oh my goodness girl how did you manage to do all of that.
I was just thinking about you yesterday, we need to have lunch soon.
We had our septic system back up during the summer and it was awful, got some good people to come out and fix the problem. Glad my husband did most of the clean up in the house.
We have all the gadgets you mentioned, they do come in handy.

Helpful Gadgets:

Plumber Plunger

Sets of wrenches both SAE and Metric

Automotive floor jack

A box full of odds and ends for plumbing repair.

A pair of wood spliting wedges and a 15 lb sledge.

Two chain saws

A bow saw

Flat end shovel, a spade, and 2 snow shovels.

An old electric fry pan. When its 10 F outside, plug the pan in an set the controller to its lowest temperature. Put your hand tools in the pan. That way, when you pick up a wrench with a bare hand, you won't get a frost bite burn.

2 step ladders, a 6 ft and an 8 ft. Both are insulating ladders.

28 ft extension ladder

Hand drill with assorted drills - works when the power is out.

An old fashioned bumper jack (from the 1960s). It is a universal jack screw type and can be used to lift loads or jack something apart.

Camping kit: sleeping bags, cook kit, 2 Coleman type lanterms, and Coleman stove.

My DH is my gadget~~~and he has all his own gadgets.

I've been dealing with no running water in the kitchen, but your situation is much worse! It reminds me of the huge spill we had in the basement a couple of years ago. Stored beans and grains that had rotted. Ugh. I bought a shop vac for that occasion, and it worked miracles.

LOL YogaLady ME TOO!! However my model is getting older and not as functional as it once was! But he has a garage full of gadgets!

Ravencajun, my home is surrounded by 3 large oak trees and bushes. Their roots covered my front & back lawn. Last year we had a bad drought which caused trees looking for water. Apparently, drought can also cause breakage in septic line. A small crack can be enough for roots to sneak in looking for water. My sewage back up was caused by roots growing in the line.

I asked the plumber what can I do to prevent this from happening and he said to use salt. Plain table salt should work fine. He instructed to pour about 1/4 to 1/3 of the container (Morton Salt) into the toilet and flush it a couple of times. The salt will kill all young roots and also preventing the line breakage to worsen. It's best to do this treatment before going to bed and let it sit overnight.

If you know where the main sewage line (own by the county/city) that your house line (on your property) goes into, the main toilet is the closest one to the main line.

Caution: Do this treatment about once a month. It should be sufficient enough. Salt tends to cause corrosion on galvanized pipes. It's not good to do it too often.

Ours is unfortunately on a septic tank on our property and it was the drought conditions that caused our line that connects at the septic tank to the laterals to shift and separate, from settling. They were able to replace the broken section and then ran a water jet machine through the lines which has pressure enough to cut through dirt and some roots, thankfully they were successful.

Our current problem now is the master shower drain, it was very slow, my husband used one of his gadgets, a heavy duty metal drain snake that he connected to his power drill to run it in the drain pipe. He came out with a massive wad of roots and dirt so we know that pipe has a crack in it some where. I will have him try the salt.
I did find a company locally that can do a procedure that sleeves the pipe from the inside so they don't have to jackhammer up the floor and walls to replace the pipe. I was dreading having the entire bathroom torn up. Either way will be costly. For now it's draining ok, guess he got a lot of the blockage with the snake.

The joys of home ownership!

Oh my Raven, that's so much troubles. It's a good thing that you your DH is handy. Many that I know just aren't. I mean, I know about home fixin' more than they do.

Believe it or not, each time I hear problems our city have in apartments, I'm so glad I am settled in a home. Not to mention, my mortgage is so much less than renting a one-bedroom apartment.

I have tools & gadgets that my neighbors often come by to borrow instead of investing one themselves.

When I moved from an apartment to a home with lawns/yards, the first tool set I purchased was gardening tools. Being a first time homeowner, I had no idea of all the tools I would need for maintain the lawns & yards. I looked up for a moving sale and contacted the homeowners to see if they had gardening tools for sale. I then dealt with them for all the gardening tools that they had. They gave me so many extras, it was quite a good deal. I had all I needed for years. There were tools that I wouldn't have thought I'd need them. Of course later on, I was glad I had the tools to complete the job.

Home ownership can be a pain but it also has its own benefits and rewards.

Hmm, all I have is a telephone to call the repairman, and a checkbook to pay him.

our sewage backup occured while I was out of town...my husband called our insurance company who sent out a cleanup crew...they did more damage then good...I'm still repairing what they tore up and its been two years!

The only gadgets I have now are a hammer, a set of screw drivers and some pliers.

I use to do a lot of the DIY jobs, in the house or outside, and had many gadgets in the garage, including shovels, hoes, edgers, mowers, saws, sanders, even a battery operated chainsaw.

No need for those now, and couldn't manage them any way now. Just call Maintenance; but oh, how I miss DImyself!

Sue