Day 2154

This was the last day before they start digging a tunnel under our house, so there was lots to do. The day started normally enough. We got up early, cleaned up a small mess Dot had made and then took both dogs on their morning walk. It was surprisingly cold this morning. The temperature was in the low forties. For the first time in ages the outside humidity was in the low forties too, so we could finally open up the doors and windows and air out the house without worrying about raising the humidity again. We didn't even attempt to cook breakfast at home this morning and went to a nearby restaurant instead. This was a restaurant I'd been meaning to try, so I was curious about the food. The Eggs Benedict I ordered was good, but I still like my regular restaurant better.

I'm wondering if we'll have to go to the laundromat every day. Janet did a big load of dog blankets yesterday and there are more soiled blankets today. We had to go buy more water too. We forgot and used the wrong toilet in the middle of the night and had to refill it with 6 gallons of water instead of the 1.5 gallons that the more modern toilet uses. It's a learning process. Janet wants to buy one of those big dehumidifier machines now. The house really feels better now that it isn't humid anymore. The machines not only sucked out the moisture related to the plumbing leak, they continued to suck trapped moisture out of the brick walls, the rugs and even the clothes in our closets.

The big job today was providing an entrance for the tunnel diggers. They are planning to access the broken underground pipe through an interior atrium garden that is enclosed on three sides by the house, with a screened porch as a fourth wall facing the back yard. There are several panels to the large screened-in wall, so I decided to remove one of the screens. The 60 year old nails holding the trim in place seemed fused to the partially rotted wood. The nails had all rusted and were hard to remove without breaking the trim in several pieces. I was eventually able to remove the screen wire and might even be able to re-use it later. I cracked one of the wooden trim pieces than hid the exposed edges of the screen wire. All in all, the job was a success. I didn't totally destroy anything.

After I had created a passageway so the tunnel diggers could remove the dirt they were excavating, it occurred to me that Dash will want to investigate this new opening in the atrium and would probably jump in the hole and wind up getting stuck under the house. I went back to the storage warehouse and got some plastic fencing that we used as temporary kennels at rescue events. I turned this dog pen into a makeshift gate that will keep Dash out of the atrium while the tunnel crew is digging the hole.

It's nice having the hotel as a place where we can take refuge when necessary. When I finished taking apart the atrium this afternoon, I drove over to the hotel to clean up and take a shower. This is a nice hotel and I always look like hell when I arrive. I usually look much more presentable when I leave a few hours later. The shower in the hotel is really nice. The tile grout is sparkling white. The water is nice and hot. There's even a clever, invisible anti-slip surface so you won't fall and bust your butt. I guess we could have a shower like this too if we just ripped out the old one and put in something new.

When I was working outside this morning, it occurred to me that the weather was absolutely perfect. The sky was clear, the temperature was 68 degrees with very low humidity. There wasn't even any pollen in the air today. I was enjoying the clean, fresh air and then I began to smell wood smoke. Yup. That time of year again. When the temperature dips below 80 degrees, Texans start lighting fires in their fireplaces. I attribute this odd behavior to non-stop Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel, but it could be anything.

My last job for the day is to cover up a large picture window in the hallway with brown wrapping paper. I have this theory that if Dot can't see the workers tomorrow, she won't bark at them. We'll see how that goes.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2153

It takes at least a gallon and a half of water to flush a toilet. You can use a quart of water just rinsing off a few dishes to put in the dishwasher. It only takes a cup of water to brush your teeth however. I'm learning a lot about water. Like most of you reading this, I use an enormous amount of water without even thinking about it. There's a water bill every month, but water still seems a bit like air. It is just there. It is only when you take away the water that you realize its true significance.

Dot pooped in her bed again last night. I instinctively went to a nearby bathroom sink to wet a rag so I could clean her up. Oops. There is no water coming from these faucets. There is no water coming from any faucets. I carefully pick up as much poop as I can using a plastic poop bag. I know I can't just take the dog blanket outside and hose it down anymore. I wet a rag using a bottle of distilled water I use to make coffee and carefully clean Dot's tail and under belly. The blanket isn't that bad. I put it in a pile of dog blankets that will go to the laundromat. I get a fresh blanket for Dot and we go back to bed. I only used up a cup of water to do all this.

If you want an egg for breakfast, you have to remember that you can't clean the pan. Once the dishwasher fills up with plates that you've carefully rinsed using small amounts of your valuable bottled water, you realize that your should have been using paper plates and plastic cups all along. Old habits die hard. You scrape plates into the garbage disposal and then realize that there's no water to wash the food away. You use more of your stash of water to briefly run the disposal so it won't start to smell next Tuesday. The two large dehumidifiers and the air conditioner working in tandem have already brought the humidity levels back to the normal range. The vent resisters are dry again. We've made a lot of progress.  There is no reason to mess things up at this point by turning the water back on again for a small amount of time so we could take showers and do laundry. The leak is large, so turning the water on again for even thirty minutes could put us right back where we started.

