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| oh, crap. Literally. |
Well, the men are here to clean out the septic tank today....and, it turns out, dig up a significant portion of our yard in order to do it. As it would happen, the previous owner did not install risers -- pipes with caps at surface level, which would have meant all the guys needed to do was open the cap up and stick the hose in to pump the whole thing out.
Instead, they had to dig in order to find the openings in the tank. The tank is 4 feet down, they knew approximately where the tank was but did NOT know where the openings were, so...if you need to bury any bodies today, come on over. I have the perfect spot.
As luck would have it, this area will no longer have any grass on it, so the loss of green is not a big deal. It's another kind of loss of green I'm lamenting...we decided to spend the $500 in order to have the risers installed so they never have to dig up our yard to find the cover again. Add that to the $450 just to have the tank pumped and you have septic shock.
It was a painful check to write. But it had to be done.
In happier news, we wrote an even bigger (yet planned on, so not so bad) check as this project finished up yesterday.We love our pergola with the louvers which open and close. Very good for passive solar heating, we open the shades in winter and close them tightly in summer, or leave them open just a hair in order to let any heat escape. It feels like we have a whole new outdoor room.
Yikes! Thank goodness this was discovered at this point though! The pergola looks great, and I'm sure will be a favorite spot. I know what you mean about the expected/unexpected checks. I'm usually glad to write the expected ones to just be done with it. Unexpected checks make you think about the fun stuff you could have used that money on. Also, it seems unexpected checks always take the longest to clear through your account. You have a few days of waiting for injury to catch up with insult.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I'm glad we did it, but it hurt to write such a big check when I was expecting to write a smaller one! And you are right, I did think about the stuff I could have spent it on, mainly plants in the yard and other outdoor decor. Sigh. I guess I just need to pick up a few more shifts at the winery!
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