Yesterday, 4 power outages and a fried sub-pump.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
March 22, 2011 10:32am CST
But at least we had this pump for many years. I bought the house in 1998 and it has endured a lot. There wasn't much water yesterday. Thank goodness.
My husband is downstairs replacing with a new one and using colorful language for all he's worth. I don't think it's going well down there. I had volunteered to help him, good thing he told me he didn't want help. So far the pump, a pipe he keeps hitting, a heat duct and the hole it's going into have all been called a few things. The problem is that our 19 century house was built for people 5 feet and under, my husband is 5' 11". He banged his head a few times, too. Hard to move down there and not run into the furnace, the water pipes, the septic pipes, hot water heater, cold water storage tank, fuel oil tank, tons of shelves where they used to store all their canned goods for the winter and a workbench. There is barely walking space between each item. I want a freezer down there, goodness knows where we'd put it. But my parents had one in their basement for decades. Always the same temperature makes it easy on the freezer gizmos. They can last for a long, long time that way.
Oh dear, he just came up huffing and puffing. 7 months without work like that and he's out of shape for it. Better make sure he's ok. 54 yrs old is not a good time to wrestle with stuff you haven't built up to.
Anyway, you can comment on the recent power outages in your area, anything it fry-ed, husband's replacing things, volunteering to help husband or significant other, old houses and how they're built, space, what's in your basement? Plenty of things that you can comment on.
3 people like this
5 responses
@celticeagle (189833)
• Boise, Idaho
23 Mar 11
When are we really built up for anything anyway? I don't have a basement. I have a two level apartment. We have a small freezer out in the storage between the apartments. Try to keep some meat in it mostly. I don't see them around much anymore. I would look for one though. They are about half the size of the regular chest freezers.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Mar 11
Sometimes having a basement is good and sometimes not so good. There are good and bad things about anything.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Mar 11
Unless a basement is well made, it can be a serious problem. Most here are made pretty well. Thank goodness.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189833)
• Boise, Idaho
23 Mar 11
The house I used to live in with my ex has a basement. It is crumbling. He wanted to sell it or was thinking of it but when our real estate friend brought that to his attention he quickly changed his mind. I think he is there for life.
@GardenGerty (169474)
• United States
23 Mar 11
No sump pump in the basement. Old house. Lots of things down there, some of them slightly scary, like crumbly walls. We have had one reinforced. How about a 65 year old husband trying to push a car fast enough to get it to start, on the edge of the freeway yesterday. He is not used to that either. I will have to figure out a way to make a discussion out of our adventure, but will not do so until tomorrow.
@GardenGerty (169474)
• United States
23 Mar 11
I forgot I was maybe going to make a discussion. Bob is actually healthier in many ways than I am. Not working, he has become a bit too sedentary. You know, we would be in good shape if each of us got at least one part time job.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
24 Mar 11
My friends are healthier now just by getting a dog and going for a walk every day. Even on bad weather days, they can go to PetSmart and walk. People without pets can walk at our Mall every day. Alas, I'm 25 miles away from either one and don't work at either one. But when the weather gets better, I don't intend to use my car around town. I can go to the store, post office, library, town museum, town offices, a little diner and insurance company all by walking. This time of year with this mud, it's hard walking and we had 40 degrees. We're back into the 20s again, without wind, it's not bad but we have lots of wind.
I'll be cutting back my raspberry bushes very soon. Always lots to do outdoors here, just need the weather and health to do it. 10 acres is like that.
So hopefully the weather will get better and you can go for walks. My husband will probably go back to walking to the diner again. At least I hope so. He even built up to going farther than that.
Take care and he's hoping you find an activity like bike riding, swimming, putting on records and dancing (which can be done any time of the year) that you can do together and/or separately. Take care.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
22 Mar 11
The last power outage we had was when we got hit with that ice storm. We only lost it from about 9PM to 1 AM and fortunately nothing fried..If something does fry or needs in repair though, I am opposite of you, I try to turn tail and run when my husband goes to work,..He is too much of a perfectionist and takes probably four times as long as needed to repair something,...
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Mar 11
$35 for the new sump pump and 25 minutes to put it in.
Our ice storm in 1998, depending on where you were was 2 weeks where I was, 5 weeks where my house is now, and across the border, almost 2 months. It's why we have 2 wells, one back up non-electric and two heating situations, based on electric and based on wood and non-electric. That way if we have a power outage, we'll at least have water and heat. 3 day outages have been all around us.
A car had hit a power pole. Not sure why it kept going off and on. probably the wind and workers having trouble getting the lines to stay.
Well at least with a perfectionist, when it is done, it's right. My husband did assembling for over 10 years, he had to be quick and correct. So he comes in handy. Take care.
1 person likes this
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
23 Mar 11
I don't remember that far back, but I think I would recall being without power for days, so it probably didn't happen here.
As for being a perfectionist? Yeah it might get done right, but when a lot needs to be done and doing one job makes him so tired that he doesn't go to the next job until at the eleventh hour, then that makes it a big problem..I'd rather have faucets to easily turn the water on, even if it is for only a few years, than to wait that many years to get it done...
@yoyo1198 (3641)
• United States
23 Mar 11
We had a full basement when I was growing up. My brother and I spent a lot of time down there. There was room for the furnace, a separate work room, table and chairs, clothes line space, a bed, a freezer, ironing board space, shelving for canned foods and our toys and games and still room left over to set up quilting frames for the occasional quilting bee that the women's group from church would have. My brother used the bed area as his bedroom. We'd use the table to play board games. The basement was like having another house. When the house was sold a couple of years ago, we found stuff down there we'd had from the 50's.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Mar 11
Some basements people can live in and some people if they don't flood do. I dated a guy who had an appartment in a basement.
@hardworkinggurl (37062)
• United States
22 Mar 11
Well I live in an apartment so I do not have a basement, when something breaks we have to beg the landlord to fix. My boyfriend is so grateful he does not have to pretend, lol, to fix anything. I figure this is why I no longer live in my old home and moved in with him.
The only outage we had recently was in February where our entire area was out of the internet for a full nine days and I went bonkers. Driving the internet company double bonkers because they could not figure out what the issue was.
As for your husband, bless him because although huffing and puffing he is trying and maybe call him up stairs a few times that will be the excuse for him to exercise doing some cardio. LOL.. Hope you get your freezer some day
soon. 
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
23 Mar 11
When the weather gets nice, he'll walk.
He replaced the pump in 25 mins. It's a sump pump, not a sub pump just for future FYI. I made an error in the original part of the discussion.