It's not like we're camping out. It's just that the bathroom is ten miles away now. Janet slept in the hotel last night and I went over this morning to take a shower. I'm envious of Dash when I watch him lift his leg in the park and pee wherever he wants. Too bad I can't do the same thing. It sure would make life simpler. When we went grocery shopping today, we mostly bought things that you can simply heat up in the microwave and eat without getting any more plates dirty. I'm wondering whether I can still make my morning smoothies. To clean the Vitamix, all you do is fill the container with about half a quart of water, add a little soap, and run the "clean" cycle. I should be able to do this with my stash of bottled water. The alternative is just to go out for breakfast every morning until the plumber fixes the leak. That sounds pretty good too.

All in all, the day went well. We washed a huge load of towels and dog blankets at a nearby laundromat. Too bad there's not a laundromat for dirty dishes. The humidity in the house is only 41% right now. We're making progress. I bought a bunch of bottled water for flushing toilets at Sam's Club. I even got caught up on some of the website work I was supposed to do yesterday. I watched another new episode of Dr. Who and will probably watch Saturday Night Live, just to see what Donald Trump does. Tomorrow I need to get ready for the tunnel digging crew to arrive. Mostly this involves taking apart a screened in porch without totally destroying it. We'll see if Dot can make it through the night. If she can't, there will be another trip to the laundromat tomorrow.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2152

Its started. I'm listening to two large industrial strength dehumidifiers doing their best to suck the moisture out of the house. We're eating off paper plates because there is no dishwasher. I've bought a bunch of bottled water so I can use it to refill the toilet so it will flush if I have to go during the night. There are several more gallons of bottled water to refill the dog bowls. I have a sweater on because my HVAC contractor said that running the air conditioner will help dry things out. Intuitively, you'd think that turning the furnace up would dry things out quicker, but apparently it only makes the situation worse.

If you haven't guessed by now, the water leak got worse overnight and we woke up to a house that felt like a sauna. The humidity inside was over 85% and there was standing water in all the vent registers. The first thing I did was shut the water off to the house at the water main and then spent the rest of the day on the phone with the insurance adjuster, the plumbing company, my HVAC contractor, an environmental cleanup company, and a temporary housing relocation company. Sometimes I had the cell phone to one ear listening to someone while I had the land line phone to the other ear talking to someone else at the same time. It was a madhouse. I had quite a bit of website work scheduled for today and wasn't able to get started on any of it.

As you might expect, Dot wasn't happy about this whole situation and ended up pooping in the house three times. Dot can't hear very well and I actually did a pretty good job of isolating her from all the commotion in the living room. I told the environmental cleanup people to be as quiet as they could, which was kind of silly since the two machines they installed were actually quite noisy. I have to keep the dehumidifiers running 24/7 until the leak is fixed. Sometimes Dot didn't notice that there were strangers in the house until ten minutes after they arrived. When she eventually did notice, she started barking and never stopped. Excited barking always leads to poop coming out the other end these days, so that's why there were quite a few little accidents today. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the washing machine is out of commission too. I'll have to go to the laundromat tomorrow morning.

I have a sore throat from talking so much today. I usually don't talk much during the day, but today it was unavoidable. It seemed like there were questions to answer all day long. Everyone I dealt with today was very nice. More importantly, they all liked dogs and appreciated Dot's situation. Nobody got mad that she barked and pooped during our conversations. The HVAC technician even said that he really felt sorry for Dot because he had a bad back himself and understood what it was like to be in constant pain. Ironically, the insurance company will pay to temporarily put Janet and I up in a hotel while the repairs are being made, but we can't leave the dogs behind. Even a pet friendly hotel isn't going to want a dog that poops all over the place. Probably what will end up happening is that Janet will use the hotel during the week so she can get ready for work. I will stay here with the dogs and just use the hotel to take showers.

I wish now that I'd never bought this house. Mid-century modern homes typically have a flat roof that inevitably leaks after the first ten years. There is also usually a concrete slab on grade foundation with no basement. This requires that all the pipes and mechanical equipment be placed under the concrete slab where they can never be accessed again. I can't complain to the architect of this house because he is already dead. The modern looking house is 60 years old. My house doesn't even have a crawl space under the foundation. There are tons of water lines, drain lines, HVAC vent pipes, and conduit for the electrical wiring all buried in the dirt under a one foot thick concrete slab. It's kind of insane when you think about it. The technicians who came over today inevitably said one of two things. They either said "I've never seen a house like this before," or they said "Buddy, you've got a real big problem here." Some of the more astonished technicians said both.

I know this is a first world problem. I've still got a roof over my head. There's food in the refrigerator and the dogs are safe. This will get fixed. At the moment it's still a giant mess though, and I'll be real glad when things get back to normal again.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day