So, it rained, hailed and pretty much just stormed ALL afternoon and night yesterday, here in Chicago. Tons of water got dumped on us and fast: lots of flooding.
My husband was working late, and was on his way home (his commute takes about an hour) around 10 last night. I'm in my sweatpants getting ready to go to bed, when I hear a weird beeping noise coming from the basement: we have a really nice finished basement in this house, carpeted. I'm thinking maybe a phone got knocked off the hook or something, or maybe the alarm clock was going off in the guest room, so I go down there to investigate.
Turns out the alarm on our back-up Sump-Pump was going off because our main pump had failed. Uh oh. I also notice we're starting to get a little bit of water coming in by the wall. Big uh oh. Emma was excited, starting running around on the wet spot on the carpet like it was a slip and slide.
So, I have NO IDEA what to do about Sump Pumps. I did not learn that despite my many years of education!! Call the husband to ask him what to do, he says, well, I guess call a plumber. He gets home shortly after that.
Call a plumber, plumber gets there around 11, and had to totally replace our main sump pump. IT was totally shot and the pit around it was clogged with leaves: the people who owned the house before us were total idiots and never had it serviced or cleaned out, big surprise. These are also the people who: never cleaned out their dryer vents, never had their furnace serviced, built a brand new deck and never had it stained or sealed!
So the plumber got done about an hour after that (Midnight) and after paying him a hefty ransom I asked him what would have happened if we had just waited til morning to call him: he looked at the two cats sitting on the stairs and said: "Well, how well do those two swim?"
We narrowly avoided having our entire basement flooded: thank goodness I was home, and thank goodness for the alarm on the back-up Sump Pump!!!
After he left he went half a block down to our neighbors who had 3 feet of water in their basement!!!
Would have been amusing to see Emma and Oliver in water-wings and swimming gear, though!
Some days you gotta laugh or you'll cry...
My husband was working late, and was on his way home (his commute takes about an hour) around 10 last night. I'm in my sweatpants getting ready to go to bed, when I hear a weird beeping noise coming from the basement: we have a really nice finished basement in this house, carpeted. I'm thinking maybe a phone got knocked off the hook or something, or maybe the alarm clock was going off in the guest room, so I go down there to investigate.
Turns out the alarm on our back-up Sump-Pump was going off because our main pump had failed. Uh oh. I also notice we're starting to get a little bit of water coming in by the wall. Big uh oh. Emma was excited, starting running around on the wet spot on the carpet like it was a slip and slide.
So, I have NO IDEA what to do about Sump Pumps. I did not learn that despite my many years of education!! Call the husband to ask him what to do, he says, well, I guess call a plumber. He gets home shortly after that.
Call a plumber, plumber gets there around 11, and had to totally replace our main sump pump. IT was totally shot and the pit around it was clogged with leaves: the people who owned the house before us were total idiots and never had it serviced or cleaned out, big surprise. These are also the people who: never cleaned out their dryer vents, never had their furnace serviced, built a brand new deck and never had it stained or sealed!
So the plumber got done about an hour after that (Midnight) and after paying him a hefty ransom I asked him what would have happened if we had just waited til morning to call him: he looked at the two cats sitting on the stairs and said: "Well, how well do those two swim?"
We narrowly avoided having our entire basement flooded: thank goodness I was home, and thank goodness for the alarm on the back-up Sump Pump!!!
After he left he went half a block down to our neighbors who had 3 feet of water in their basement!!!
Would have been amusing to see Emma and Oliver in water-wings and swimming gear, though!
Some days you gotta laugh or you'll cry...
