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Ker-F**K
[1:08 PM]
Well, I finally got someone set up through HWA to come out and look at the septic. Turns out the guy that came out only was there to pump out the tank, not sure what that would fix.
The upshot is, he was able to identify the inlet pipe in the tank. It was covered in tree roots, of course. He cleaned it off, and we agreed it would be worth it to run some water down there and see what happened. Well, as it filled up the basement there was only a trickle coming into the tank, which means the line has likely collapsed.
So, I started excavating my septic line by hand. I found it after about 3 hours of digging. At the tank, it's 3' underground. The 100' run back to the house goes into a hill, which means I get down to about 8' up by the house.
Hey, the upshot of all of this is that I get to operate a backhoe. What self-respecting man would pass up THAT opportunity?
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First Project: Flood Prevention Measures
[5:32 PM]
Finding 3" of water in your basement is never a good thing. This did happen to me. Luckily it still wasn't my house yet. As I inspected the plumbing afterwards, I found that there was no shutoff valve to the outside faucets.
Aha! My first project! And a relatively easy one at that. Went down to the hardware store, bought a pipe wrench, teflon tape, a shutoff valve, a pipe cutter, and some other odds and ends. Ended up running about $30 all in all. Installing it was rather fun. All I had to do was just...
* Shut off the water to the entire house
* Cut the pipe apart, ensuring that I could not possibly use my water until I completed this project. Removing 1/2" of pipe proved sufficient for the valve I bought.
* Splice in the valve via the compression fittings.
* Teflon tape the hell out of it just in case.
* Tighten everything up using enough torque to almost break said pipes.
And viola! One shutoff valve installed. Yes, I know. Pictures will come later when I find the link cable for my digital camera.
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Hello, World!
[5:19 PM]
The shock of purchasing my first house is starting to wear off, and I'm beginning to amass a list of fixes... both fixed and TODO items. I figured what better way to track my progress as a homeowner then to blog it. Let the fun begin!
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