2nd week of January 2016
A light work day this time. There is a 12x12 cellar underneath the most recent (guessing 1940-1950) bathroom addition. In it, along with what we're finding to be a typical assortment of trash, is about 3 feet of standing water.
Yes, those are electrical cords and a box fan SITTING IN THE WATER. After turning off the power, and clearing away the lumber and fan, I put on some boots and waded in. Turns out that the coiled hose is actually attached to, of all things, a sump pump. I plugged it in, stretched out the hose down to the back of the house, turned on the power, and wonder of wonders, the thing actually worked and pumped all the water out in about 30 minutes. Hurray for small miracles!
After the water was pumped out, I spent about an hour of cleaning things out and poking around. I determined that the main reason for the water being there is that the ground around this end of the house slopes toward this cellar. In addition, there are two downspouts that empty out within 12 feet of this opening in to the cellar. Mystery of why the water is there is solved. I set up the sump pump and float switch to handle any more water that should end up there until I can tackle the grading and drainage around the outside of the house.
Next up, the elephant in the room. Or in our case, the refrigerator in the kitchen. When we took ownership of the house, the frig was there, duct taped shut and unplugged. We were afraid of what we would find.
A light work day this time. There is a 12x12 cellar underneath the most recent (guessing 1940-1950) bathroom addition. In it, along with what we're finding to be a typical assortment of trash, is about 3 feet of standing water.
Yes, those are electrical cords and a box fan SITTING IN THE WATER. After turning off the power, and clearing away the lumber and fan, I put on some boots and waded in. Turns out that the coiled hose is actually attached to, of all things, a sump pump. I plugged it in, stretched out the hose down to the back of the house, turned on the power, and wonder of wonders, the thing actually worked and pumped all the water out in about 30 minutes. Hurray for small miracles!
After the water was pumped out, I spent about an hour of cleaning things out and poking around. I determined that the main reason for the water being there is that the ground around this end of the house slopes toward this cellar. In addition, there are two downspouts that empty out within 12 feet of this opening in to the cellar. Mystery of why the water is there is solved. I set up the sump pump and float switch to handle any more water that should end up there until I can tackle the grading and drainage around the outside of the house.
Next up, the elephant in the room. Or in our case, the refrigerator in the kitchen. When we took ownership of the house, the frig was there, duct taped shut and unplugged. We were afraid of what we would find.
The refrigerator section, as it turns out, was nearly empty. Yes! The freezer was the exact opposite. Who knew so much smell could be contained in such a small box. My wife and daughter rolled up their sleeves and wrestled the frig out the door and on to the back porch. Once we had it facing away from the house at the end of the porch, it was time to open Pandora's box.
We dropped the contents into a old kiddy pool we found in the back yard so that we could drag it all farther away from the house. Most of the contents were completely unidentifiable. But there was a package of bacon and 2 Hershey's chocolate bars that actually looked pretty good! No Fritz, just no.
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