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rmdwhat's that about having a fool for a client? yeah.
so, back in early feb, when i was getting the apartment ready for the new tenant, i had to do some minor home improvement cruft, since he's on rental assistance and this means they inspect to make sure i'm not renting out a modified cardboard box under the carport and have important safety features like handrails on stairways and such. one of the things i did was finally take a dangling outlet box in the basement and secured so it didn't dangle. at the time, i remember noticing "wow, this is a POS installation -- the wires are just jammed into the back of the outlet into the spring-thingies rather than secured to the actual side screws. i should fix that."
unfortunately, my electrician is a real idiot and didn't actually remember to TEST the outlet after reassembling the outlet box in its new more secured non-dangly location. which, you know, wouldn't have been a big deal, except the one thing that was plugged into it was the sump pump.
fast forward to friday's monsoon.
yeah. so, my sump pump didn't pump the sump, and the water level rose. conveniently, i had left a leakfrog[1] on the floor near the sump, and the tenant heard the beeping friday night, so i went and investigated. i decided "OH CRAP, MY SUMP PUMP IS BUSTED" around the time i was standing in an inch of water near the sump and jiggling the float arm with no actual pumping-related activities evident from the pump.
there were two small hellion children under my dubious care at the time, so i prevailed upon claudia (who was also around the house) to ride herd on them while i went out to the big orange box and got another sump pump.
i did, picking up the last one that happened to be an exact model match for the one i already had. and that was good. so i was driving home, when i realized "hey, i don't remember testing that outlet. and i didn't test the pump tonite by plugging it in somewhere else."
i got home, noticed that the water level had already fallen about half an inch, which was good, and plugged the pump into an extension cord. it revved right up and started pumping water away. back to riding herd on hellion children (who were actually pretty good, my description not withstanding. mythbusters and katamari and some ddr to extract energy from them? yeah, all good).
in the morning, i headed back down to survey the damage. lots of wet cardboard that i hadn't put out for the recycling folks yet. a couple of wet tools that should be okay. and a new spare sump pump.
well, i'd been thinking for a while that i should keep a cold spare around in case it broke. so, now i have one. *shrug*
most of my non-trash stuff, i think, was either a couple of inches off the floor or else was stored in rubbermaid bins. so that's all good. jb and kimberly's stuff stored in my basement was in some cardboard boxes, tho, so i went around and put several of the single boxes or short stacks onto some wooden blocks to get air flowing underneath. then i hooked up the dehumidifer and set it to max.
i've been downstairs a few times since then, moving the dehumidier around to different parts of the basement. jb should be over some time today to deal with his stuff. and this should serve as an inspiration to get all that cardboard out for recycling.
so, back in early feb, when i was getting the apartment ready for the new tenant, i had to do some minor home improvement cruft, since he's on rental assistance and this means they inspect to make sure i'm not renting out a modified cardboard box under the carport and have important safety features like handrails on stairways and such. one of the things i did was finally take a dangling outlet box in the basement and secured so it didn't dangle. at the time, i remember noticing "wow, this is a POS installation -- the wires are just jammed into the back of the outlet into the spring-thingies rather than secured to the actual side screws. i should fix that."
unfortunately, my electrician is a real idiot and didn't actually remember to TEST the outlet after reassembling the outlet box in its new more secured non-dangly location. which, you know, wouldn't have been a big deal, except the one thing that was plugged into it was the sump pump.
fast forward to friday's monsoon.
yeah. so, my sump pump didn't pump the sump, and the water level rose. conveniently, i had left a leakfrog[1] on the floor near the sump, and the tenant heard the beeping friday night, so i went and investigated. i decided "OH CRAP, MY SUMP PUMP IS BUSTED" around the time i was standing in an inch of water near the sump and jiggling the float arm with no actual pumping-related activities evident from the pump.
there were two small hellion children under my dubious care at the time, so i prevailed upon claudia (who was also around the house) to ride herd on them while i went out to the big orange box and got another sump pump.
i did, picking up the last one that happened to be an exact model match for the one i already had. and that was good. so i was driving home, when i realized "hey, i don't remember testing that outlet. and i didn't test the pump tonite by plugging it in somewhere else."
i got home, noticed that the water level had already fallen about half an inch, which was good, and plugged the pump into an extension cord. it revved right up and started pumping water away. back to riding herd on hellion children (who were actually pretty good, my description not withstanding. mythbusters and katamari and some ddr to extract energy from them? yeah, all good).
in the morning, i headed back down to survey the damage. lots of wet cardboard that i hadn't put out for the recycling folks yet. a couple of wet tools that should be okay. and a new spare sump pump.
well, i'd been thinking for a while that i should keep a cold spare around in case it broke. so, now i have one. *shrug*
most of my non-trash stuff, i think, was either a couple of inches off the floor or else was stored in rubbermaid bins. so that's all good. jb and kimberly's stuff stored in my basement was in some cardboard boxes, tho, so i went around and put several of the single boxes or short stacks onto some wooden blocks to get air flowing underneath. then i hooked up the dehumidifer and set it to max.
i've been downstairs a few times since then, moving the dehumidier around to different parts of the basement. jb should be over some time today to deal with his stuff. and this should serve as an inspiration to get all that cardboard out for recycling.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:14 pm (UTC)I hadn't heard the term "leakfrog" before. Sounds useful.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:35 pm (UTC)the leakfrog is an occasional woot.com offering. it's a little thing that looks like a cartoon frog, but it has two contacts on the bottom. if there's enough water that there's a connection across the contacts, it make an annoying beepy noise.
leakfrog! (http://www.ideativeinc.com/leakfrog.cfm)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:36 pm (UTC)JB says he's coming there straight from Lake Shore (the dance wkend thingy he was at ...) thanks for dealing in the meantime.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-05 01:44 am (UTC)i told them "my friend (your name here) taught me all i ever needed to know about electrical work. 1)never bypass all the safeties and 2) if you do your own plumbing, it will smell bad or it won't work if you do it wrong...if you do your own carpentry it will look bad or fall apart if you do it wrong. if you do your own electrical work and do it wrong it may well work just fine for 20 years and then burn your house down in the middle of the night."
that sold him on getting a real electrician.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-05 06:25 am (UTC)Git off that damn pedestal...
;)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-05 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 08:43 pm (UTC)