Well, we get home about 8pm from class, Thomas goes downstairs and yells up -- WE HAVE A FLOOD DOWN HERE! I went down and yep, the basement was flooded. Apparently, the two loads of laundry & the dishwasher went into the basement and not outside! ARG!
Luckily, I have a steam cleaner, so we're sucking up the water...bucket by bucket. I called a plumber to come out this morning at 8am. Its 10:30 by the time we get enough water pulled up that we feel we can go to bed. So, I called my receptionist and had her schedule my patients to this afternoon hoping that I would be able to go in for at least 1/2 a day.
The plumber shows up at 7:50 am. GREAT! Let's get going so I can get to work! He goes downstairs and tries to snake the pipe -- except he's going back into the house and not out! I show him the washer and he goes through the outlet pipe there. 60 feet ... not much interference. Hmm... he says "I'm afraid it might be your septic, when did you have it pumped last?" "Well, we've lived here almost 3 years and WE'VE never had it done." He tells me that he has to get more equipment and he'll be back.
About an hour later, a different guy from this company comes out to look for our septic tank. I don't know where it is. I can't find the map of the property that the previous owners left us. So, hunting we go. He starts looking around where it "might" be. Meanwhile, I notice an area of ground that "mushy" and ask if that could be it...this is on the opposite side of the backyard! He goes -- well, lets check. He has a handy-dandy rod that he pokes into the ground about 18 inches and it goes: "thunk"! PAYDIRT -- we hit concrete! So we dig, and dig, and dig. We find the tank, but not the lid. Its now 10:45 and he yells "found it!" We get it cleared off and open it and it is FULL! Now he tells me that I have to call someone else to pump it...apparently, they don't do that.
(Here is the tank and lid that we had to search for. I decided NOT to post the "open" picture)
I call my receptionist again and tell her to close for the day. I'm not making it in. :( She gets that done while I call for someone to pump my septic tank. Luckily, they can come out today and get here about 1pm. The poor kid almost buried the truck in the yard, however. (It doesn't look good for the yard!)
He opens the lid and goes "yep, you're full!" Gee....really!??! He gets set up and it takes well over an hour to pump it out. I ask him about marking the area so that we don't have to hunt in the future, and he put a "riser" in so that it covers the lid and marks it for future reference. He did mention that we shouldn't need to do this again for another 5-10 years! YAY!
(Here's the "AFTER" of the cover over the lid of the septic tank so that we don't have to go through the hunting stage again!)
So, my day off was spent digging in the yard and helping pump sewage!
I did manage to go for a bike ride, however, so that day wasn't a complete waste.
I'm waiting for Thomas to come home from school so we can work more on cleaning the water in the basement! YIPPIE!
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