My in-laws have never been much in the maintenance area. Not in their house or cars for sure. They do react to emergencies, and so they have replaced an engine that seized because of lack of oil, as opposed to changing the oil and that sort of thing.
Right now, my father-in-law has been in a nursing home and will probably remain there. My mother-in-law, after a series of falls and broken ribs, is out of the hospital but in the same nursing home for the time being, and will be out in a week. Their neighbors have been looking after the house and the dog, as much as they can, as they sort of had the job fall in their laps.
While away, maintenance needs can pile up of course, and problems do occur. They have a quirky water system including a pump and a well, which needs some vigilant maintenance which no one has understood for the last 25 years.
There are a number of shut offs and openings that need, from time to time to be worked, that never seem to have been done and the basement has had a series of floods over the years.
However, today’s story is about a regularly scheduled maintenance activity.
Every month the system self cleans by backwashing fifty gallons of water through the system into the laundry sink and out into the drain field (or so I have been told). This week, with no one home and my mother-in-law being rushed from her house one morning a while back, no one knew the sink had wash in it and was closed.
When the fifty gallons came up it had no place to go but over the sides. While this is surely not the first time this has happened, it is probably the first time it happened with no one home to unstop the sink and end the deluge.
After hitting the laundry room floor it had no where to go but down through the garage roof, where it must have gone before.
Their neighbor is waiting for the insurance adjuster as we speak…..
Right now, my father-in-law has been in a nursing home and will probably remain there. My mother-in-law, after a series of falls and broken ribs, is out of the hospital but in the same nursing home for the time being, and will be out in a week. Their neighbors have been looking after the house and the dog, as much as they can, as they sort of had the job fall in their laps.
While away, maintenance needs can pile up of course, and problems do occur. They have a quirky water system including a pump and a well, which needs some vigilant maintenance which no one has understood for the last 25 years.
There are a number of shut offs and openings that need, from time to time to be worked, that never seem to have been done and the basement has had a series of floods over the years.
However, today’s story is about a regularly scheduled maintenance activity.
Every month the system self cleans by backwashing fifty gallons of water through the system into the laundry sink and out into the drain field (or so I have been told). This week, with no one home and my mother-in-law being rushed from her house one morning a while back, no one knew the sink had wash in it and was closed.
When the fifty gallons came up it had no place to go but over the sides. While this is surely not the first time this has happened, it is probably the first time it happened with no one home to unstop the sink and end the deluge.
After hitting the laundry room floor it had no where to go but down through the garage roof, where it must have gone before.
Their neighbor is waiting for the insurance adjuster as we speak…..
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