Sewer line done today

Today we had our sewer line replace via "trenchless" technology. Our house was built in the early 1950's and has a clay sewer pipe from the house all the way out to the street. Over the years, it has shifted and cracked due to both normal movement and earthquakes. It is also infested with tree roots. You can get a heavy duty snaking to keep it clear, but that is really a stop gap measure and the cost adds up over time.

All the houses on our street that were built at the same time have either had it done or need it done. We knew when we bought the house that this was something that needed to be done. I am so happy to finally have gotten to it as the idea of the sewer line failing and having an emergency on my hands has weighed on me for a while.

Before trenchless technology, this would have been a multi-day job. They would have dug up my front yard, front path, sidewalk, median strip and street with a wide, deep trench. The line would have been replaced and then the rebuilding process begins. To repave the street, we would have needed to truck in fill dirt and then hire specialty contractors to put down asphalt and pour new curbs and sidewalks. Our front yard would have been trashed. Add to this city services such as inspectors and traffic control and you are talking a big job and big bucks!

As you will see, trenchless is much better. I'll be this company makes a killing! It was one day, no mess, and we had plumbing by 3:10 p.m. The installation is warrantied for 10 years and the material for 50 years! I'll be quite old by the time I have to pay for any more work on the sewer line. The material is also more flexible than plastic pipes (clay is not used any longer in this area), and will withstand a lot more pressure without cracking. The installer told me you could drive a car over it and it would not break (I didn't test it!).

Here is the driveway with a tarp down before the work begins.



Remember the trench I described above? This is ours. It's about 2.5' x 1.5'.





Here is where they cut the pipe to install the liner. The old clay pipe is visible on the left. The new plastic pipe that we had done earlier is on the right. A few days ago, the installer came and cleared the sewer pipe of roots and debris by using a high pressure hose and a snake.




Here is the liner laid out on the driveway. The liner is a 4"-6" tube laying down the middle of a long tarp. The liner is like a tube sock with no toe. As manufactured, it has a flexible plastic on the outside and a felt-like material inside.


This is the machine used to blow the liner into the sewer pipe. After prepping, the liner is rolled inside and then the machine's air compresser creates pressure to shoot the liner into the sewer pipe.


The yellow pile is a long skinny balloon that is blown into the sewer pipe after the liner. It is inflated to keep the liner in the right place while it hardens. Once the liner is hard, the balloon is removed.


The felt-like inside of the liner is soaked with a special epoxy before being put in the sewer pipe. This is the epoxy being mixed. It went from clear to white, and there's even a fly entombed in my sewer pipe. I'm thinking it will be like Jurassic Park someday.


After temporarily sealing one end of the liner, the liner is filled with the epoxy and then rolled like this to spread the expoxy and soak the felt.


Here is the blowing machine attached to the sewer line during installation.




Here, the liner has been installed and will be left to dry with an air compressor to maintain pressure and keep the balloon inflated.



The project was left like this for a few hours while the crew went to lunch and the liner hardened.




As I said, we had plumbing by 3:10, and the last setp was to pour some concrete around the joint for further stability and fill the hole.




When I was talking to the installer after the job, I realized tha ALL of our plumbing is new. Every inch from the street all the way out to the last sprinkler valve in the backyard is less than 2.5 years old. I am so happy to have this done.

Sewer line and garage door

The sewer line is scheduled for Monday, and all looks good for this project. We have a contract with plumber who seems decent. We'll have to shower early because they are starting at 8:00 and we won't have any water. I have a 2.5 gallon container I use to make Iced tea, so I think I'll fill that with water to use for the day. Fortunately, with the trenchless replacement we'll have water by the end of the day (as well as a video of our shiny new sewer line - youtube anyone?). The dogs will go to cage-free day care for the day so I don't have to deal with them while dealing the the work at the same time.

I also faxed out the contract for the garage door. I hope the company works out well - they were recommended by the one general contractor we used several times and really like. I'm a little iffy about this garage door company though because they seem to fly by the seat of the pants.

