Oh the Joys of Owning a Home....

About a month after Jeff and I moved into our home we started noticing a water leak running along the bottom of our steps and down the sidewalk . I really didn't think too much about it until a week or so later when our neighbor knocked on our door to inform us that he thought our sewer pipe might be leaking... because it was starting to stink! Awesome. That explains why it stunk so bad the night before while we were standing at the bottom of our steps talking to some friends... instead I falsely accused Jeff of lettin one loose! Sorry Jeff! Our neighbor wasn't sure whether the leak was coming from his pipes or ours so we both ran our water at different times... only to come to the conclusion that it WAS in fact coming from OUR pipes. GREAT! Now what??

Well we actually didn't do anything for a while hoping that maybe the problem would fix itself. Or more like, we weren't prepared to find out how much it was going to cost to fix the problem. We are after all poor dental school students! And when our neighbor told us we would more than likely have to tear out our steps (that were just redone a few years ago) in order to get to the pipes, we REALLY weren't prepared to find out how much it was going to cost us. So... of course... it continued to leak... and leak... and leak... until we decided we should probably get this fixed before winter and it becomes more of pain to fix... On top of that, the 90 year old lady who lives next door to us kindly informed us that she stays awake all night worrying that the water from the leak might freeze... causing someone to slip and fall on the sidewalk... which would result with a knock at her door in the middle of the night... and someone demanding to sue her. Wow! I'm gonna be honest and say, that was the last thing we were concerned about! We then KINDLY informed her that we are poor students and we will get the problem fixed and IF someone so happened to knock on her door in the middle of the night demanding to sew her to send them our way! I then realized that the water pretty much stopped running on the sidewalk in front of her house forming a large puddle at the bottom of her steps. So then I felt bad for the poor old lady and realized that we probably SHOULD get this taken care of ASAP, so we don't have HER knocking on our door wanting to sue us because SHE has slipped and fell!

So... we called the plumber. Keep in mind that we tried everything else first to see if there was some way our homeowners insurance might cover this or maybe the previous owners would be responsible for paying half, seeing as though it happened just a month after we moved in. But we got nowhere with that... Hence the fact we put it off for so long. Anyway, to make an already long story short... the plumber came and put a snake down our pipes from our basement and discovered that our pipe was broken. (He also discovered "other stuff" that was clogging the pipes, but I'll spare you the details on that.) I will tell you that Jeff was the lucky guy who got to clean it all up! What a man! :) The plumber told us there was a good chance they may have to rip out some of the steps to fix the pipe but they would would avoid having to do that if at all possible. He told us to go easy on our water until they could come back and fix it. (They dug a hole in the dirt to the side of our steps to see if they could get to the pipes, which opened up the leak even more) So for the past week and a half I haven't been able to use my washer or dishwasher, and Jeff and I have been trying to take short showers (which I discovered, am not very good at). And let me just tell you how much you learn to appreciate things when you have to go without! Luckily Carlee and Brett were kind enough to let us use their washer. Thanks guys! Finally yesterday they came and fixed our pipe, and were luckily able to avoid tearing out our steps. The good news is we can now use our water to our liking... the bad news is we have a fat bill of $2700! Like I said... the joys of owning a home!

I took pictures while they worked.. I'm sure they loved it!

Sick! I really don't want to know what that all consists of....

They ended up finding roots that were completely wrapped around and clogging the pipes... that's what that black stuff is... so they had to completely take out the old pipe and replace it.

And here is the new pipe. To the right of the stair railing is where the leak was initially coming out, running out in front of our steps and down the sidewalk... there was a huge hole in the pipe right underneath the steps, but they said that wasn't even the root of the problem. They said it was probably a good thing there was a hole because if not the water would have had nowhere to escape because the roots had completely clogged up the pipe (right where he is standing) and it would have eventually backed up into our basement. Thank heavens for the hole I guess.

They came back today and layed cement so hopefully in a day or two it will be good as new. Let's hope anyway!

Besides having to stress about getting our sewer fixed, we have also been having some fun! We had another Office party at Devin and Nicole's last week and had some yummy mexican food that everyone brought to share! We also went to a pie party on Sunday at Joseph and Lisa Westover's house. I even made my first ever banana cream pie, okay really it was my first ever pie... sad to admit I know. Thank heavens it was a hit and Jeff couldn't have been more impressed! He was hoping no one would eat it so he could take it home and eat it all himself! Too bad I forgot to take a picture of my pie! Not to mention all the other delicious pies everyone brought!

All the couples at the pie party... most of them anwyay!

And the girls....

Jeff and I stopped by a halloween party Saturday night that one of the dental school students had for all the people with kids. I know, we don't have kids, but we thought it would be fun to see them all. Anyway, this was Brett's wig. I had Jeff put it on so I could get a picture... Doesn't he make that wig look good?? hahaha