Water, water......EVERYWHERE!!

Into every life, a little rain must fall.........A LITTLE??? All I have to say is that this family has had more than its share! In the time that Keil and I have been together we have had more "water problems" than probably most of you will have in your lifetime. I'm not kidding.

It started in the tiny house (400 sq. ft) in Chadron. The house was about 100 years old, was built on a foundation of railroad ties and had no insulation. It was Keil's "bachelor pad" that became our first home until the house in Whitney was done. Well, the sewer system was bad. The pipes needed to be dug up out of the backyard and replaced, but the landlord knew we would be moving soon, so he decided to wait. In the mean time, we could only take 2 minute showers, only flush the toilet twice a day (with 12 hours in between each flush)--unless of course you had just showered, then you had to wait a few extra hours to flush. And if you didn't follow these "water rules," then the toilet and the shower would back up into the CARPETED bathroom. Yuck.

We moved out of there a few weeks earlier than we had planned to escape the problem, only to find a whole new sea of problems. When we first moved in, the house in Whitney had major drainage problems and with a very wet spring season, we spent many hours on at least two seperate occasions, bucketing water out of the crawlspace. To solve this problem, the original plan was to lay drain tile around the house. So Keil began digging a two foot deep trench all the way around the house in which to lay the pipe. And then one night, before the pipe was layed, the rains came pouring down, and there we were, knee deep in mud, bucketing water out of the trench that had suddenly become more like a mote. Needless to say, Keil filled the trench back in and we poured concrete around the whole house. Problem solved, right?

Then, there was the time that I awoke in the middle of the night with Adrik pushing on my bladder (as often happens when you are pregnant). I heard a strange rushing noise, and when I stepped into the bathroom, I was standing about a half inch deep in water. No, it wasn't time for the baby to come--the pipe under the bathroom sink had come unsealed.

So, with the pipes fixed and the summer long project of pouring concrete completed, we thought, "we are done with water problems." Hahahaha.

Keil came running in the door from work one sunny summer afternoon and said "There's water pouring out from the foundation!" We pulled open the door to the crawlspace only to find it chest high with water. The water heater was floating. Where was this water coming from?? Oh guess! The water main outside the house and under the -yes, you've got it!- the new CONCRETE- had broken! We had to call in a backhoe to break up Keil's hard work and replace the broken pipe. Oh, and the one year old water heater was destroyed and had to be replaced.

We moved to Idaho a month later. We rented a house outside of Pocatello for a few months, and our landlord was adament about the importance of lawn care. So, we dutifully began watering the yard, carefully moving the sprinkler around every so often so as to soak every blade of grass. Until one night, with the sprinkler running behind the garage, Keil went into the garage to retrieve something, and found it flooded. The slope of the lawn was such that the water from the sprinkler was running right into the garage. Boxes yet to be unpacked sat in puddles of water. Then the realization struck us-- the nightmare had followed us 700 miles across the country.

We bought our home in Pocatello that October. But it wasn't over. In late November the snow began to fly. We were giving Adrik a bath one night, and had the heater running and the door closed, so as not to chill the baby. Suddenly, I was horrified by the drip, drip, dripping of water on my head! NOW WHAT?? The access to the attic was through Adrik's closet, so we made him a make-shift bed in another room and Keil climbed up to check it out. There were gaps in the roof line where the trusses came together at the front and back of the house that noone had ever bothered to close up. The snow was blowing into the attic and piling up over the hall bathroom. When we turned the heat on in the bathroom, the sheetrock in the ceiling (on which the snow was laying) had warmed up and began to melt the snow, which then soaked through the sheetrock and dripped on my head. So, instead of bucketing water and mud out of the crawlspace, we were bucketing snow and wet, heavy insulation out of the attic.

And now for the latest in our series of soggy disasters. This house has a water softner, that didn't seem to be working quite right. About a month ago, Culligan came out and did a small tune-up and said everything was fine. That night at about 3:00 in the morning, Keil wandered down to the basement to find the storage room and the kids' playroom flooded with water. The floor drain was apparently backed up, so when the water softner had cycled out at 2:00, there was nowhere for the water to go except out into the room. On top of that, the water heater was leaking out the top. Keil bought a drain snake and replaced the nipples on the water heater, neither of which did any good. So, last night we totally replaced the water heater. In the process, we discovered that the valve on our main water shut off is no longer functioning. So, even with the water main completely turned off, we still have water coming into the house. We did get the new water heater in place though, only to discover that, during the replacement, the connecting flex pipes were damaged and now need to be replaced; and until they are, the new heater is also leaking. Keil has finally given up and the plumber has already been here this morning, and will be back this afternoon.

By my count, that makes almost a dozen different water problems in our short 5 years together. I have wondered if the last name "Fisher" has had anything to do with our watery woes. I think we could really enjoy being "fish out of water;" if ever given the chance to try it!