They sent an estimator out who measure and walked us through picking out a garage door an gave us a verbal price. Everyone else I've dealt this puts all this in writing so their business methods seem a little off to me. We decided to do the work, and the estimator needed to come back to measure again. Hmm, this seems strange to me - why not do what you need in one visit? I then asked him what the next step was, a contract perhaps? His response was, "If you want a written contract, sure, we can do that." Okay, again this seems off - who would do work like this without a contract either as a customer or a business? There is so much room for verbal communication to go awry and there are so many details in picking out a door (more than you could imagine) that not putting it in writing is just begging for problems. Not to mention that without a contract I could back out at any time prior to installation and they are stuck with a door they might not be able to use (I wouldn't do this, but it seems weird they would risk it). We also had some very specific, detailed requests that are not standard. The estimator agreed to all of our requests verbally, but seemed unconcerned with putting it in writing.

Not surprisingly, when the first pass at the contract came there were several things missing from it. I had to call the company and remind the estimator of our conversations and he said he would amend the contract and resend it. It all just seems a little loose to me.

There aren't many choices in garage door contractors. There are a few large businesses in this area that do them, and I spoke to two of them and wasn't happy with them. The big box stores like Home Depot and Loew's also do garage doors, but I didn't want to deal with them because then you have a 4 way contract: you, the big box store, the manufacturer and the subcontractor they hire to install it. There was no way we were going to get the door installed the way we wanted with such a bureaucracy. So, we picked the best option we could find, and I hope they are better at installing doors than administration.

Now we're into maintenance too

For a while, we had no maintenance and were only focused on moving ahead with remodeling. Now we have a lot of maintenance on things like appliances and landscaping. All the appliances - washer, dryer, dishwasher, water heater, trash compactor, garbage disposal, etc - need regular maintenance and cleaning. We also have high maintenance plants outside - a ficus tree that needs professional trimming yearly, bamboo that I trim monthly, ivy I'm still trying to get to a maintenance-only state, and palm trees that drop branches, berries, and husks in huge quantities. We only picked the bamboo - everything else was already here. We routinely generate more yard waste than we have space for. I am hoping once I get the ivy cut back, that we will be able to live within the limits of our city yard waste bin that is picked up weekly.

Outdoor seating area

Here are two pictures of our outdoor seating area as it is right now. We are still waiting on parts for the table that goes with the chairs. We will probably do some sort of temporary floor in this area, and in a few years build a permanent covered patio. The patio is a big, expensive job and we thought we'd do a temporary set up and live with it for a few years before making any big, expensive, permanent decisions.

3 projects under way

Right now we have 3 main projects under way.

We are setting up an outdoor seating area with a gazebo (canvas on a metal frame) and a table and chairs. We got a great set with comfortable chairs and a coffee table with a fire pit in the middle. We started putting it together and found we were missing 3 tiny parts (washer-type parts) and had to contact the company. So the seating area is on hold until we get those parts. We are also capping off the sprinklers in that area so we can run them in the rest of the yard without getting the area wet.

The second project is the trenchless sewer replacement. I got the plumber's bid and need to sign and return it to him and then get the job scheduled.

The third project is the garage door. I called the guy to work out some contract details, and much to my surprise he had already ordered the door. We are going ahead with the work, but I wouldn't order something I might be stuck with without a signed contract. I could have easily changed my mind prior to signing or not been able to get a satisfactory contract with them. Turns out everything is fine and we are going ahead with it, but this company's business practices need some tuning up. I hope their workmanship is better than their business management.

Master bedroom closet

I'm not sure when in the last few months we finished this, but it's done. This is the closet in the master bedroom, which is C's stuff. I moved all of his stuff out of my closet, and now he has his own. It's nice to have more space. I will fill it in with more shelves during the next elfa sale at The Container Store.

Garage and more stuff dumped out front

Today I spent some time working on the garage in anticipation of getting the garage door installed. I called the company I selected and the estimator had to come back out again. I cannot imagine why he didn't do everything he needed to do to give me a written estimate the first time, but it's not my problem (the delay is my problem though). I was also a bit concerned that they only prepared a written contract at my request. I cannot imagine how you do business without contracts, but again, not my problem.

