating about last year, now we know the problem, and we were even here to keep it from getting bad.]
Ok - we should do something…. No walls damaged due to Davids work, but I felt strongly that this was the time to act in solving the root of the problem.
Our emergency plan consisted in placing sand bags around the stair under the deck to reduce the amount of water going down in the direction of our back door. It has been working very well as a barrier now. But we decided that it was time for checking what was going so wrong with the drain system in the patio.
I called Ken, and he also helped a lot getting some references for us. After talking with a couple of people, we found a guy that seems to be very passionate and knowledgeable about drains etc.. We hired him after his fantastic plan of action that will not cost much.
In the same week a big branch fell on the backyard (far form our house) on the neighbor’s wooden fence. This was a funny story that happened around 11pm -the cracky sound was a mystery until we figure out what was going on. We called the neighbor and there we were, deciding what to do… Next day the tree guys came and took care of it. We also hired them to take care of all other dead branches and some inconvenient branches around the house. service is done already!
Besides the drain issue we also had bad… no… not bad…VERY bad gutters that were sadly transforming rain in waterfalls on top of my flowers in the front bed. I even used my umbrella to protect them, such strong pressure it was… Poor little thingies… [david: the umbrella was very cute...] But now we already have them replaced to new gutters, and even bigger gutters with a mesh-type protection for leaves etc.
The house is happy now, and so are we!
Now, the only thing missing is the patio drains, but we think that while this is not ready the sand bags can help with possible storms… And, people came two days ago and cut down into our concrete 10 inches to prepare for the new drains. [david: this is the first time I've felt optimistic about the issue... I really think the new drains are going to remove all reasonable risk]
Exciting! Not always in good ways… but sometimes!






