Calling Dee Jay

[Calliecake]

Hi Dee Jay,

Is your house okay with all this rain? I woke up this morning and thought of you as I was listening to my sump pump going off repeatedly.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Callie, you're so sweet to ask! I actually was OK last night/this morning. I think because the rain is somewhat steady the system is handling it better than the really heavy sudden surges we have had at other times this summer. That being said, I'm looking at the forecast for the rest of the day and wondering what I'll go home to...

How is the rain treating you? Are you downtown or outside the city?

Yesterday the city inspector came back out to see what the building had done to address the back-up. The work that the association has had done addressed ONE of the problems, but not ALL of them, and not even the MAIN problem. So basically they put yet another bandaid on a hemorrhage. The condo association president walked into the complex as I was talking to the sewer inspector in the parking lot and they had a very *frank* conversation. The inspector basically said this problem WILL get fixed and NOW. My boyfriend (and you may know this already) is a plumbing contractor and he showed up at the tail end of all this. The association president, having finally had his Come To Jesus Moment with the inspector, asked my boyfriend to take charge of this project and get it done and done right. I was THRILLED beyond belief! So next week the CB will write up a scope of work and send it out for bids (he doesn't want his company to do the work because of the potential conflict of interest; i.e., he doesn't want people to think he inflated the project or profited in any way because of his ties to me and the building). So someday, even with rain in the forecast, I will be able to leave the house without building dams of sheets and towels in the bathrooms and utility room!

And in the midst of all this Montauk delivered my two new replacement sofas this morning... in the pouring rain. The furniture was well wrapped in plastic so I wasn't worried about that, but the guys got pretty wet. There was a moment of panic when they unwrapped them and I was like... where are the feet? Apparently customs took the feet off looking for drugs and didn't put them back on! Fortunately they were just loose in the wrapping and we found them all and put them on. So now I have sofas once again--woo hoo!

Boy, talk about a novel to answer your question -- sorry about that!!!

 

[Calliecake]

Hi Dee Jay, I'm so glad everything has been fine on your end. I think we had more rain this morning than the nights you had the flooding. I live in the Western suburbs. Our sump pump was going off this morning and it almost never goes off. I've even gone to the basement to be sure it wasn't flooded when we have had a lot of rain because I thought it might not be working. I knew we were getting a lot of rain when it started going off this morning. There is a pond at the back of our lot and our pier was underwater. I thought of you as soon as the sump pump started going off.

What great news that everything is finally going to be fixed correctly. It has to be such a relief. I can't imagine having to worry what you'll come home to every time we get a heavy rain. No flooding and you received your sofas. It has to be a great day!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Callie, do you have a back-up sump pump as well as a regular sump pump? I ask because one of my clients is looking at properties in Lincolnshire and they are prone to flooding. Several of the houses we've viewed had a back-up pump and it seems to be a relatively new thing, but it totally seems like a good idea to me! I am also a big fan of those water alarms that you put on the floor and they go off with even 1/32" of moisture (I think that's amount, it might be 1/16"). I put those all around my place (I've probably got a dozen of them in the bathrooms, utility room, by the front and back door... !) and I've been alerted more than once right when the water was starting so I could head it off at the pass. They are worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned! My boyfriend has them by the sump pumps in his mother's basement too, but the problem is the alert is really high pitched and it's hard for her to hear unless she's got the basement door open.

 

[Calliecake]

Hi DeeJay, We do have a battery backed up sump pump as well as the regular sump pump. I was a nervous wreck when we moved in the house because of the pond. My husband travels for business often and it never fails that everything bad happens while he is out of the country. To make me feel better we had a back up battery sump pump installed so if the electricity goes off for a period of time I don't have to worry about flooding. Our sump rarely goes off but it still makes me worry a lot less having the back up. Even in the worst rainfalls the water may come up maybe a foot in the backyard. We have never had any water in the basement. Knock in wood. A gas powered generator would also be an option for your clients. We have also considered getting one off these.

 

[missy]

I am glad and very relieved to hear you both remained dry during your torrential rains!!!

At the beach we have a back up sump pump and they are both hooked up to our emergency 20kw Generac natural gas generator. We learned when we flooded during Hurricane Irene because we lost power and the sump pumps weren't able to do what they do. We had 4 plus feet of water in the basement. Not fun.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Callie, thanks for the info on all that. I think my clients are (appropriately) gun shy of water, especially after my experience, and will definitely go with a pump and a back-up!

Missy, I remember what you went through after Sandy... so terrible. Four feet of water is just unimaginable to me. You have been through A LOT!