We are so excited to get a decent door. Right now, it looks like a junkyard - rotted, peeling paint, warped, etc. To get into the garage, you have to grab a key, brace your knee against the door to push it in, unlock the padlock, jiggle the metal parts the padlock is locked to, repeat on the other lock, lift the heavy door by hand (forget it if it rained recently), and then duck under it and prop it with a stick. It's such a pain that I actually accumulate things in the house in a "return to garage pile" so that I don't have to go in to the garage too often. I also keep things in the house that belong in the garage just because it is so hard to get in.

Once again, someone has used our front lawn as a dumping ground. Nice, that's really high class. Since it was originally dumped in front of the apartment building next door, I pushed it back there once it got dark.

Plumber

The plumber was here today and did a bunch of small jobs and a few big ones. I cannot tell you how much this encouraged me and uplifted my mood. It felt so good to make some visible progress. One of the funny things about this house is that we actually now have regular maintenance in addition to remodeling to tackle.

Today the plumber fixed two drains that were slow not because they were clogged (they weren't), but because they were improperly installed to begin with. The horrible plumber I used for the remodel could not install them correctly even after several tries and the drains themselves were "modern" designs that are meant to be "cool" (i.e. they move slowly up and down seemingly mysteriously) when you use them. I think they'd be much cooler if they worked well and were easy to install.

He was not able to fix our cheap Ikea kitchen faucet which shuts off by itself. While I am generally pleased with my Ikea kitchen, the sink and faucet were not worth the bargain price. Eventually, we'll need to replace both. Fortunately, the faucet is a standard 1-hole mount, so that can be replaced with a nicer one at some point. The sink, which I got a great price on, turned out not to be a good idea. It's not a standard size because of an attached drain board, so when it eventually warps out of shape we'll need to get a custom one made.

The plumber also hooked up the water and ice maker on the fridge, which is so nice to have. The ice maker drives the dogs crazy. They love crushed ice, and the noise is weird for them I think.

He also installed an earthquake valve, which is great because the house should never have been without one. I don't know how this got missed when we had all of our building inspections, but I am glad it did. This was a really big job because the gas meter was under some concrete steps on the side of the house. Since there is not a better place for the meter, we left it there but had to alter the steps so that the meter could be worked on. The gas company said they need a 3' x 2' space in which to work, and we had nowhere near that. In fact the meter was only accessible from the side of the steps which would mean sitting in a hedge. Earlier, we had the steps demolished and rebuilt from redwood with a big trap door on top for access. Then we could get the earthquake valve installed. The valve will shut off the gas supply in the event of an earthquake. This is really important because most of the damage done in an earthquake is due to to fires and explosions not the shaking. It is a fairly simple device - there is a delicately balanced ball inside the valve and if the shaking gets too bad it knocks the ball off and blocks the gas supply line. If this happens, you need to reset the valve and then relight all the pilot lights in the house. We are hoping this doesn't happen because our prior incompetent plumber (not the guy who was here today, who is actually pretty good) installed the heater in a way that makes it very difficult to light the pilot. There is no way to correct it now, so we'll just have to live with it until we get a new water heater. Our next one will be tankless anyway, which can even be installed outside so it will be much easier to access.

We also had a camera inspection of the sewer line, which needs to be replaced. Fortunately, we are a candidate for trenchless replacement which is a great thing. All the houses on the street that were built when ours was have either had their sewer replaced or need it done. Our neighbors have 3 units on a lot just like ours, and they have the sewer professionally cleaned every month because it backs up. Yuck! It's really a ticking time bomb because it could fail at any minute, so we want to get it replaced before it fails.

