Busy for a time

Though my two-car garage is still quite full of Rubbermaid Rough-Totes, I must say that I am fairly well settled in.

I’ve had my first plumbing problem. The previous owners told me that the old drain tiles had a root problem, but that a roto-rooting every other year kept them clear. They told me they had just performed it the month before selling the home.

Still, I was not surprised when my shower drain slowed and stopped on Labor Day morning. I was surprised when I stepped out of the shower, and found my rugs were wet. Not only does the toilet have a bad seal, but it was eq-ing the pressure by dribbling out all over my bathroom floor.

This was not enough insult, apparently, for after it stopped peeing on my floor, it sucked the water from the bowl, then backed crap up into my tub!

The roommate and I surmised that perhaps the problem was being aggravated by his doing laundry on the other side of the house. Perhaps so. Fortunately, this happened early enough in the morning for me to still get to Lowe’s and buy a plunger and several nasty drain chemicals.

The store rep recommended the Draino-Gel in the gallon jug. This made sense to me — assuming the previous owners were telling the truth, my stoppage was less likely a root problem, and more likely a “copious quantity of TP sticking to some roots” problem. Wanting more than just a temporary victory, and since the Draino-Gel was not labeled for toilet use, I also bought an acid solution to use on a later day.

Three doses of gel did solve the problem. No recurrances yet.

On a more mundane front (seriously??), I have cable installed, and need to put in some wall jacks for cable and Internet. I haven’t been able to mow for almost 2 weeks, due to weather and schedule conflicts. I still do not have the office assembled, so my dresser and chest of drawers have become collection point for all things important not useful.

This is okay, because it makes my room look slightly as messy as the roommates, who is still in the “dorm living” phase of his life, apparently. I think he even has a microwave in his room, I’m not sure. But I did note this morning that he apparently sleeps with a stack of CDs. Whatever trips his trigger.

I have my bike in working order…except for the flat tires, still. I have 3 grills on the back patio: two charcoal of the roommates, one gas of my folks. I should throw some meat on it tonight since I’ll probably have to take it back to them this weekend…along with their mower.

I have a damp foundation. Its cinderblock, and the property is not well graded away from the foundation wall. Its barely a foot above the level grade. I do have a steep driveway, most of this slope happens right at the curb, and slopes down the street, as opposed to from house to yard.

I can’t pile more dirt near the house, as this makes the distance to the bottomplate too short (termite and water damage problem). My only choice will be to raise the foundation some. If I’m going to jack the house up, I might as well replace the whole cinderblock foundation with poured concrete and seal it.

Some of you are going to bark “no, you need ventilation in your crawl space” but latest research says I don’t. That “cross-ventilation” of crawl spaces rarely occurs, but stack-phenomenon does — pulling warm, damp air up through your house to rot the whole thing thoroughly, as well as introduce mold into your interior walls.

So it looks like before I can put in the new bathroom or utility room, I need to save a LONG while and solve the most critical structural problem. After that, I’ll probably need to replace the roof (not the shingles, the ROOF. It does not meet the topplate in several places).

Then I can go ahead with my expansion plans.

In the meantime, I’ll probably go ahead and garden, put planters around the numerous trees so as to ease my mowing burden (the trees are a pain in the butt!!!), rip out the front and back concrete patios and put in ..something else, which will allow for better drainage away from the house.

This should keep me busy for a time.