Only Money

I ran out to get the newspaper, clad only in my nightie as usual. Our whole front yard was flooded, and water bubbled out a hole. A dang leak between the meter and the house.

Back inside, I hurried to put on clothes and boots while yelling at Grant to get up and get dressed. I called the plumber, first his cell which went to voice mail, then his service which took my message that I needed him NOW.

Grant told me to turn off the water to the house, which I did after tromping through our soggy front yard. That did nothing. I opened the meter box, full of water, and felt around for a valve. Nothing seemed to turn.

A quick call to Kyle who said to bail out the meter box. Duh, I should have thought of that. Back to the house for a measuring cup, back to the meter to kneel and bail. I found the valve but I couldn’t turn it. A picture sent to Kyle. He said get a wrench. Duh, again. To the garage for the wrench. Success, I turned the water off.

Well, that was exciting before coffee.

Troy called and said he’d be over after a while since he couldn’t do anything until the water went down.

Then the fun began. Dave dug around and uncovered 2 sprinkler pipes and a gazillion roots. Time for the ax. He eventually got deep enough under that mess and found the main line, which was in a sleeve of bigger PVC pipe and went down at a 90° angle before coming up by the house. Why? A previous owner’s good idea?

Wonder of wonders, the leak was right at the end of the sleeve rather than being tucked somewhere else in the yard. They decided to cut and replace, not dig and dig. I had them add a faucet before the house shut off valve so I can run my vegetable garden mist system and still turn off water to the house when we are gone. See: cloud, silver lining.

This all-day extravaganza was $850 plus the extra water. Being home when it happened, rather than on a cruise: priceless.


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