Skip to main content

Water, Water, Everywhere

Have I ever mentioned my incredible disdain for basements?

Basements and I have a notoriously bad reputation of getting along. They are the Hatfields to my McCoy. The bane of my existence. The reason for every bad thing that's ever happened to me.

Okay, that may be slightly exaggerated, but I want you to understand how. Serious. I. Am.

I have never had a basement that hasn't at one point or another inadvertently become an indoor pool. The first house I lived in while growing up, flooded at least once that I remember. The second house, flooded on multiple occasions, usually in my basement bedroom, which required being able to quickly and efficiently remove all my possessions to higher ground.

Recently in the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of rushing water. I immediately ran downstairs and found water pouring from the basement ceiling. I turned off the main water valve, while swearing several a few curse words.

A water pipe had burst due to the freezing temperature outside and an extreme lack of insulation in the house.

The basement in this house has had more water in it than I care to think about. Multiple burst pipes, backed up sewer, and a detached washing machine drainage hose just to name a few.

It has gotten so bad that for my next birthday I have requested a shop vac from my husband to ease the clean up process.

The point you ask?

To tell you about a little gadget we got a couple years back, that has probably saved us thousands in water damage.

It's a water detector.

You can pick it up at hardware stores or online. I think we got ours at Menards. They have a little metal strip that sets off an ear piercing alarm when it gets wet.

It is battery operated, so I just replace the batteries twice a year, the same time I replace the fire alarm batteries, when the time changes. Which by the way, it's spring ahead time on March 10th!

I set our water detector near the drainage hole in our basement floor, because that tends to be where a lot of our water issues occur. The floor is sloped towards the hole, so water naturally runs that direction when we have a problem.

This is possibly the most incredible device ever! It has gone off dozens of times and I can hear it all the way upstairs and I can get the main water valve shut off before the water mess becomes worse.

Buy one.

It will give you piece of mind that that evil thing they call a basement will not become an indoor swimming pool.

Do you have any gadgets around your house that have been life savers? I'd love to hear about them!

Have a lovely day!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Changes

I was cleaning today, which gave me time to think, and thinking always leads me here. The house is 'weekend messy', so decided to clean my floors, because The Nester says if your floors are clean the rest of the house feels clean too, even if it isn’t.  I have found that it is pretty good advice, so when everything else feels chaotic, I clean the floors. Of course for me, cleaning the floors also means picking up the toys, shoes, clothes, etc. so that I can even begin to vacuum, which naturally leads to a cleaner home as well.  While cleaning up I began to think about how this blog has evolved over the years, from a desire to write like The Nester about home, into what it is now.  I started writing this blog when I was dreaming of building a new home. Then plans changed, life took turns, and we ended up in a home so different than I expected and so perfect for our family. Somewhere along the way I realized that home wasn’t in the walls that went up or in the co

From My Christmas Wish List to Yours!

One of my favorite stores, West Elm, has now opened a special section called The Market. It specializes in kitchen, garden and personal care. Lets just say I am in love. If I had unlimited resources to spend in one store to do a total overhaul on my house, it would be West Elm, and now with the new Market, I am in lust too. So here are a few of my favorites. Check it out and maybe you'll get some great Christmas ideas for someone on your list. Or maybe my hubby will see this and get a great idea for me! Hint, hint! Enjoy! Incredibly large, amazing cutting board . I've seen these boards doubling as art hanging on the wall, then they take up no storage space! Cast iron Dutch oven . Great for one-pot meals. These glass jars come in varying sizes. I'm thinking they would work well for brown sugar with that rubber seal. I would definitely get plenty of use out of a cheese knife set during the holidays and all year round. Copper measuring spoons . Seriously? Fantastic

Happiness

I am a New Years girl. I love goals and check lists and I love the feeling of a fresh start, but resolutions have never been my thing. A few year ago I began picking a word for the year and I found that it works really well for me.  Setting a word for the year has helped me to focus on a quality that I want to grow in myself. Last years word was ‘ intentional ’. It was a full year and in a lot of ways a really hard year. Being intentional with my words, thoughts and actions helped me to really lean into the relationships in my life. The past year felt somber though. It was good and I grew more than I could have imagined, but it also felt serious and deep. I need some relief. This year after praying over it and considering what I would like more of in the coming year, I knew that my word for 2019 had to be 'happiness'. I want more laughter, more spontaneity, more fun in 2019 and none of those things come naturally to me. I thought about words like joy and contentment b