a small flood in my basement - from 17 Dec

17 Dec 2008


My daughter Becky had quite a saga yesterday..... arrived here 1130PM Monday night, got up early for Connor's 0630 appt at Primary Children’s’ Hospital in Salt Lake City for the MRI of the cyst on the front of his left calf (don't you call that his shin?), spent a great deal of the day there, got to leave about 2:30 PM, came back to American Fork to rescue Emma and Dani, who stayed with me. Connor took a while to wake up from his sedative - I think she said they used IV Nembutal, even when they got to my house, he was like a rubber man, walking like a drunk. They still did not get away from my house until 7PM. Got as far as Park City and Becky pulled over to sleep and let the kids watch movies, which is where she was when I called her to see about her progress about 10 PM. Sometime later, midnight maybe? she called me to say she had gotten as far as Coalville and found a motel to get some more sleep. But she was home at 7AM, and day care going on... Whey!

Dani and I had our own adventure yesterday (Tuesday) - a small flood in the basement! I had ignored and not replaced the wooden plywood cover over the sprinkler system gauges by the front steps when I cleaned up the front yard for the fall. When the snow began to melt off the roof yesterday afternoon, the downspout drain was missing its extension piece that would have guided the water to the roses and grass. Instead the water filled the concrete box where the sprinkler gauges sit. There is a 1" hole through the concrete wall from the box into the house that carries the electrical wire to the Sprinkler Master Controller swithches in the furnace room. Dani came hollering up the stairs that there was water running in the basement. And it surely was!! squirting right though that little hole like gang busters! After a few choice words (Mormon ones of course) I looked around for some McIver solution. There was an empty plastic grocery bag laying around, so I grabbed it and began to stuff it into the hole, plugging the dike. Dani and I moved the wet boxes and a few other things out of the room and swept what water we could into the basement drain. There was a bucket there already to catch the water before we got the squirting water stopped.


What to do next!? Well, go outside the house to see what needed to be done there.... yikes! the concrete box was full of water. Let's see - do I have some shop-vac or something to get that water out? No - only a bucket, so I bailed most of it out. Then I could see where that hole was through the basement wall that had carried that water into the house. The floor in the furnace room and a bit of the carpet got wet, but are dried out this morning. Too bad I did not have a camera crew - I bet we were comical - and wouldn't this be a great blog?

Thank goodness Dani was there to notice the running water, Later she went outside and helped clear snow off the sidewalk, not to mention helping me tend Emma all day. She was a good worker yesterday:-).. Good job, Dani!