Showing posts with label service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label service. Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2024

First Comes the Test, Then Comes the Lesson

In life, we don't always have the lesson first, do we? Wait, do we ever?? I don't think so. I think we always go through a tough time before we understand why. That is IF we ever understand the why.

My husband and I have been in the middle of a new lesson. Patience being a big part of it. Letting go of that idea that we can do anything without anyone else helping is another part of it. 

Last week, we started hearing something that resembled running water in the pipes. While nothing that requires water was on. Hmm that doesn't seem quite right, now does it? Of course we, the kids and I, told Dad when he came home from work. As well as having sent my husband a picture of a puddle that was in front of a door on our house. 

My husband had bought one of those cameras that you use to see behind the walls, that has an LED light and is flexible. We had gotten it to check on other plumbing issues, but now it was looking for a flowing pipe. No matter where my husband fed it through the wall though, he wasn't finding it. Next step was to drill holes in the walls. A couple in the bathroom. A couple in the hallway. Another one or two in the game room and closet. This is when I started to be concerned. He even opened up the air conditioning unit and found that there was a little pond under that! Well, now things are really getting interesting. 

Fast forward and I'm asking the church to pray for us. My husband and I are getting frustrated. With the situation as well as with each other. In theory, we should be able to handle this. On our own. But the more we look, the more trouble we are finding. All because we can't find the trouble! Then he reaches out to a friend in the church. That alone was surprising to me. Then he's asking me to get recommendations for plumbers that have equipment to find leaks under the floors and possibly under a concrete slab. Finally! We are going to get help. Ever want to suggest that to your spouse, but don't want them to feel that they aren't adequate because of it? That was me. 

To the Nextdoor app I went in search of recommendations. Our Neighbors never disappoint. I had a list of places to call within the hour. Unfortunately, I'm calling on a Friday. The soonest, but most expensive one, couldn't come out until Monday. The next in line, both in price and in availability wasn't until Tuesday. Great, a whole weekend of flowing flooding water under my floors. But then I got a notification. There had been a late addition to the list! Jose from Pro1 Plumbing. So I give him a call and catch him on his lunch break. He's willing to take a look, and only charge me IF he finds the leak for sure. He can come within the hour. I feel hope again! 

He shows up. He gets a lay of the house and how the pipes have to be based on where all our water fixtures are. I'm feeling pretty good about this guy. He calls his son and buddy over to help him in the search. They have to have someone turn the water off and on while he listens for the echo of the spray under the floors. He narrows down the area where the leak should be and then they double check to see where the water main comes into the house. All three of these guys are now digging in my front yard that has become a mud pit. I have two puddles now in front of each of my front doors. And he was able to show me water pouring over the slab. Part of the slab even crumbled as he pulled the mud back. 

My husband is at work while this is happening, so I'm having to text him and wait until he gets the messages through his spotty signal. I'm trying my best to keep him informed and also get his decisions on how to proceed. They are talking about needing to cut the carpet and roll it back to better hear the echo. I'm finally getting a price quote too. To find and repair this busted pipe. Which I now know is a gusher after having seen how fast the meter is spinning and how loud the sound has gotten. In my mind, I was determined to talk my husband into just paying these guys to knock this problem out the park. Get it fixed! They have the tools and the know-how. And I really do NOT want to have to rip up floors and tiles and carpet without knowing what we are facing. Not to mention having to possibly buy or rent the tools to cut the copper piping.

By the time they have dug the hole, it is already 4:00 and the heat is getting high. These guys are sweating and clearly tired. The job would take a least 2 more hours. Possibly more. So we all agree that it would be best if they stopped there and just come back in the morning.

Now, we fast forward to the morning after. We turned off our water at their request before they came over. We had moved everything out of the way of the areas they would need clear.

My youngest says, "It reminds me of when we first moved in!" She is so right. That had been my husbands assessment when he got back from work and saw all that the kids and I had already moved. I probably shouldn't have done as much as I did, which wasn't much at all, since my back has been acting up all week.

The guys showed up and found the closest point to the pipe they could get and had to cut into the hardwood floors that we have under the carpet. Then they had to get the ShopVac out and the jackhammer. Turns out, the pipe is under the slab. And the amount of water is incredible! They were carting out buckets filled. By the time they stopped, which was some time close to 5:00 I think, they had carted out about 25 gallons at least. 

