Hello readers. I have been swamped lately, what with my job promotion closing and now with homeowner issues. Let me explain.
In early July after Chantal hit North Carolina, I woke up to find I had a water line break and water was spilling out into my front yard and then cascading down into my neighbors yard (I live on a hill). This was my first time seeing anything like this. I called my neighbor up the street to see if he could help. He started digging up the site, while I called my city water department to turn off the water. Oddly enough when the city worker got here, he couldn’t find the water main and neither could I. So the three of us went hunting and pecking for it. We ended up finding it about 1 foot from my neighbors covered up my dirt and grass. SMH. After he left I called three companies for estimates to fix the issue.
The first, a well known national company, came out. The representative, a location manager, walked up to the water line break, looked at it, said “Oh yeah, that’s broken”, and then proceeded to give me a $3,000 estimate to repair a $6,000 estimate to replace it. Didn’t bother to give me a breakdown of either estimates.
The second company to come out was literally no better. They were a smaller company, more local than national, so I thought they would be more . The representative walked up to the line and said “that’s going to be $4,000.” He doesn’t say if that was for the repair or for the replacement. Just a hot mess.
The third company is the best. I’ve used them before and they were fantastic. Not sure why they were not my first call. He did a thorough walkthrough and proceeded to give me a reasonable estimate for both repairing and replacing. Repairing is $1,200 and replacing is $6600. Each estimate included a breakdown. Once I told him who the first company was, he was not surprised. He said they purposefully charge more and would give a 50% discount if I complained. Not the best way to run a company if you ask me. But Ok. Jaden repaired the line and went on to answer all of my off the wall questions without a condescending tone. I was very thankful. I was back to having water and I was comfortable.
Ironically right after Jayden arrived, my second homeowner issue appeared. Geese! Yes, that’s right, geese. They popped up out of nowhere and I do mean nowhere. Jayden was digging a hole and they came squawking from around the corner. They started following me, my stepfather, and Jayden around. Clearly they were not afraid of humans. They stuck around long after Jayden and my stepfather disappeared. (More on them later).
That is until the following Thursday evening, when my sewer system began to act abnormal. Everything was backing up into the bathroom tub, then draining itself underneath the toilet. SMH. This was the second time in 18 months this had happened. I’ve been in this house 9 years and nothing in the first 7 years. Why now? Why all of a sudden? So cue to me calling the plumbing company back and requesting the same plumber, . He was available, thank goodness. He decided to snake the line. While snaking the line, I decided to ask him a few more questions regarding plumbing in my home and again he happily answered the questions with ease. I was again thankful. After snaking the issue and unable to find the issue, he said he wanted to camera the line. By all means. However it would have to wait until the following Monday. No problem.
When he arrived the following week to camera the line, as a thank you for answering my questions and helping me avoid being taken advantage of in the future, I gifted him a gift card. He and his girlfriend had just purchased a fixer upper and I wanted to help. He was very appreciative and thanked me a few times.
Back to the camera and the line. He found nothing on my end, however once he got to the city’s part of the line, there was all kinds of trouble. He found “flushable” wipes and other items. FYI, I do not use flushable wipes and I don’t flush anything but toilet paper. Period. So he suggested I call the city to flush the line and have them hydro jet it. So that is exactly what I did. And wouldn’t you know it, the city came out asap to clear it. Once they were done clearing everything, they informed me if it happens again, they are going to have to dig up their line and replace. Oh joy, more yard destruction!
Oh right, the geese! They stayed on my porch the rest of the day. I ended up having to walk them back to the park next to my home. I looked like Mother Goose. Well the geese continued to come back to my and my neighbors properties and provide us with honks and party favors. Ultimately animal control picked them up. Go figure! Turns out they belonged to the neighbor behind me. He’s not in city limits, so all good.
Again the joys of homeownership and I wouldn’t give it up for the world!
To be continued…
