So there we were, without water and with a dirt driveway. The crew returned with an excavator the next day and got busy. They dug a trench from behind the garage, along the north wall of the garage, and across the courtyard.
And let’s be clear here–this was not the fault of the crew repaving the driveway. None of us had any idea the water line was not buried a safe depth. It was just one of those crazy things that was either the result of the Doc saving money or the POs doing things badly, and while the damaged pipe could have been repaired, we had no idea what the condition the rest of the run was in, and by the time the pipe reached the house, it was only under an inch or so of dirt. Thus it was in our best interest to lay a new run at a proper depth, so that once everything was put back together, we could rest easier.
As many things here do, getting water restored to the house took longer than expected. A full three days passed before we had running water; they worked through Saturday to make that happen. This meant we couldn’t even flush the toilets, because we’re on a well and our water pressure is only around 47 PSI; our toilets use Flushmate units to provide more pressure for flushing. Needless to say I was very grateful we received a complimentary pack of Unicorn Gold from the makers of Squatty Potty.
They ended up replacing the old connection seen here on the left with a new setup, but they weren’t happy with the seal so they returned the following Monday to tighten things up.
Then it was a matter of filling the trench they had made. Of course when they were working close to the new inlet, they managed to catch it and rupture the seal, so we spent an extra day without water. At this point though, we could manage well enough, as we did after all have clean toilets.
Once the water was restored, we moved on to the second issue the courtyard demolition had revealed–either when the courtyard lights were installed or when the POs put down the old asphalt that we just removed, the wiring for these lights was done in a particularly sketchy manner. There was just conduit run along the footer board at the edge of the driveway that daisychained the lights together.
So it was time to make another trench and bury some conduit. We planned ahead though, and had them bury an additional pipe beneath the driveway along with the smaller grey one (pic 2 below). Since we needed the grey pipe to get across to the far light, it made sense to add this extra conduit, should we decide later to run power or something else to that area.
Shortly after all the trenches were covered up, it started to rain and just didn’t stop. For close to a month it did nothing but rain, and this was the result. The brown mass in the second image? It’s water–about four inches’ worth. Needless to say it was an interesting time to be here at Purgatory–an interesting and very muddy time. My sexy new boots I found at Tractor Supply got quite a workout.
We survived though, and by the start of February (two weeks after the ruptured pipe), the rains finally eased off and things dried out enough so we could start thinking of putting down the new asphalt. The only truly annoying part of this tale is the fact that, because removing the asphalt meant creating a large drop in height from the garage level to the mud (pic 3).
This meant that for several weeks, we were unable to get either the 911 or the M Coupe out to drive and relied solely on Barbie, our Ford 150. Thankfully Agent Smith usually catches a corporate bus to the office now, as he can just zip down the hill on the scooter, so were able to manage that. The only downside is that both cars sat for so long without being driven that both batteries went flat. They have mostly recovered thanks to the acquisition of some battery tenders, but my little BMW still needs a little TLC for it to be fully recovered.