Bar leaves, Leaks return

Today was a busy day. I had two window estimates; one for repairing the leaking pane in the garden kitchen window and one for replacing it completely with a flat one. Either way it takes money but we'll see which will be worth it.

And the bar left! Hallelujah! A friend's brother wanted it for his bachelor pad man cave so he rented a U-Haul today. He brought two friends and between the four of us we were able to lift it and shuffle it into the truck. Luckily he had rented the 10' truck because it just fit with room to close the door. They were happy to have it and we are so glad to see it go. The boys will enjoy it, he's already posted a picture of it in his garage.

Anne came over to play with Katherine for a little while so I could get some work done. When she showed up I noticed the sidewalk in front of our house was wet. I went out to look and the water meter box (cement box near the street that reads water usage into the property) was overflowing with water. I bailed water out of it using one of the baby's buckets; at least I was able to water the part of the lawn that needed it. I got the water level below the level of the water gauge so I could see if it was moving at all. The meter wasn't spinning which meant we didn't have an active leak and no water was being currently used on the property. When I checked back on the water level a little while later it had risen; a few hours later it was almost as high as when I first found it.

As we see it, there are a few potential causes:

1. We ran the back sprinklers through a full cycle last night for the first time since they stopped working on their own. They had been on a few times occasionally but not for as long as we ran them last night. It is possible that all that water took that long to flow through the ground all the way into the front yard. But that doesn't explain why it is seeping up just in the water meter area.

2. It could be a break or leak in the waste water line. Not sewer, it didn't smell, but sink or shower run off. I had run the washer in the morning, taken a shower and used the sink. When Mike got home we ran the shower for a few minutes (after bailing more water out) and saw it rise a little. Not a lot, barely noticeable, but it did rise. But it could be that whatever started to fill the box, was still continuing to fill it, unrelated to the shower running.

So our investigative plan is to turn off all the sprinklers tonight and use the water in the house as normal. Since we haven't notice this flood before either something just broke or its the back sprinklers since that's the only thing different. We've been showering this whole time obviously. Tomorrow I'm going to see if the box is higher, sans sprinklers, and that should establish if its house related or not. Either way Bob suggested getting a big container of food coloring and dropping it down a sink to see if it is waste water going to the meter.

No water should go back through the water meter from house to street. The water should only be going from the street to the house, through the meter where it gets measured. Since the meter isn't continuously running its not a case of water continuously flowing through from the street to the house. If we establish its a leak in water leaving the house, we call a plumber to find the leak; its probably in the main line that leaves the house and we think its left of the walkway which means right through our lawn. But if that's the case we don't know why it would leak in the water meter which is on the right side of the walkway. If we establish that the leak is related to the sprinkler system in the back, we may have to dig down and rip out the pipes that go under the cement from the front to the back. Fun fun either way.

In happier news, I worked more on the garage. The last two boxes of our clothes made it up to our room. They're not in the closet yet, but they're closer. We still have to get some kind of workbench for all of our tools. And now that we have space we can see that the previous owner left a lot of stuff in the rafters. We're assuming its more junk we will have to get rid of. We have to clear all that before we put our own stuff in the rafters; thus it still sits in our garage. The rest of the crafty stuff has to go into the second upstairs green room but right now there is no where to put it other than stacking it in boxes in the closet. That and its hard to decide where a lot of it will go while Mike is working. When I rearranged the garage, my car can fit! That's right, there is an actual car in our three car garage. Sure the other two bays are full but its a start.