Monday, October 27, 2008

Weekend Activites Take 2

As illustrated in this post, we sure know how to make a weekend memorable! And after this weekend, I sincerely believe that we have cornered the market on exhilerating, fun-filled weekend activites!

Late Saturday afternoon, we were getting ready to head out of town to go to dinner, do a little shopping, and probably catch a movie. We were both upstairs getting dressed, doing hair, and makeup (well, Austin wasn't doing makeup), brushing our teeth and using the restroom. We were clearly very bored and in need of an emergency activity.

We were laughing and joking heading down the stairs, and then it hit us - at the same instant - that horrible, unmistakeable stench . . . our sewer was backing up the floor drain in the basement!

Oh yes, now we're talking - this is what I call date night!

Thankfully the hardware store was still open, so we were able to rent a large pipe snake; however, after several hours of snaking (and enjoying the ubiquitous mess), the problem would still occur when we tested it by running fawcets and flushing toilets.

The large snake that we rented wouldn't fit down one of the smaller drain pipes, so Austin's parents came over and brought their smaller snake. But to no avail. Austin and Bryce worked for several more hours snaking, and flushing, and washing with the garden hose, and testing, but nothing seemed to make any difference.

They did determine which direction the pipes ran, and what needed to be accomplished, but finally at around 11:30, they conceded defeat and we got some supper.

The parents went home, and we watced some consolation House, but ended up falling asleep less than halfway into the first episode.

Sunday morning dawned bright and cold, and Austin was bound and determined to take care of our smelly problem. He went out to the back yard to see if there was another cleanout he could tap into. Nothing. So he came inside and hit the Internet. After much Google-ing, he came across a concoction that was billed as a "homemade Drano" - so we went to work.

We turned the hot water on full blast in both the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. Dumped a cup of salt, a cup of vinegar, a cup of baking soda, and almost an entire bottle of dish soap down the drain. We added some bleach for good measure, then ventured down to the basement (water still running).

Once in the basement, Austin decided that we should dump some stuff directly down the sewage pipe via the cleanout. I retrieved the liquid laundry detergent and the powdered dish detergent from the main floor and Austin dumped away. And to the wonderment and delight of all involved - IT WORKED!!!!!

We're not sure which ingredient contained the magical de-clogging properties, or if it was just shooting boiling water through the pipes or the combination of everything - we didn't care! No more nasty smell, and no fear of the basement flooding full of nastiness!

Clearly, not our preferred set of activities for our weekend; however, God was good - thankfully we had a sump-pump hole right next to the drain, so at no point did we have a huge flooding problem, Austin's parents are always willing to help whenever they can, Austin can find ANYTHING on the Internet, and the problem was resolved without huge expense. Late Saturday night we were afraid we were going to have to hire somebody, or rent expensive large equipment to dig up and/or replace the length of pipe in the back yard, but we got out with the relatively small cost of renting the snake.

Life is never boring!

Happy Monday, and thanks for reading!

9 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds like a fun weekend! Actually you'll have ask your hubby what site he found that info on and share. We've been having "gurgling" happen whenever we drain a large amount of water like in the tub or when the rinse cycle comes on in the washer. We're hoping we don't have to get our tank pumped! You can leave it as a comment on my site if you want, thanks Katy!

    Stefani

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  2. Glad it wasn't worse than it was! I'm sure you're relieved that the problem is solved!!! Hope you can have a better "date night" soon!

    Why is my word verification:

    sumptome ???? That's weird! :)

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  3. Wow, sounds like you had enough smelly entertainment to last the year! : ) So glad it all worked out. I would have probably panicked and then felt so silly afterwards not trusting my Father to take care of me. (Can you tell I've done that on occasion?) Have a great week!

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  4. Had that happen quite often to us to Preparing to go out and suddenly something very urgent breaks down. The most important is that it got fixed and you were together. With love everything is possible. You know with a house comes it's loads of problems to. Happy week dear..

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  5. ewwwwwwwwwwwww... i also want that fabulous concoction! My parents always have smelly water bubbling up into the kitchen sink when the rinse cycle comes in the washer! i'm sure my mom would kiss you if you guys shared your secret! ;) lol

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  6. oooooooohhhhhh.........ewwwwwww...uuuuugghhhhh! ;) Better luck this weekend, yes?

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  7. Oh man. Hope you guys get a better date night soon!

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  8. I am sorry you had a bad weekend. And I am glad you got the "smelly"gone. I'm jealous you have a basement. There aren't very many of those here in South Georgia, it's too wet in the ground.
    Hugs, Amy ;)

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  9. Some fun! Never fails. You have something all planned and....bam....something is sure to go wrong. Hope your next weekend is much more enjoyable and much less smelly.
    Blessings from Costa Rica

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