Once again, I'm glad we decided to hire these guys. There is no way my husband and I could have done this alone. Even with help from our teenage sons. This is a massive undertaking. And we don't have the skillset for it. Our house was built in a time when they thought putting layers of tar and gravel under the concrete was the way to go. This is why the water is staying in place instead of finding its way into the ground. That, and Midland is mostly clay dirt, so water stays around for a VERY long time. But now we can see why the weeds in the front garden bed were springing up mercilessly! They were getting well watered by this leak. The plumbers had to leave again with the promise of coming back on Sunday. 

I was thankful to start putting our living room back in shape. The game room was near or over the leaking pipe and was quite the disaster zone. 

Then we had them here working through the day on Sunday. Only to find there was more than one leaking pipe! This house was built in 1952. Most of the pipes haven't had anything replaced since they were laid. We fixed one out front. And another popped loose near the front of the foundation. Then sometime, probably quite a while back, another couple joints came apart under the bathroom and game room. A sketchy patch job was revealed behind the water heater. And we were thoroughly ready to just give up. I'd love to have just curled up in bed and wished it all away. 

But we have had to juggle refilling water jogs to refill toilet tanks every time someone had to use the restroom. 

We have four kids who are tired of being trapped in either their bedrooms or the living room. 

Then came the big decision. Do we do a quick patch or do we actually re-pipe the house? A patch job won't hold. Not for long. So now, we are going with the saying, "In for a penny, in for a pound." We decided to have them move all the piping upwards through the attic! I'm glad we have a fantastically strong foundation with about 3 inch thick wood over about 3-5 inches of concrete, over a layer of gravel that was packed in, over a final layer of tar. This house shouldn't ever have issues with settling. Whoo! But they have to reroute the pipes upwards now. Yay...

That is what they worked on ALL DAY on Monday. My husband had to take a day off from work. We went without water, which meant having to purchase huge jugs and more bottled water to keep us going through the night and day. We kept the whole family in the living room to limit anyone getting in the way. The guys worked hard and fast, which made us happy. But it was hard on us all. Being confined in a single room. You'd think it was a zombie huddle. With spurts of activity when someone decided to do something. For me, it was incredibly tiring. Though I did manage to finish reading a book. 

Suddenly we think they are at the end of the job. Putting things back together. Cleaning up areas they were finished in. That is when another leak was found. They had turned on the cold water with no problem. Then they turned on the hot. And water spouted from another joint! I was  feeling pretty dead inside. Too tired. Too desperate for a shower. Just too much of everything at once! 

But as we were finishing up dinner in the living room, they were finishing up cleaning. They even repaired the holes in the wall, which wasn't part of the deal we made. They also repaired the drainage for my washing machine hook up that was leaking every time we washed clothes. I'm more than grateful for that! After all, my husband has been too busy to do it and the way he wanted to fix it was too much of a process. After all, engineers sometimes over-complicate things. I've been washing clothes since the plumbers left without any more leaking water! But that was all they did. I probably sound like those infomercials - But wait! There's more! They found out why we had this sewage smell sometimes. Turns out that the pipe that would vent sewage gases up out of the house, is cracked. So when the wind blows really hard, as it has been, it sends the smells right back in. Jose told my husband how to repair that when we are ready.

Time to think

I have been thinking a lot about the lessons we were facing in this. 

We had to let go and let someone else step in to fix something. 

We had to accept that it would cost us a pretty penny and possibly eat up the majority of our savings cushion. 

We had to 'rough it' without water. Again. 

We had to be patient with this plumber and accept that he has been working on the weekend and dealing with his family wanting his time as well. 

And for me, in particular, I had to accept that my weekend plans were effectively erased. I try my hardest to write my plans in pencil, but the weekend is the only time the kids and I can truly get out of the house and possibly do things. Not gonna lie, spending time at the park was looking really nice... But we couldn't do that. We had to be here for the workers getting things done. We missed church too, while waiting to hear from the plumber on Sunday morning. Not knowing when he might show up. 

I had my moments of doubt. Had moments of thinking we messed up in our choice of plumber. That maybe this was just a bad dream. No, wait, that was just my wish. And yes, even wondering why this was happening to us at all. 

But I will say this. There was so many things that were evidence of God's goodness. Things that I can be thankful and praise-filled about. 

