Christmas - WONDERFUL...Christmas Eve - SUCKED!!

I plan on blogging and adding pictures to Flickr in the next couple of days about Christmas, but chronologically, I am forced to start with the Christmas Eve Day from HELL!!

Everything was planned, we (theson, thegrandson and I) would head to Pittsburgh to finish shopping and then go to theDonald's for evening dinner and gift exchange. But oh no...as theson came downstairs in the morning, he and I were talking by the basement stairs, when the furnace kicked off - I HEARD WATER IN THE BASEMENT!! Continual rain from the evening before and forecast for the entire day - and we have a flood in the basement. My nerves do not handle a crisis like they used to. Water is coming up through the drains, through the vent to the furnace...and there is at least 6-8 inches throughout. Now, basket case that I am, I cry!! This is NOT the day to have such a problem. I call the city crews to bring a pump - and the morons didn't even have a submersible - and said there was nothing they could do, and left. So, off to the hardware store, and theson buys a pedestal sump pump, hooks it up, and we start pumping water out - but it isn't making a dent - as the water is coming in at the same speed. $%^&*()#$%^&*()!!!!!!!!

Trying to deal with the "water" issue, I beg theson to settle for running to the local mall to shop, but he has to stick to tradition and we ended up going to Pittsburgh. I thought I would have to call 911, as I was having anxiety issues myself. My sole purpose in life seems to be to WORRY. All I could think of was the pump actually doing its job and then burning our house down while in Pittsburgh. As it turned out - that was never an issue, because the water level remained the same.

Theson did everything humanly possible to alleviate this problem, and when we went to bed (the rain had ceased) the water level was down about 1 1/2 inches. When we got up Christmas morning, the pump was still running with very little change. After presents were opened, thedaughters friend came over and was scoping out the creek behind the house - as I told him approximately where the drain pipe came out into the creek. He couldn't find the damn thing, so we all went out to check - after scooping mud and debris, we located the pipe - he reached into the pipe and it was 100% blocked with creek rocks. As soon as he scooped all the rocks out, it was like a geyser - and the daughter said the water level went down incredibly fast.

I now know what neighbor kids have been playing back there, and maybe they thought that was a cute idea to "block the pipe", but I have now lost about $5000-$6000 worth of property, and no way to prove their vandalism. Furious beyond belief is one way to describe my feelings.

But thanks to thedaughters friends they were here early this morning, and we all chipped in to get the muck and garbage, and ruined items out of the house and to the landfill.

Water still pooled at bottom of stairs.
Still some water and stuff ready to go to landfill.

I had a sofa and entertainment unit, which were totally ruined - so the guys had a blast sawing both into pieces, in order to be hauled away, as seen here.

Jaime and theson really enjoyed the destruction.
Saying goodbye to entertainment unit.

We started the cleanup process about 10 am this morning and finished up 3 pm. That entailed three runs to the landfill and a lot of hard work, but the fans are running (the dehumidifier was destroyed also) and I have a workable space to finish getting rid of more "stuff" later. I now have to find someone to come in and deal with mold prevention, and what is it doing now........raining!! I'm tired and in considerable pain, but have to get some food ready for the rest of the family is visiting this evening.

More about Christmas later - hope everyone had better luck than me. Later............