The Week That Was (Updated Pics)

The last four days have been busy around the ol' homestead.

The 7.1 'quake on Nov. 30 put the final nails in the coffin of our septic system (for city dwellers, that's a septic tank and drainfield). It caused the steel tank to collapse, which flooded the drainfield. The field, however, was over 90% saturated and couldn't handle that much water all at once.

Long story short: we had to replace the whole thing. On Monday all the equipment showed up, and for the last four days our front yard looked like a construction site.

It required the removal of many trees in what was a heavily-wooded yard.

North view, driveway entrance

West end of the front yard "bowl"

East end of the "bowl"

Panoramic view from north to east, with the resulting distortion. This shot
covers about 250 feet of road frontage.

The first two days, there was so much smoke from the wildfires that we had to leave all the windows closed. Thankfully, by Wednesday the smoke had mostly cleared, so we were able to open the windows on the south side of the house for some fresh air. It was getting a bit stuffy inside.

A neighbor has claimed the piles of logs in the front (to the right of the driveway, above), which shaved a couple hundred dollars off of the job for hiring a truck to haul everything away.

Wednesday afternoon

Wednesday was the busiest day, with the excavator, industrial wood chipper eating trees, front end loader, chain saw, dump truck, and laborers all going full bore until 8 pm.

But the work is done now, and all we have to do is get enough grass seed to cover some 4,000 to 5,000 square feet.

We also need to repave the north end of the circle drive, although that may now have to wait until next spring.

Oh - and how much has all this cost? Trust me, you don't want to know.

It Only Took Eight Months

... but the handyman company will be here tomorrow, to begin repairing all the cracked/torn/split/broken drywall from the Nov. 30 earthquake. We've looked at all these cracks long enough, thankyouverymuch.

The engineering for our new septic system is done, and the permit issued. Just awaiting the septic installers to schedule a time for the replacement tank and new drainfield.

Of course, that will require them to take out several large trees (most of which are dead or dying, so sad but not tragic). Worse is that they must trench across our raised asphalt driveway and stone retaining wall. The repairs for that will probably have to wait until next spring.

But it's nice to finally be moving forward. We've been on hold for far too long.

5 1/2 Months

As you know, this part of Alaska suffered a 7.1-magnitude earthquake at 0830 on Nov. 30, 2018.
A couple of weeks later, we applied for State assistance with recovery.

Recovery with what, you may ask? 49 broken or cracked sheets of drywall, partially separated door frames, a partially collapsed septic tank; little things like that.

So we applied to the State, and waited. And waited. And waited some more ... for nearly two months.

FINALLY, news began to trickle out via the grapevine: the State bailed on us. The damage was way more extensive, and expensive, than they'd estimated. They didn't have enough funds to cover it.

In the meantime, our new Governor declared an emergency and applied for Federal aid. President Trump received the application, and declared it a Federal emergency.

FEMA and the Small Business Administration (SBA) opened offices all over the place, and directed folks to either apply on-line or by visiting one of the emergency offices they'd set up.

We did that, too.

Old NFO predicted that FEMA would be of little use; he was right.

Here's how it works: you apply for FEMA assistance. While they consider the application, they both send an inspector to look over the property, and urge you to file an application to the SBA for a low-interest loan.

Then the SBA inspects the property.

You jump through a series of hoops, sign a stack of papers, promising to provide a rabbit's foot, a pint of blood, and your first-born male child as surety. (Joke's on them: we only had girls. Heh.)

Eventually, the SBA loan application was approved, and quite a large sum was approved: about double what we think we need to put everything right again. But the kicker is that if you go over $25,000, they want a Deed of Trust on your home.

So we didn't.

Bottom line is, this week we received the money for the repairs, and have already arranged for a contractor whom we've used before to do the drywall repairs, reinstall the second earthquake strap on the hot water storage tank, and repaint the downstairs family room.

We still need to get the septic tank replaced, and have the lower half of our driveway repaired or repaved. It has a series of side-to-side cracks which were hidden by the snow and ice until recently. The gas insert in the fireplace also needs to be re-centered and inspected for damage before we fire it up again.

I once again thank those of you who contributed to our repair fund when it wasn't apparent that we'd be able to get any federal assistance. We are deeply appreciative, and it means more to us than we can adequately express.

Earthquake Day +9

At Day 6, the highway and the other major routes were repaired.

On Day 8, Vine Road in Wasilla was reopened. The Briggs Bridge in Eagle River, which was closed due to foundation issues from the quake, reopened as well.

In our house, we've cleaned up the damage from the big shaker, but continue to find glass shards in the floor, in drawers and cabinets and ...

I continue to find more cracked drywall; some of the cracks are significant. But there's no structural damage at all, which is frankly astounding.

All around us are homes with cracked foundations, collapsed ceilings, and a large number of businesses in the downtown area are closed indefinitely. Some may never reopen.

