I’m sure many of you have heard about the big Hurricane Arthur that is causing mass destruction on the East Coast. Well, I’ve seen many pictures, been out of contact with my family and watching as they slowly start to get powerlines up and and running and start cleaning up the mess.
Now, Arthur started in my hometown a day or two ago. And CONVENIENTLY, I woke up yesterday morning with a flooded basement. A bag of dog food was soaked, several dog toys were soaked and floating around, dog dishes floating, and laundry that I had been sorting completely drenched and floating around.
Thankfully, there were still two small corners of our basement that were dry, so I stacked as much as possible in those two corners, but left the dog food, clothes and toys as I wasn’t sure if the water contained any sewage or not.
We have a drain in our basement, so I left it to drain, thinking this would work. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I went down in the evening to find the water had risen! So again, I started moving a couple things that would not survive the water, and shook my head as I ran upstairs to call our rental company. They had a pumping company sent over fairly quickly.
As he said up his pump, he realized there was much more water than he thought and quickly said if he had to stay here and pump it, it would take him 2-3 hours. So he would return in the morning with a submersible pump that should work more quickly. He did say it was a foundational problem and may require a plumber for the drain not working.
The apartment company guy that was on call showed up afterwards. I filled him in on what the pump-man had said, and he checked it out for himself, said he would make note of it, and it would get fixed. However, as he was here, we began to get another lightning/thunder/rain storm. So he gave us the unfortunate news that even though it would get fixed, with another storm, it will probably get worse first. Oh how happy I was.
Now, we have the submersible pump running, and it has been running for almost 2 hours as assuredly the water had risen over night. The other bad news is that the pump-man has told us that he’s pretty sure sewage has leaked up through the drain. Even my washer and dryer are sitting in this water. I’m SO thrilled. I’m assuming all of the laundry I had on the floor for sorting will now be thrown out, the mini-frige, travelling bags, etc… will all have to be thrown out. I’m so unhappy.
Now of course, I’m sure you’re all thinking that things like this just happen. Which is true. But prior to us moving in, they had a mini-flood in the basement and though they did have it cleaned up before we got here, they had not fixed the problem. So our company was well aware of what could happen. In fact, when we moved in two months ago, they told us that they would have someone come fix our basement, and my husband has recalled them to see when people were coming, and of course, we were always assured “right away”.
Things like this just frustrate me a little. Yes, we have renter’s insurance so I know everything should be ok. No, I’m not the one cleaning the most of it, so I shouldn’t really complain. But it doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating.
We just had word that a plumber is coming which probably means I’ll be here the most of the day, but hopefully this will fix a lot of the problems from happening and will maybe speed up the company’s concern of fixing our basement.
If I can give any advice to any renter’s out there, it would be this: Always get everything in writing and be very specific! Attach deadlines to things. Have the landlord sign in. Hold them to it. And of course, ask around for opinions. Not everyone will have the same opinion, but it doesn’t hurt to go with a general consensus.
Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!
Calm in Christ and Fitness 