The fun of living in an older house [sorry Beth… another complaint] comes with all sorts of regular challenges. For example, plumbing issues.
We woke up Monday morning to this:
Out In The Street
The main water line for our house is out in the street. Not in the middle of the road, but cars drive over it on a regular basis. So that constant pounding over layers of asphalt and dirt takes a toll on 50 year old pipes in the ground.
This happened to us two years ago as well. So we discussed the options with our city water department. Here’s what’s on the table, er.. in the pipeline:
- Option 1) Move the water meter to a place closer to our house and away from the road.
- Option 2) Fix the current leak and then revisit the moving of the meter to next year.
Option 1 is very costly right up front. The city will pay for the cost to move the meter, but we have to change the location of where the water line is coming into our house. That’s our expense. Currently, it’s about $5,000 to move that, just to meet where the city relocates their line.
Option 2 still requires us to move the line, but it buys us some time to come up with the money or figure out another option [digging the trench ourselves, only needing a plumber to come out and do all of the pipe connecting work.]
We chose Option 2, which the city was also happy about [I’m sure their annual budget is getting pretty tight by this time of the year]. This is what the road and the area near the water main looks like after the repair:
the orange cones help keep the cars off the newly-repaired leak
Yep, that’s my scooter in the background to the left
A closeup view of the road dug up and repaired
Until Next Year
So we are good to go for now, only being water-challenged for a couple of days. Guess I need to start getting prepared to dig a 60 foot trench next year. All in the name of saving a few thousand dollars. Yay me!
Sounds like you need to host a blogger, ditch digging themed party!! 😀
I feel your pain-my 1930’s house is sinking slowly, unevenly no matter how many concrete pylons I put under it…Good Luck!!!!
Ouch. Why would it cost that much? Just the digging part of it?
Glad to hear that time is on your side, i like the ditch digging party idea. I say DO IT!
Digging a 60ft trench doesn’t sound like any fun whatsoever. Neither does shelling out 5 grand out of your own pocket though. Ugh. Sorry to hear about this mate. Did you have to pay anything out of pocket for the quick fix this time around? I wonder if you’ll get more years out of this fix than the last time.
Sorry to hear about your water troubles. Do you know anyone with a backhoe? If I’m still living in this silly-ass state next year I’ll help you dig; although my fat ass would probably be more of a hindrance than anything…
We could host a Blogathon. We could even name it “Digging for Water” or some such heart-grabbing title so that people automatically think we’re digging wells for impoverished children in Africa, but really, it’s for scUtah’s current owner.
I’d donate a post!
I love older homes. Especially when other people opt to maintain them. =) It’s mind boggling, sometimes, that MORE doesn’t break more often. I mean, there are homes that are hundreds of years old. Still standing. Still putting up with our nonsense. So impressive!
sybil law – A themed ditch digging party sounds like a great suggestion – DitchCon
zoe right – Wow. Sorry to hear about the house sinking. My water issue pales in comparison.
avitable – Yep. The digging part, which a professional would come in with one of those powered ditch diggers. The actual plumbing part of it (connecting pipes together) is about $600.
beth – I may just have to hold DitchCon.
kevin – Nothing out of pocket for this quick fix. As for how long this fix will last, we’ll see.
alex – I may just hit you up for help if we end up with DitchCon.
whall – Donating a post would be great. Can we get Sting to come help dig and sing “We’re Digging A Ditch”?
nilsa – With some exceptions, our older home isn’t that bad. Especially since we remodeled the kitchen and added siding (which I have yet to blog about 8 months after the fact)
They rent those little backhoes for jobs like this. I dunno how hard it would be to use one though. So sorry you’ve got water main issues. I guess stuff like that is the benefit to being a renter. Meh. I think I’d still rather have a house…
I was going to suggest having ConFab Baby! at your place next year but I see Sybil has beat me to it.
(I just mention here to show it gets at least two votes.)
Sometimes being an adult stinks, doesn’t it? For what it’s worth, our house is new and things keep breaking in it all the time too. I keep saying our house is cursed because there is no way we should be spending the amount of money fixing things that we are in a brand new house!
winter – Yeah, I will have to look into the cost of one of those. That would make a 40 foot trench a lot easier to dig.
delmer – I will count your vote towards a ditch digging/blogging event. Maybe I’ll have to live blog something like that.
tori – Having owned a brand new home at one point, they have their issues and problems with stuff breaking and needing to be fixed.