Sexy Sewer

Previously, I mentioned that our reno project began in the basement. Well, I thought I'd start from the beginning...

It all started with a sink hole in our front yard which ended up being a broken sewage line. Fortunately, the line had an issue all the way to the street so the City contracted the plumber and a portion of the cost of the repair. So, after about five days of straight rain, these spirited albanian plumbers arrived to dig up our very wet front yard and replace the sexy sewer pipe.

They dug a trench in my front yard big enough to bury an elephant in and kept warning each other about stepping in the "gravy" all day! It was quite comical! Isn't that a beautiful shade of piping? I picked it out of the decor book myself! Nothing but the best for our waste products! ;)

Here is our redneck landscaping job. I'm ashamed to admit that it doesn't look much better now. We've moved on to bigger projects, and are lucky to just get the lawn mowed. I do have several very pretty planted pots on the steps now though.

Well, the spirited albanians were to connect our outside sewer pipe to our house pipe underneath our front steps. We were GREATLY disappointed when they got to it and discovered that it was deteriorated and impossible to connect to. This meant, a new plumber was needed to begin digging up our basement sewer line. The goal was to dig until they found good pipe....

.... (ignore the mess, we had to move stuff quickly)...

...they found good pipe two feet from the other end of the house near the main stack!

The good news was that we were able to save a bundle by doing the fill in and clean up ourselves. Clean up was exhausting for we removed all the cement and mud from the basement one bucket full at a time through the window, and the wheelbarrow held three full buckets, and the window was on the opposite side of the house from the driveway. We survived!

I knew Chad's experience working at the Zoo and helping build Penguin, Puffin Coast was going to pay off someday! Look how well he throws that slop. Too bad we didn't need any fake rocks, diving platforms or nesting holes.

Here is my Father-in-law working himself silly as the finisher. He does great work too! He demands a lot when he's here (name brand soda, homemade baked goods, Sea*mus prime rib, etc.), but free labor isn't easy to find these days! ;)