Thursday, April 26, 2007

If the rain don't fall too hard, everything shines like a postcard


Hello again!



You'll have to pretend it's tomorrow, as I just couldn't possibly have 2 posts in the same evening.........



You know how wet it's been on the coast? And how wet all the diggers and marchers got on ANZAC Day? Well, up here in Walnut Grove, there's been none. Zip. Nada. Nil. Well, maybe just some slightly thick mist......



But GG....... Well GG needs an ark for her bedroom at nanandpops... No joking. She woke up on Tuesday morning with water views. A bed over the water so to speak. And her window faces the wrong direction by about 180degrees. Actually, there was about 2 inches of water lapping under her bed......... so all the clothes, shoes, socks and papers on her floor are now soaking wet.... Her fab Nan and Pop have done their best to clean it out and dry it up, but the new carpet has what appears to be a waterproofed backing, so that most of the water is underneath the carpet, which was laid straight down over the concrete slab... plurgh.... so I guess, the carpet is floating too.....



GG used to step outside at night to hear the sound of the surf breaking on the beach. I reckon that now, if she turns the ceiling fan on flat out, she could create some fairly sizeable swell in her room.....Fun... Not.......


GG looking for treasures on the floor of her room....I kid you not; that is the colour of her carpet....



So, what has to be done is to remove all the furniture from the room. Then pull the carpet up, take it out and dry it off. If there is some dry and sunny weather, that is. Then try and stop the water coming in. We know where it came in, it's just going to be really hard to stop it. My mum and dad say that it's ground water caused by the bloke next door's love of concrete in his yard. About 40 metres north-east. Beloved and I tend to think that the problem originates from a downpipe on the corner of their house that goes into a clay pipe that is about 5 metres directly uphill from where the water enters GG's room. Given that the house was built about 44 yrs ago on the side of a hill, and trees have come and gone, along with a lot of earth movement, it isn't too much of a stretch to think that the pipe might be cracked or broken, so that in times of torrential rain, such as happened on Tuesday, then the pipe just might fail if it has to cope with all the roof water . If this is the case, which would be the simplest to remedy, then a rainwater tank could be put in place at the back of the house, and the run-off could be collected. Worse case scenario involves digging up large trenches in the front yard and in an existing lean-to (that has a concrete floor) and creating rubble drains...... If it was flooded as a result of excessive run-off from next door, then surely the front of dad's garage would have flooded as well. It has a small drain in front (I know, because we put it there), but if there was THAT much water from next door, then that's where it would have ended up. Bunnings was flooded too dad tells me........


I can't help thinking that if this is the case, then it might be cheaper and easier to find GG another abode. Which she doesn't want. Because as much as her pop is driving her insane, she loves being near her nan. She also has the emotional safety net of still living with family, and probably hasn't felt the wrench of moving out of home as much as some others have.


I feel as if I'm asking too much of my parents to ask them to cope with all this, but there really isn't another option. Beloved and I both have work committments, and we chose to participate in the relay for life in Muswellbrook this weekend as a show of support for Ester and Gaynor, who have both had parents battling cancer over the last year. And Sharon, a team member, who's been waging her own battle for quite some time now. I just don't think it would be the right thing to do to opt out so close to the event. Mum and Dad are coping, but it isn't going to be easy over the next few days, and that's just the clean-up and dry-out. I know the rectifying of the problem is going to cause them no end of grief. Because things like this, which in the big scheme of things really aren't all that bad, really upset their apple cart. Dad can never see a positive. He's a "the glass is half empty and going fast" kind of fella. And mum will pay the price of having to listen to him go on and on and on ....... Hmmmmm... She'll have to find her happy place.....

Yep... I think this picture says it all...

Well, we'll just have to see what happens. It's going to take a while.........

Love, Muggle :0D xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

11 comments:

poody said...

on man that sucks alright maybe you can get a carpet cleaning company to come in and suck up all the water for them.

Michelle said...

hmmmmm, not fun

Kathie said...

I am with you on this and I feel for GG.

Our rumpus room has also flooded from ground water, carpet sitting on concrete, everything flooded and soaked.

We live on a slope and we feel that the water must be coming in under the concrete path, under the built on rooms and down into the rumpus room/shed ... I can see that the water flows out under the concrete driveway now that the rain has stopped.

We are talking about digging up the backyard to put in fresh drainage and build a new retaining wall ... but first we need to clean up downstairs.

Jen said...

poo

Jen said...

NOAH

What??

BUILD AN ARK 50 CUBITS BY 30 CUBITS

Whats an ark?????


does anyone else love bill cosby??

Michelle said...

Yes I am partial to that man for sure....

~*Rylah*~ said...

Bill Cosby! Is he still alive??????

Heeheee....

Bee said...

whos bill cosby??????????????

Cyndy said...

We were actually discussing the merit of and ark with the amount of rain we've had up here iover the last two day, and someone used a very deep and loud voice to utter those very immortal words. Of course, then discussion turned to ...just how big IS a cubit?????

Yes. Bill Cosby is alive and well, and living in the USA

Cyndy said...

A cubit is a unit of measurement. 1 cubit = 45.72cm.....

Michelle said...

Its a week later now and I am officially nagging you to post again!