Lots happening

We're still working really hard, and most days are long. Currently, we are working on a garage door. You'd think this wasn't that hard, but as will all things house-related, there are no easy answers. It's an expensive item, and there are a million options. Even to buy a basic white door there are at least 20 options to pick. There are also installation constraints (e.g. some doors can only be installed after the finish work is done in the garage, some need more clearance than we have, some interfere with future plans for finishing the garage, etc).

I did finally "move in" to the kitchen after living here over 2 years. At first, we had no kitchen - just a fridge, microwave, 1 box of food (the pantry) and paper plates. Then we gradually had space as the cabinets got installed but we couldn't use the top row because we were to have a soffitt built by one of the contractors (the incompetent one). Well, the soffitt has been put on the future projects list and probably won't happen during phase II which is scheduled to last until Fall 2009. Given that schedules invariably go over time, this won't happen for a while so I decided to get organized. I pulled everything out, cleaned, purged and organized and put it all back neatly and in order. It feels great!

We are also setting up an outdoor seating area. We eventually want to build some sort of patio, but it's a big and very expensive undertaking so it won't be happening any time soon. In the meantime, we decided to get a gazebo for shade and some furniture. We found some great stuff on sale at OSH, and here it is:





The set also has a table with a firepit, but when we went to assemble it we were missing some small parts so I am waiting for the manufacturer to send them. I'll post a picture when it's done. The pile of cardboard to the left is the boxes from the gazebo and chairs and from our ongoing move in to the house. Each week, before putting the trash out, I cut some up an fill the recycling bin, but so far the pile remains. Eventually it will be gone.

Where's my stuff?

Have you ever seen a scene in the movies or on TV where a character is so shocked by something or laughs so hard he spits his water out? That was me today except fortunately I didn't have anything in my mouth. If you haven't seen the very early pictures on this blog, you may want to take a look. The guy we bought the house from, in addition to not cleaning, was a hoarder. Even after legal threats, hiring movers for him, etc. he still left massive amounts of stuff here in spite of the fact that the sales contract read "property to be delivered free of all personal possessions."

We dealt with that trash for months - days of picking up, dumpsters, trips to the toxic waste dump, more than 50 trash bags, special pickups, hiring a hauler, etc. The garage was FULL when we were inspecting the place prior to purchasing it, and I do mean full to the point that you couldn't even put two feet inside it so you could stand in it. It was packed floor to ceiling and front to back. He took most of the stuff from the garage and just left some trash for us to deal with. I was glad he didn't leave a lot in the garage since it was all big stuff.

The guy we bought the place from also led, shall I say, an interesting life. I found drug paraphenalia and a summons to drug court in the debris and heard stories of huge domestic blowouts from the neighbors. Also according to the neighbors, the police were regular visitors. We began our purchase of this house in Early October 2005, and it became ours at the end of December. We often wonder if one of his buddies would show up and knock on the door. After a year or so of us living here, we began to breathe easy and think it would never happen.

Imagine my surprise when today, 2 1/2 years after we took possession of the house, someone knocks on the door. Normally I don't answer if I don't know who it is, but with two barking dogs I felt safe enough to answer it. He introduces himself and says he is a friend of the former owner. (UH OH!!) "I had some stuff in the garage and was wondering if you knew what happened to it." Here's where I was glad I hadn't just taken a drink because it would have been sprayed movie-style all over the place. After 2 1/2 years, he didn't even know the place had been sold. He is a contractor and happened to be driving by and noticed the different (and operational) cars in the driveway and that the house looks (totally) different and figured it must have been sold so he knocks on the door.

I had to fight my very strong urges to make a smart-alec comment or to laugh in his face both of which I felt sorely tempted to do. First, this place was filled with filthy, moldy junk. The garage was so gross that the smell gagged me once when we were here in the rain (it's fine now). What could he possibly want that was there? Second, what could you possibly have stashed in someone's garage that you don't use for 2 1/2 years (and probably way longer) that you still want? Third, how is it that you are close enough to someone to store your junk in his garage, but not close enough to have spoken to him in 2 1/2 years or know that he went through a major move?

This really blew me away, but I'm glad it was one of his packrat friends and not one of his druggie friends.