Dear Family, Friends, and Blog Followers,

As you may know, my husband, Neal, and I, have moved to a new home. While moving is always a stressful transition, I can fully state that you never really know what to expect until you find yourself in the middle of it all. This truly has been an adventure full of surprises around every corner.

In just two weeks time, so many things have happened, I feel like I am living in a fiction novel. This tale is full of positives and negatives, and while plenty of negatives have happened, I feel that we are now on an upswing. Things are getting better and setting us up for a long and happy stay at our new home.

On the day of closing, Thursday, August 20^th, we arrived at our new place to do a walk through, and found out the basement had flooded. We were faced with the decision of whether or not to go forward with the closing. The previous owner told us that the leak was due to a humidifier hose coming unattached from the furnace. We took it for what it was and made further plans to add extra grading around our house, as well as to extend the rain gutters to help insure a dry basement.

It took several days, but by Tuesday the following week, the house was finally dry and I was able to return the basement fans to the previous owner. That evening at 9:15pm, my husband, went downstairs to find that the basement was again flooding, this time the water was coming up the drainage pipe for the septic. We called a plumber, but were unable to get anything fixed until that upcoming Friday. We were virtually without water due to the consistent backing up that was happening.

By Friday, the floor in the basement was covered in “stuff” I care not to describe. The plumber snaked the drain 130 feet, and then jetted it out to 150 feet. He had us call and have the septic drained because he assured us that he had cleared the blockage. The gentleman who showed up to drain the septic stated that he felt there was still a blockage where the pipes enter the septic tank. He informed me that there was a second cap that needed to be dug up and opened to clear out the blockage.

I began to dig, and when my husband arrived home, he joined in and finished the dig. A foot beneath the ground, we found the second cap. The cap was stuck in place and we had to use our van to pull it off. Upon opening, we indeed did find that there was a large nasty blockage of root and “stuff,” just as the septic guy had said. We ended up fixing our own problem in the end, and the lines have been clear ever since.

Beside the above, we also lost our air conditioner during the massive humid heatwave that was going on, and our refrigerated showed up damaged. Currently I am unable to get my desktop to turn on, so I have been delayed until now, on writing a whole lot. I also hit a nail with my front driver side tire and was dealing with that for three weeks until I was able to get a replacement.

Prior to moving in we found out that we have really bad water at our new home. The nitrates are through the roof, so we are having to install a reverse osmosis system as well as a water softener, which is not cheap. We also have radon, so at some point we have to deal with that as well. Making a home is not always easy, but sometimes it requires a little work.

On an upward note, the new air unit should hopefully be covered by home warranty, though the septic debaucle was not. A new air unit should last us a long time and should be more economical than the current unit we have. I finally received my new refrigerator yesterday and I love it; black stainless is a great way to go.

Now, despite the craziness which I actually downplayed and left a few things out, we are in a great new place and very happy here. I believe that sometimes you have to trek through a little rain and mud to see the rainbow and the view on the other side. As I type this, my husband has informed me that the shower downstairs is clogged, due to the backup we had from the septic. Excuse me while I put on my rain slicker and rubber boots.

Here’s to happier days!

Trish