So there’s been a bit of rain here lately. Actually a lot of it. All the locals keep saying they’ve never seen anything like it. Days of constant heavy rainfall — no let up. The system has failed in a couple of places. On the interstate in places, water is up past the tops of tires. Just down the street a mile, the creek that runs through the neighborhood has become a rushing lake four houses wide. The air is filled with the sound of sump pumps doggedly working. Except at our house. Where there is no usable sump pump.
Or at least that used to be the case. I called the landlord when the basement looked like this on Sunday:
See the line at the bottom of the washing machine? That’s at least 4 inches of water on the basement floor. Now why is the sump pump unusable, you ask? Because the hole for it is uphill. Yeah. I know. But it only takes a few days of no rain for the water to seep back into the concrete and disappear. (The water level is actually the water table seeping up through the floor. If the foundation were not permeable the house could float away.) Okey dokey, Mr. Landlord.
Except that the water level rose to the hot water heater’s pilot light and extinguished that sucker. That got the landlord’s attention. He called his trusty plumber to come over with his portable pump (Home Depot ‘s rentals were all accounted for — all their for-sale ones too) to suck the place dry.
It only took hours for the floor to be flood-free and ready for installation of our new hot water heater. (This comes on the heels of our pre-Christmas destruction of the furnace and tankless water heater. We were acting on the landlord’s instructions — we were pretty sure — but the appliance had issues and apparently we had misunderstood the procedure for keeping hot water in the house, and kablooey. After that debacle he installed just a regular 40-gallon tank water heater.) He has an order in for the next available sump pump, with brand new hole to be drilled downhill. And we have a brand new 50-gallon flood-impermeable water heater. The landlord’s sarcastic instructions for use? “Try to break this one.” Sounds like a challenge to me.
Magrilless 
Welcome to the world of Grownup!! Mr. C senior usually just decides it has not happened. Eventually we find out if he can fix it and if not you call someone. I have a feel for your landlord but I have more of a feeling for the kids who have not had to cope with these kind of things yet. We owned an apartment building in Kenosha Wi. way back in history, and it was 9 units and right on the railroad tracks, and filled with folks who did not know how to handle their own problems, It was a learning experience!! We managed to move it to someone else and left Kenosha.
We love you very much and really love the pictures or OUR baby
I don’t think its you the landlord should challenge to break it; I think its Frosty. How many of your water heaters have gone blinky with Frosty around and how many have gone blinky when he was not there? Frosty – 4; Gretchen -0
Go Frosty !!!
have you guys thought of moving to the desert?