Black Rhombus » General news

Well saga officially over

Travis — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:04:41 +0000

The guys came yesterday; ripped up our lawn, drilled in our floor & did an excellent job in the process. The drama’s over. Finally. Check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

New tank, same problem

Travis — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:28:42 +0000

Ok, so the well guys just installed the new tank, but the system’s still losing pressure. Rebecca says that the water pressure inside the house is now much better than previously, but there’s still a leak in the system somewhere. Oh, & they said that the tank would have cost us $550 if we’d bought it from them, so P&B: thanks. Seriously.

They told Rebecca that the only place left where the leak could possibly be is the pipe from the house to the well. Yay. Well (no pun intended), we actually figured that this was going to be the case, & have already had Miss Utility come out to mark all the stuff in the digging area. They said that the pipe is at least 3′ underground, & that if they did the work, it would be at least a 6hr job (6hrs X $75/hr + parts). They also want to drill down into our laundry floor (& I’m assuming that means into the foundation on the outside) so that all of the pipe would be replaced, eliminating any future concerns.

Could we dig the pipe ourselves? Of course we could do it…. but when? At night, under the spot lights, in 30 degrees with shovels? As much as I hate to admit it, I think we’re just going to have to suck it up & schedule them to come out & do the job next week.

Well, well, well…

Travis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:13:53 +0000

So, Rebecca came home to be there for the 2pm appointment with Calvert Well yesterday. They successfully replaced the down-pipe for a buncha money. The pipe did indeed turn out to have a hole in it, so it was good that they replaced it… but…. The system’s still losing pressure like it was before. Now they think it may be the pressure tank, but probably not, but they still think we should replace the tank anyway (of course), as it’s apparently the original one that came with the house.

Thankfully (though not really for them – long story), Paine & Becca have an extra tank that’s only six months old & not in use. Paine’s going to drop it off today, so we’ll have that issue covered. The problem is that the well people think the issue is with the supply pipe… which goes straight into the foundation of the house in the laundry room. Concrete. Yep. Paine suggested we figure out a way to get at the pipe both right near the house, & out by the well: cut the pipe in both places & pressure test it somehow. I’m open to suggestions, but I really don’t want to pay those guys to dig it out & replace it. We’re really scared at the possibility of the pipe in the foundation being damaged…

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Water system issues are fun!

Travis — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:54:10 +0000

Monday night, I returned home to no water in the house. The well pump had been cutting on & off far more frequently (w/o any water running anywhere in the house), & after some research, I’d determined it was the diaphragm/check valve in the pressure tank. The recurring problem led to the pressure switch blowing out, which led to no water in the house. Rebecca took off on Tues, & our plumber came by & replaced the switch, along w/a couple of other parts on the pressure tank. After he’d finished, however, (couple hundred bucks) the whole system still wouldn’t hold pressure correctly, so Rebecca called the well people. They came out Tues afternoon & diagnosed a hole in the pipe leading down the well. They also said that they’d been out to our house a couple of times in the last few years to patch the pipe.

Rather than slap another patch on an old pipe (which they said wasn’t rated for proper pressure anymore), we’re going to have it replaced Thurs afternoon (multiple hundreds of bucks). That’s not all, folks. The plumber also said that our water heater was the orig that came w/the house & that he was surprised we’d managed to get by w/it as long as we have. Once the water started running again in the house, we got a ton of rust sediment in the sinks/tubs/toilets. He said that that stuff was what our water heater is full of. Joy. So, we’re going to start looking into replacing that as well. We’ve started researching, & will likely go with another 50gal tank system (they’re ridiculously more efficient these days).

We’ll keep ya posted.

Portland photos

Travis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:48:44 +0000

We’re switching to Picasa for image hosting. I’m able to still put the photos up here, & this post is the inaugural use of a new WP plugin. Let’s see how it works, shall we?


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Portland 2009
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The laundry room floor is FINALLY FINISHED!

Travis — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:51:24 +0000

We’ve been going back & forth on options for finishing off our laundry room floor for so long, I wasn’t sure that the job would ever get done. We bought ~$300 worth of tile from Lowes, & subsequently returned it. You should have seen my car on the way back from Lowes. Rebecca was driving & she said the car was fish-tailing…. whlie driving straight. Definitely not a good idea in hindsight.

We knew the slab wasn’t all that even to begin with, so we started to use the mortar (moh-tar?) to try to even out the divits, but quickly realized it was turning into more of a job than anticipated. So, we asked Pete to take a look & give us his thoughts. He confirmed that using tile on that surface would have been a problem, so I took the tile back… in several car-loads this time. Heh.

Soooooo… we finally ended up back at our original plan: self-leveling concrete. We were initially freaked out by this stuff because it sets up so fast that you really have to move quickly, & have a good idea of what you’re doing. Well, after I dunno how many weeks of research, I think we’d figured it out. We used Laticrete self-leveling underlay, & Quickcrete concrete stain + top-coat to finish it off. It looks really good, & we’re very happy with the result.

We also finally got our new washer & dryer! Thanks Cyril & Mary!

Full gallery of photos is here.

Quinne gets stitches

Travis — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:41:36 +0000

Poor ol’ Quinne got a bit to close to the maw of Aiko’s jaws last Friday. We had to take her in to the Vet Saturday afternoon, & it’s apparently a good thing we did. We weren’t sure how bad the cut was at first, but we knew it looked pretty deep. Thankfully, it missed important stuff. Like sinuses.

They’re playing regularly, & this was definitely one of those times; she just had her big ol’ snout in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oops. Recovering well, though, & she doesn’t even seem to mind the bonnet all that much. You can see another photo (closeup) in the gallery here.

Quinne, our new puppy!

Becca — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:34:28 +0000

So this weekend we got a new puppy! We went and visited dogs on Saturday, found one we really liked and put in an application and were immediately approved (as long as the home visit and meeting Aiko went ok). The foster mom brought the pup to visit today, and things went pretty well so we now have a puppy. She’s a white and caramel-beige hound mix, and we called her Quinne (like the Eskimo). She’s very sweet and super adorable. Aiko is being good, but is understandably a bit standoffish. This will be an adjustment on everyones part! Many photos to follow…

Some NOLA photos

Travis — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:16:40 +0000

Drew just got his pictures from the New Orleans trip posted to Picasa. There are some really good ones in there. And by good I mean embarrassing. To me. Yeah.

We’ve got all of our photos onto the PC, but Rebecca hasn’t really been around long enough to go through & edit them. Maybe once she gets back… She did post a couple on her Flickr page, though (link on the right).

A new home, a visit, a birthday and a hole…

Becca — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:27:39 +0000

We went up to visit Darren, Cara & Aidan in their brand new house, helped with unpacking/new house projects, helped put in a mailbox (Darren didn’t know how to work a post-hole digger…seriously), Pete and Sarah were visiting too so we hung out with them, AND we celebrated Darren’s 30th birthday!

Whew!

Aidan had a blast with Aiko, it was very cute

…see photos HERE