  1. Even with the water turned off, we could still use the restroom and flush the toilets. 
  2. This plumber was no-nonsense. Honest and blunt with us. 
  3. My in-laws weren't here while this was going on.
  4. The prices we were facing, while still high for our income, were nothing near as high as they could have been. 
  5. God gave us what we needed, included enough money to purchase extra water and microwavable foods to keep us going until the repairs were finished. 
There is a song by Micah Tyler called Even Then. I heard him in person once, and he explained the story behind it. The heartaches and trials his family were facing were still more than what we had here. Part of it says, "Even when the waters won't stop rising... You're with me even then." The waters were rising under our very feet. But God got us through. And sent the right person to fix it. 

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Mystery Packs!

We love mystery, or blind, packs. One that we really enjoy is the mystery Minecraft figure boxes. Normally you would find these at the checkout lanes, sometimes in the toy aisle. We have quite the collection. But since the break in the supply chain here, I have noticed that they are not as readily available. In fact, Walmart rarely has them these days. So what happened when I was looking to get them for the kids this past Christmas? 

Creating the advent calendar

Each year, we have our family advent calendar. It has been two years in the running. I make it myself. Each day, starting December 1st, a family member opens a gift from the box that is marked with their day. I nearly didn't finish it this year. Each gift is supposed to be only a couple - $5. But I was having a hard time finding little things for each person. I went online, thinking that surely I could find what I need on Amazon. Crazy fact - those Checklane Blind Boxes? Out! As a matter of fact, my son ordered one with a gift card he got from a family member and I'm still waiting to hear when they come in stock. So I had to start looking elsewhere. And I'm so glad I did! I found a website that specializes in these things. Especially ones that you can't find in stores anymore. 

MysteryPacks.com to the rescue! 

I found this website called mysterypacks.com. They had so many to check out. I was mainly looking at the Minecraft TNT series 25 mystery pack. They had them for $3.99 each. Right now, they are sold out. But I plan to keep an eye in case they come back in or even if they get others. They have the Mob Head series ones in stock though. Those are $4.99 each. 

Does your kid like Disney Frozen like mine? They have the Mash'Ems Frozen series 4! One day I hope to order some of these for my daughter. She loves Frozen characters. And better yet, these make the perfect size for her dolls to have dolls. 

Same goes for the Spirit horse blind bags. These little horses are my youngest daughters favorite.  

I have been thinking I might need to get my sister the My Hero Academia ones. They are the keychain ones. 

I could go on, but honestly there are a lot! Nintendo, Hot Wheels, Zuru, Universal Studios Monsters, Barbie, Star Wars, Marvel and DC - you can find just about any kind for any collector. 

They also have some display helps for the building brick collectors. They have a case or stands for things like Lego and Mega Construct figures.


What else did I like about them?

Well, besides being affordable, they have a great selection. In some ways, better than stores. They were easy to order from. And they are really fast on shipping! I ordered on December 3rd, they shipped them on the 5th. I had them in my mailbox on the 12th. Most stores can't keep up with orders in December. So a total win in my book! But one more thing - they were having a 20% off sale! So I saved even more during one of the busiest sale months of the year.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Family Photos with Bast Creative!

This week, a friend of mine did something amazing. He took some family photos for us. Sure, anyone can use a camera, right? Hmm... no. Not in the way he did. Luis Basurto is an incredibly creative guy. Thus, he has started his own business, Bast Creative. He has degrees in Communication Design. And he is quite passionate about it. He loves it! And now he is finally branching out. Finally sharing his talent outside of his day job. 

He was incredibly patient. Setting up a time that worked with everyones schedule was tricky, but he made it work. We chose an evening and a destination, Hemisphere Park. He brought the gear, I brought the family.


He also captured my family as we are, and not as people think we should look for those "family pictures". You know the kind. Where everyone is stiff, posed, and "perfect". I'll be the first to admit, those pictures might look nice, but they aren't real. With four kids, it can be difficult. And chances of getting it just right are very slim. Luis let us do our own thing. And what came from it, was beautiful! It is us. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, these pictures tell our story. They show us, just as we are. I highly recommend Luis Basurto at Bast Creative. For photography, for design. He does it all. And he does it well. Check out his website here. He is also on Facebook. And don't hesitate to tell me what you think!