FourFirths: Dave the Sewer Guy...

August 25, 2012

So we are changing the plumbing in the basement so as to get rid of "the throne" toilet (as seen in earlier post). In order to do this, David had to jack-hammer out the cement in order to rearrange the plumbing. I tried to take a picture of this, but the flash kept focusing on all of the dust in the air...

Once I turned the flash off, you could see better.

Now begins the big dig out of the backyard. I don't know how we do it, but we have been incredibly blessed once again. The first company we called to do the work had a broken camera, and couldn't do it. David and I were driving down the road and a plumbing truck passed by, so we called them. They didn't have a camera, but they recommended Pioneer Sewer and Drain. Let me just say, I HIGHLY recommend Dave Rowley at Pioneer. He has bent over backwards to help us out. He wanted to make sure we were without service for as short a time as possible. He discussed all of our options with us and has done really great work.

The first step was digging a couple of really deep holes. The first one started below was to get to the old sewer line so that we could connect into it. So here is the backhoe beginning the big dig...

This is the hole right down under the house into the basement where we will hook into the new line.

The digging begins... I swear it looks like there is three times as much dirt in the lawn than could ever fit into that hole. Notice all of the river rock... yep, we live on a river bed...

Then a trench was dug to connect the two holes. David went down in to give some perspective on just how big this trench is...

So, not only is Dave Rowley the amazing sewer guy who really knows his stuff, he is also a really funny guy telling stories of growing up, etc. On top of that, he is just a plain ole nice guy. He raises chickens and brought us some fresh eggs. Let me tell you, they are absolutely fabulous! I especially like the eggs he brought us because they are so colorful, pinks, peaches, and blue greens. I hated to actually use them because they were so pretty...

Even the best of us have our days, and yesterday was one of those. Dave was digging and ran into a gas line that had not been marked. Not knowing if it was a live line or an abandoned line, we had to call it in. The guy who locates the lines came out and was shocked to see another line. Also a bit nervous as he hadn't marked it when he did the locating. It was a big deal and we were told that we were supposed to call 911. Well, with all of the hullaballou, we some how forgot to do that. It seems that somehow everyone else was called and the city came out as well as a rep from Northwestern Energy. This last guy was supposed to tell us if the line was live or not, but he forgot his tools.

Seriously, it was becoming comical. The next thing we know, we are borrowing tools from our neighbor across the street, and the Sewer guy is nice enough to start poking a hole in the line to see if it is live. SCARY to say the least. In the end, a hole was punched in the line and luckily it was an abandoned line, but it wasted half of the day... The locator guy is in the yellow vest, and our favorite guy, Dave, is operating the backhoe.

Did you notice that the piles of dirt are covering our entire driveway? I didn't realize that was going to happen and now the lawn mower is trapped in the garage. Our poor neighbors have to look at foot high grass in our front yard... Oops...