Hopefully I have just seen the last of them for this year.

Starting in December I had water coming in the house because of ice damming in the eavestroughs, and both rooms in my basement have flooded 3 times since January, I have water seeping in around the foundation and up through cracks in the cement floor and my backyard is like a lake.

Saturday evening my basement flooded again but this time it was not clean water. Mixture of sewage and water from the weeping tiles. You think I would know by now when my cats start acting strange that there is water in the basement and they can't get to their litter boxes. LOL

When I saw the water Saturday night there was nothing I could do about it until Sunday. I didn't know it was dirty water at the time.

My friend Donna and I have laughed ourselves silly about our water woes. Her hot water tank gave out this weekend too. Her husband had called home to tell her to check the basement because they had flooding a few weeks ago same time I did. She went down to check and sure enough there was water. She told her husband on the phone there was water but it wasn't coming from the sewers. LOL They just got their new hot water tank installed today. Reliance came Sunday morning to put in the new hot water tank and then they couldn't do it because they told Donna there is government legislation that requires a homeowner to have a lining in their chimney before a tank is installed. Of course Donna didn't have one.

Donna called me and then we went to Canadian Tire where I bought a sump pump, hosing for it, rubber gloves, broom for the basement, and a step ladder so I could stand on it to open the window over the laundry tubs to put the hose out.

I told her next time she has water woes not to call me because it seems lately she is passing them on to me or we figure it could have been the impending full moon. Oh boy...

We came home and got the pump ready to use but first I called my neighbour Dale to inquire how to unhook the downspout from the storm sewer. When I told him I flooded again he came right over and brought his pump. Dale cut the downspout for me so the water would drain onto the grass and then came into the house. He looked at the drain and then poured some stinky eggy smelling stuff and whatever was in the drain bubbled up. He then told me to flush the toilet and it was then he determined there was a clog under the basement floor that was preventing the water from flowing into the storm sewer.

Oh Great! I thought as the acid from my stomach moved up into my chest. Worst case scenario came to my mind that the basement floor would have to be broken up to reach the clog. Dale said this was beyond his capabilities and called a electric eel service in that he had used in the past and explained the problem to them. Dale said they would be at my house in 45 minutes so Donna took me to the bank machine to get some cash then she went home to look after her water woes.

I know a lot about sewer stuff because over the years I have had many problems and have stayed down the basement asking questions when the city workers come or these electric eel people come but still when this happens I hate being on my own. All my friends have their husbands or boyfriends to give support. I am so lucky I have wonderful neighbours I can turn to. Dale said that is what he is there for - that I am supposed to call him. Even his wife told me that. She and their 2 girls call Dale their manservant because he has been off work recovering from shoulder surgery after his police motorcycle was hit throwing him onto the road.

So the electric eel guy shows up right on time and comes right into the house. I tried to tell him what was wrong and where the outlets were, etc. and he told me to go back upstairs he knew what to do. One thing he did tell me to do was to take the sump pump hose out of the window and bring it back into the house and he would run it through the storm sewer as he pumped out the drain. He used Dale's sump pump so I packed up my pump so I could return it back to the store. Dale told me I shouldn't have bought the pump because I could always use his extra one.

One thing the electric eel guy showed me was an sewer outlet I didn't know I had which was located under the workbench which is right under the bathroom. He said he couldn't use it though because the work bench was in the way.

So up the stairs I went and my chest was killing me because of the acid. I hadn't eaten or drank anything all day. I called 2 of my brothers hoping one of them might come over while the sewer guy was here so they could talk to him and find out what was wrong, or what might need to be done but they weren't available. I almost started to cry after I talked to my brother Ray because I just felt so alone. I am sure I was pmsing because I don't usually cry.

I was standing at the front door watching the rain and hoping for the best when Dale and Karen came over as they were on their way out. Dale went down to talk to the guy down the basement. He then came up and asked me for a hammer. I only have a girly tool kit and couldn't find my grandfather's hammer so I handed Dale the hammer I had. We both laughed knowing it wasn't heavy enough for whatever he needed it for. LOL I asked him what they were going to do and he said they needed to open a cap on the basement floor that has probably never been opened since this house was built. I told him there was an axe down the basement that might help them. Dale told the guy that it would be okay if he broke the cap to get at the drain because he would just buy me a plastic cap.

A few minutes later Dale came back upstairs and said everything is fixed. He said as soon as the guy opened the cap, everything just kind of bubbled up and he eeled out the clog without having to break the floor. He said the clog was in the middle between the bathroom and the drain on the floor which was stopping the water flow to the storm sewer. What a relief.

I asked why it had gone into both rooms since I wasn't home to use much water that would cause the amount of water on the floor. He said it was because the water in the weeping tiles had no place to flow because of the clog and the drain being full of sludge.

The guy also told Dale that for $1200 he could put a trap outside of my house so the City won't have to come in to clean out the storm sewer whenever that gets clogged with tree roots. I will just keep things as they are because usually (cross my fingers) the tree roots only have to be eeled out once every couple of years. Dale told to put a bottle of drain cleaner down the toilet once a month and that would keep a clog from forming in the line under the floor. He said the pipe is very narrow. He said once they pumped and dug out the sludge from the drain they could see how narrow the pipe was under the floor.

After everyone left I went down the basement and hosed everything down and cleaned out the pump and tubing. I was exhaused but happy that my floor didn't have to be broken up. I pushed aside the drain grate and I couldn't believe how deep the drain was. I am sure it is more than a meter deep and I haven't seen the bottom of it for a long, long time. I could also here the water flowing from the weeping tiles into the storm sewer which was a good thing.

Water had been coming up from cracks in my basement floor because it had no place to go. I had never seen that before. I also have some water coming in from 2 cracks in my foundation and another neighbour told me before he was going to get his son to fix them for me because he is in that business. I do have some great neighbours that are incredibly kind to me. Except for the witch next door that is. LOL

I can't help but go check the basement every couple of hours to make sure the water is at bay. We have had so much rain lately and I live in an older area of Windsor which has notoriously bad storm sewers.

So I am crossing all my fingers and toes that this is the last of my water woes for this year. I did go upstairs into the attic one day and saw some water sitting on a plastic bag. The insulation in the rafters looked to be dry so I don't know where the water came from. It could have been from the ice damming. My roof is still under warranty thank goodness and the shingles for another 15 years at least.

I thought for awhile I was living in an Ark. LOL

Donna is amazed that I can laugh about this but what else is there to do? You just gotta laugh and be in good humour.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Over the years I have learned to not flush anything down the toilet that doesn't belong there LOL. I use septic tank friendly toilet paper also just to be on the safe side. What I forgot and I should smack myself upside the head is that the last 2 years I started using the Scrubbing Bubble Disposeable Toilet Cleaning Wand and after scrubbing the toilet would flush the cleansing pad which is supposed to be flushable. I am almost positive that is what caused the clog because if not that what else? Once a week for 52 weeks, that is a lot of those things flushed down the toilet. I have left one in the toilet for a few hours after cleaning and no way do they disintegrate fully. I will use up the rest of them and dispose of them into a plastic bag and then go out and buy myself a regular old toilet brush. I knew better! I don't know what I was thinking. LOL

Anne