Life's Hard Knocks
I haven't blogged in quite a while -- mainly because so much has been happening in my life.
In March, by hubby went in for surgery on his spinal cord blood vessels. He'd been experiencing weakness in his legs and was falling down with no warning. After months of testing and finally undergoing extensive MRIs, it was determined that the blood vessels supplying his spinal cord were malformed. What was supposed to be a relatively short hospital stay, ended up lasting for nearly a month with me driving 65 miles each way, every day, to visit him. He has finally been released from the rehabilitation hospital and is recuperating at his sister's house (no stairs). This has been a major upheaval for our family. Add to the fact that his insurance does not cover short-term disability (and the cost of gasoline), we're scrambling to make our bills on just my salary.
Enter the backed up sewer in our basement!
Yes, we discovered raw sewage backing up into our (unfinished, thank God) basement. After calls to a local plumber and an estimate of over $7,000 to repair, I've learned a hard lesson about calling for service out of the Yellow Pages. 1) If you can, research the company before they do the work. 2) If it's an emergency and you can't check beforehand, don't commit to any work without getting other estimates. 3) DON'T LET ANYONE DIG WITHOUT CALLING J.U.L.I.E.!!!!
Unfortunately, I had an emergency and couldn't research the plumber beforehand. However, the very high estimate had me calling 2 other plumbers before I agreed to any additional work. (And yes, I'm going with another company who gave me an estimate at half the cost.) As for #3, well, the original company dug up my front yard to discover 70 year old orange burg pipes (tar paper sewer pipes from WWII era). Thus the $7,000 cost. And yes, this company did NOT call J.U.L.I.E. before planting their backhoe shovel. They broke through the pipe (to rod it out) leaving raw sewage at the bottom of the hole each time we use our water / toilets. They also clipped a wire on our gas service. My current company contacted J.U.L.I.E. whose representative gave me quite an earful on the original plumber who I chose out of the phone book. And yes, they have received multiple complaints against this company which is in danger of losing it's license to practice in the State of Illinois.
A hard lesson learned, but tomorrow, this unfortunate incident should be behind us and when my husband finally returns home, we'll have a new sewer line and "clean" basement. I've got my fingers and toes crossed that nothing more is discovered.
In March, by hubby went in for surgery on his spinal cord blood vessels. He'd been experiencing weakness in his legs and was falling down with no warning. After months of testing and finally undergoing extensive MRIs, it was determined that the blood vessels supplying his spinal cord were malformed. What was supposed to be a relatively short hospital stay, ended up lasting for nearly a month with me driving 65 miles each way, every day, to visit him. He has finally been released from the rehabilitation hospital and is recuperating at his sister's house (no stairs). This has been a major upheaval for our family. Add to the fact that his insurance does not cover short-term disability (and the cost of gasoline), we're scrambling to make our bills on just my salary.
Enter the backed up sewer in our basement!
Yes, we discovered raw sewage backing up into our (unfinished, thank God) basement. After calls to a local plumber and an estimate of over $7,000 to repair, I've learned a hard lesson about calling for service out of the Yellow Pages. 1) If you can, research the company before they do the work. 2) If it's an emergency and you can't check beforehand, don't commit to any work without getting other estimates. 3) DON'T LET ANYONE DIG WITHOUT CALLING J.U.L.I.E.!!!!
Unfortunately, I had an emergency and couldn't research the plumber beforehand. However, the very high estimate had me calling 2 other plumbers before I agreed to any additional work. (And yes, I'm going with another company who gave me an estimate at half the cost.) As for #3, well, the original company dug up my front yard to discover 70 year old orange burg pipes (tar paper sewer pipes from WWII era). Thus the $7,000 cost. And yes, this company did NOT call J.U.L.I.E. before planting their backhoe shovel. They broke through the pipe (to rod it out) leaving raw sewage at the bottom of the hole each time we use our water / toilets. They also clipped a wire on our gas service. My current company contacted J.U.L.I.E. whose representative gave me quite an earful on the original plumber who I chose out of the phone book. And yes, they have received multiple complaints against this company which is in danger of losing it's license to practice in the State of Illinois.
A hard lesson learned, but tomorrow, this unfortunate incident should be behind us and when my husband finally returns home, we'll have a new sewer line and "clean" basement. I've got my fingers and toes crossed that nothing more is discovered.
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