More leaks

We had a hard time getting out of bed this morning since we worked so late yesterday. We had to hit Home Depot before we even got to the house but we were there by 9am. We dismantled the fridge (again) and this time figured out how to disconnect the hose. It just fit inside the kitchen doorway and into the kitchen. We had to take off the doors (and handles), door support brackets, vent cover, water hose and water filter. We reassembled the fridge, pushed it into place and opened the door very pleased with ourselves ... only to find that the door hits the door frame and cannot be opened completely. We'll have to add a cushion or we're sure the door will eventually bang the drywall off that wall. No large cakes or pizza boxes in that fridge. But at least we could have cold water from the fridge ... cold bottled water though since we still didn't have water to the house.

From there we decided to tackle the garage. We started out with very specific piles for each room and starting sorting everything onto the driveway. Then we got wise and decided to try and move only a few boxes to gain access to some areas and try to get the boxes more tightly packed. There were a lot of random holes in the garage that we were able to fill and stack some boxes of the same size more efficiently. Bree was able to find her "post Convention" suitcase that had actual clothes in it, not just cocktail dresses and heels.

We were able to clear a 6' path all the way from the side door to the water heater on the opposite side of the garage. That required moving their old fridge that had been sitting in the garage though. Apparently the only thing they kept in it was batteries and Pabst Blue Ribbon. The latter was put into our fridge that was actually cold. We started moving the fridge but decided we needed more help, specifically Cheda help.

Luckily Nick and Cathy came to save the day! Cathy helped me in the kitchen and Nick helped Mike move the fridge to the side of the house. Because of all our rearranging we were able to not only clear a path to the water heater but still had room to get all of the couches inside the garage! Then the boys wandered around working on the leak in the front yard. Cathy and I pulled up multiple layers of old shelf liner and tried to develop a strategy for the kitchen. We seem to have lots of space but we were trying to find the best place to put everything so it made sense. Mike's parents and my dad showed up too.

Then there was a leak; a new one. They turned the front lawn sprinklers off and on to determine the source of the leak that caused the water meter to spin even when everything was "off." While inspecting that we noticed that there was a puddle of water forming in the left hand corner of our front steps. While we were first looking at it we tried to determine if it was a buried sprinkler head or perhaps one that was broken. Water was flowing quickly out of it so we shut the water off to check the others. When we turned it back on we found that there was an additional leak coming from one of the tiles in the front steps!  

It was a fast and definite flow; not over spray from the sprinklers of just residual water. We captured it on video to inform our real estate agent. We're probably going to ask for some kind of compensation from the seller. The two tiles surrounding the leaking area have been replaced; they were (badly) attached with a different color and type of grout. Three more tiles on the right hand side of the steps were actually not attached at all and just placed leaning against the steps.

Luckily we had our very own "Sprinkler Think Tank" and they poured over the problem for hours. They tried adjust all the pipes we had access too, which had increased since Mike dug a big hole at the water main. I was trying to help Anne and Cathy in the kitchen but kept getting called away for sprinkler developments and phone falls to/ from our realtor.

By the late afternoon they had fixed the link in the irrigation valves (above) and managed to stop the water meter from "crawling" when everything was supposed to be off. They found that there are no leaks or obvious faults in the backyard sprinkler system. They were able to isolate the leaks to only the one under the front stairs. We have a plan to investigate exactly where the leak under the stairs is. We think that we will be able to cut out and bypass that bad section so that we don't have to dig up the walkway and/or stairs. Its concerning that the leak seems to be coming from behind the steps which we expected to be poured concrete. If the leak was under the walkway the water would be expected to flow down hill and out to one side or the other; not uphill and up the concrete to the stairs. Its a mystery. A very scary and potentially expensive mystery.

Since the two of the three leaks were fixed and the remaining one only leaked when the sprinklers were on, we got water back into the house! We were able to wash our very dirty hands. Of course by then Cathy had wiped the entire kitchen down. Cathy and I worked to lay shelf liner in the larger cabinets then Nick ended up helping too. I have decided that shelf liner was the devil. It doesn't stick very well to the shelf itself but loves to stick to itself. Several cabinets are deeper than a single roll of shelf liner so piecing was necessary. One particularly deep corner cabinet probably took 45 minutes to get flat; I had to be practically in the cabinet to install it.

Our families had gone home so we collected our kids from my mom and took Nick and Cathy out to dinner for their help. We were all so exhausted, dirty and hungry by then we decided an outdoor patio restaurant was our only option. Since we all smelled we didn't really notice. ;) The girls had fun at my parents' house playing all day while the grown-ups worked and we ended up spending dinner together which was nice.

Tomorrow we head back and hope that we don't spring another leak.