Well, my good folks….we are back from Orlando celebrating our one year anniversary, and back to reality. Let me first say, we had an ABSOLUTE great time at Disney World and Universal Studios. Being there took me back to some of the joyous moments from my childhood (thank you mom), but with the joy came some pain. Nothing that has to do with penny living, but yep, you guessed it; something that has to do with taking our pretty pennies:( Ok, nothing we couldn’t handle and it definitely could have been worse, BUT still, why is it that even when you are in a blissful place or space, releasing your inner childlike spirit, adulthood always finds a way to playa hate. But let’s start with the good…our trip to ORLANDO!!!
I got Julius to wear Mickey Mouse ears…but they had to look tough, so Pirates of the Caribbean ears it was! See the hoop earring on the left? hehe:)
On the tram headed to Animal Kingdom. We look rough, yikes… this was our second park stop. First was Disney Hollywood Studios.
Animal Kingdom Animal Safari
Magic Kingdom
Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
See! Fun times. And now…the UGLY…
While in Orlando, I received a call around 6:30am from my friend who was housesitting and watching my doggies. She let me know that the water pressure in the house was low, and there seemed to be a pool of water along the side and down the stairs of the outside, and she wants to know where the main shut off valve is located. HUH?!?!?! Seriously, just because we are on vacation, the universe wants to hate. sigh. Neither me nor my husband knew the location of the shut off valve so we called our county water company emergency number. They were nice enough to send someone out (rather quickly) to shut off the water. The county rep said we were flowing somewhere in the amount of 21 gallons per minute of water. Say what?! Where in the heck was that water going, because it wasn’t pumping through my house!
When we arrived back in Atlanta, we had a professional Plumber meet us at the house.
Here was the problem. Apparently, the house “settled” which caused a “shift” in the foundation. That pretty much caused this:
The underground pipe that connects to the main water line to snap right at the foundation. Yikes! This particular pipe is a Polybutylene pipe. Some cheap old blue pipe that builders used to use. The good thing is that my friend caught the problem before it really became a problem. And, while it wasn’t a joy to have to pay for something like this immediately after returning home from vacation, we are glad that it was not worse, like water flowing under my house for two days and flooding our basement, or that the pipe had broken in an awkward location, like under the driveway, which would have increased labor cost! We got it repaired the same day, and had the pipe repaired with a good ole’ copper pipe. So, while I was pissed at the situation, still glad it turned out better than it could have:)
Enough venting. I will be back soon with more home DIY projects, and more!
Happy Anniversary! Glad you had a nice time in Orlando. We had the same exact plumbing issue last week. Unbeknownst to us, our leak had been going on for months. Our water bill was extremely high, but it wasn't until a family member came over and slipped in the mud, did we learn we had a problem. We had to have one of our trees cut down because we were told the roots caused the pvc pipe to break. Anyway…after a call to the plumber and $225 it was fixed! Thank goodness the damage wasn't much worse.
Thanks Brandi! and yikes! Sorry for the person that fell, but good thing for you guys to finally find the problem. Home repairs suck, especially coming from vacation. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog!