And the saga continues....

Well.....After much consideration on how we were going to pay for all of this we decided to cancel the contract for the waterproofing at this time. We are still planning on getting it done, just not now that we have another bill to take care of. This past Tuesday they came and started digging the front yard to fix the sewer line. Thankfully I was at work in the morning. When I came home around 12:30 I could see the piles of dirt from down the street along with the huge backhoe in my front yard. O what a sight. I almost wanted to vomit. Anyways on a good note, they got it done in one day..they were done by 5:30pm and...get this...it was only $1800 instead of $4000. What...yea actually we caught a little break there for a second. So, that headache is done for now. They will be out in the spring to grate the front yard and make it all smooth and pretty again. As of Tuesday we still did not have our check from the city for the sewer back up and we found out why...when they were digging out front the city guys kept stopping by and asking them a bunch of questions about the repair and asking if they thought that it was somehow our fault...can you believe it...well I guess I can. The sewer company fixing it said that in no way was it our fault, it just wasn't possible for our problem to have caused it. So guess what....about an hour later we got a call that our check was ready to be picked up. We got it today and cashed it right away...damn city. And remember me telling you about the waterproofing thing...well we got a call today that hmmm cancelling the contract did not totally cancel it. I don't get it but apparently we agreed to be on call so that they could do it within 24hours notice if they got a cancellation so they could fit us in. And because of that they already went out and bought stuff and spent a lot of money and I guess cancelling the contract does not let us out of the obligation of owing them money for that. I definitely do not see it. I have read that contract over and over, front and back and I think that they are trying to screw us....again. I wish I had a friend that was a lawyer because I sure could give him a bunch of business right now. I'm so tired of this crap happening.

WHAT A MESS!!!

Ok so I know that everyone doesn't want to see it, but here is a decent photo of what our basement looked like. Even shows my quilt and Christmas blanket floating! It took us four days to completely clean and disinfect the basement. We only lost about $800 worth of stuff from down there, so I think we were lucky in that sense. The city did admit fault and are cutting us a check for the $800 this week. Since the basement is all cleaned up and everything is clutter free we decided to go ahead and get an estimate to see how much it would cost to get it waterproofed. We expected it to be around five grand. Boy were we wrong! Another wonderful detail of our beautiful house....we don't have a cement basement. Apparently Ohio is a big clay state as a natural resource. So our basement is built out of clay blocks that if remain wet over time turn back into sand and dissolve and disintegrate. Of course they do...that's just our luck right now. Our basement is so bad that apparently we are taking care of this at the right time because if we wait any longer they would have to come and jack the house up and remove the old walls and build new ones. That would cost around $30,000. So to have done what our home needs it will cost us $14,000! No kidding! Isn't that wonderful! And to top off this great week..we had a warm up into the 60's outside...the ground warmed up and thawed...made our sink hole in the front yard bigger....we lost the tree....and...and (get this) the sewer pipe in the front yard that is our responsibility collapsed! That's another $4,000 to fix this week! I am completely broke! Mind, body, spirit and checkbook!!!

Seriously!!!!!!

Can things get any worse?!? My luck has got to change...soon! After enjoying our day off on friday and getting some work done on the spare bedroom closet that we are expanding. Saturday morning Shawn's dad came over and helped up pretty much finish it. It looks great! I am so happy that it's done. We so needed it. Anyways we were both in a pretty good mood....then his dad left and we were cleaning up the mess.....Shawn was on his way to the basement to put his tools away and all of a sudden all i hear is some very bad words being yelled out! I ran downstairs to the basement steps only to see 6-8 inches or sewer water in my basement! Yes sewer water! Literally POOP floating in my basement! And to top it off saturday is my laundry day...all my clothes were in laundry baskets on the floor by the washer and dryer and I had just stripped the beds to wash all the linens. Needless to say we lost some comforters and blankets and a lot of clothes. Come to find out that the main sewer on our street was majorly clogged and of course our house was the first one next to where it turns off so we were the lucky ones. The city has admitted blame..however they want us to turn it in to our homeowners insurance and they are just giving us the run around. I am having so much fun! Can't you tell! I'm about ready to get a lawyer because I think we deserve to be compensated by the city. Our insurance only covers $1000. That's it! What if our hot water tank, furnace, washer or dryer breaks because of this. Too bad we're pretty much screwed in that case. We spent three days and three hundred dollars on materials to clean up and sanitize the basement. Ive been sick because of the bleach fumes that have engulfed my home and yesterday I went to the laundry mat to finish all our clothing. At this point I don't know what to do......