Here Comes the Rain Again

Well folks, if you've been following along, you'll recall the great drainage project of 2008, where I replaced much of the sump pump hose with PVC pipe, running it the 6 feet up the wall, out through the hole, back down a bit to near the ground, and out away from the house to a downspout diverter.

I cleaned a gutter, and have had no more problems with water coming in the basement.

That is, until last night.

We got 3.6" of rain over about 24 hours (it could have been MUCH worse, as it was further to our southeast) from the remains of Hurricane Ike as it moved up a cold front that moved through early this morning.

I'd even gone out to Lowes a few days ago and had gotten a one way flow valve to keep the water left in the pipe after the sump drained from running down and filling the sump again. I was actually pretty psyched for this test of my new system.

Unfortunately, in the interest of being able to take the thing apart and remove it if I had to, I didn't pvc glue the stuff on the outside of the house. And unfortunately, what with the pump kicking on every 20 seconds through the heavy rain last night, it blew one of the joints loose and deposited a lot of water right next to the basement wall. And of course that water worked its way down to that weak spot right behind the couch in our basement. When I came downstairs this morning I heard and felt the cold squish of wet carpet beneath my bare feet.

Worse than it had ever been.

Soooooooooooooo.... I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon using the carpet cleaner vac to suck water out of the carpet. I probably removed 10 or 12 gallons of water.

Went out to Wal-Mart and got some plastic sliders to get the wooden feet of the furniture up off of the wet carpet, and I have the box fan going full-tilt boogie over the floor. We've opened the house up ... it's lovely outside. It's been right around 60 degrees all day, on its way down to the mid 40's tonight.

Yesterday we went to the Mizzou/Nevada game, and sat in the rain with BrianM, Pam, BrianC, & Deanna and watched the Tigers rack up a school record tying 69 points against the poor Wolf Pack of Nevada. I'm a tad worried about our pass defense. Hope they can fix that. (Picture was taken on my lousy phone camera)

It rained on again, off again. Sometimes light, sometimes moderate. Sometimes stopping completely. It was warm and humid ... we kept putting our ponchos on and taking them off because ... well, they were hot.

Went to Aires Pizza with the Carletons afterward, then came home and watched the Boisie State/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl game from a couple of years ago (Vicki bought the DVD ... it's probably the most exciting game of college football ... ever!)

We'll probably be all week drying out this basement.

We may get a chance to meet photographer and blogger friend Megan and her husband Rodd here early next week ... they're on a road trip through the Rockies for some fall color and then I think they're coming to visit some family in Missouri and will hopefully be able to stop by and hang out a while on their way through. So that's pretty exciting.

Our weekends are getting pretty booked. Got a hemophilia conference next weekend (Trenton has a mild case of hemophilia and the whole Carleton family has been very involved in this organization for a while. Hey, we need to learn how to keep the little guy intact!!!!) Then a wedding. Then Fort Wayne/Carmel/Yosmeite (two weekends) and by that time it's late October. Come November there'll be Thanksgiving (more Fort Wayne) and the busy Christmas season and... man... it doesn't end, does it?

Well, like I've said since I've been an adult. Life is all about the people!