People are still stressed and anxious. But signs of mental and emotional recovery are everywhere: strangers meet and talk about their experiences. People are friendlier and more open.

We will recover. But it's going to take awhile.

Post #6,701: It's a Pain

Due to the presence of a professional chef (Younger Daughter) in the household, we have a professional faucet on the kitchen sink. She's fussy about things like that.  :)

I installed it, with the help of my lovely, thoughtful wife, at the end of March. Unfortunately, the internal "nut" (e.g, a long, threaded brass sleeve) which extends downward through the hole on the back of the sink wasn't tight enough. Turning the faucet arm back and forth in daily use managed to loosen it over time.

As a result, the whole assembly wobbled, and rotated a bit. Not good, that.

So today I finally had the time to crawl under the sink. Removing the very large brass nut and three-side "anti-rotation" collar is necessary to re-tighten the sleeve. 

Problem is, there's virtually no room for me under said sink. I have to slide in between the P-traps on the two sinks, under the cross-connection which permits the discharge from the garbage disposal to flow down the main drain under the shallow sink.

Between that, the water lines (shown above) dangling on my right temple, power cords, and couple of other dangly bits, I can just get both hands to the bottom of the faucet. 

Then reverse the process. The large brass nut which hold the whole assembly together (also shown above) is larger than all but my largest monkey wrench. There's only about 4.5" from side to side, and only a vertical tool can reach the nut. After achieving "finger tight", it can be turned by the monkey wrench about 1/3 revolution per effort.

This, while my wife holds the assembly from above, to keep it from turning during the tightening process. It's not hard, but it's difficult, if you know what I mean.

But the deed is done, and we're going to sit and start watching Fringe again. 

The Joy of Home Repairs

The previous owners of our home had obviously become aware of a significant dip in the kitchen floor (2nd floor of the house), and put a 6" x 6" wooden post under the beam which runs across the garage.

Unfortunately, they didn't get it quite vertical. So ... after 13 months in the house, it had begun to delaminate.

But I digress.

We discovered a stain on the ceiling of the family room (1st floor), and determined that a waste line which runs above that ceiling was leaking. Only a little, but still a leak.

So I contacted the home warranty company, which we've kept paid-up, and reported the leak.

To keep the story from meandering, let's just say that the plumber they sent knew how to fix a leak, but didn't know how to locate it.

So he cut holes in the second floor walls: behind the washing machine, behind the refrigerator, under the kitchen sink ... and managed to cut the 240-volt power line to the dryer.

And then, only when he couldn't find a source of the leak on the 2nd floor, went downstairs to cut a hole in the ceiling. Whereupon said Nimrod the Plumber discovered a cracked joint in the waste line.

Which meant that all the holes upstairs were completely unnecessary.

Meanwhile, we had engaged our own contractor to fix the column in the garage.

So.

The leak was fixed, an electrician came bright and early this morning to repair the power to the dryer. And the contractor we hired is downstairs, fastening the new, truly vertical column to the beam, which has already removed the slight dip in the kitchen floor.

He also put metal louvers over the soffits, to replace the light steel mesh which was allowing squirrels into the attic above the 3rd floor ... but that's another story.

So the dryer works, the 2nd floor no longer sags, and the drywaller will be here next week to patch the holes made by Nimrod. (What? Yes, I could repair the holes. But the home warranty's plumber made them, so I shouldn't have to fix his mistake.)


All you who already own homes are probably nodding and saying, "Ayup ... sounds familiar." But it's our first major repair ... and we know it won't be the last.

Finally, a Quiet Day

Our plans for the day after Thanksgiving were originally to spend the day in jammies, drinking egg nog around the fireplace.

Seriously. Both daughters had to work, so it was just going to be my lovely wife and me.

That was the plan.

Then we were contacted by friends who wanted to come see the new house. Since we've been here for a bit over six months, and hadn't had anyone over for a formal showing, it seemed to be time.

Sidebar: "No one over? What - are you anti-social?" No, it's just that it takes a long time to re-combine two households (our daughters moved back in with us), and set up housekeeping in a new place.

Then Samsung contacted us about our washing machine. Seems it was one of the 'splody ones, and they needed to perform an upgrade to keep that from happening.

And oh, yes, the repairman had to be here while the guests were arriving.

But he arrived early, after calling ahead to ensure it was okay, and only took 20 minutes to effect the repairs.

The guests also arrived early, but we were ready, and all was well. They were duly impressed, and we had a great afternoon of conversation.

It was a good day, and now today will be our quiet day. More or less. :)

New Router, No Worries

It was the router. Its replacement - same make and model - works as advertised.

It's quite a relief. That's all four family members without wifi for their various and sundry devices, for over 24 hours. Those with addiction to said things (like Younger Daughter - heh) had to go cold turkey. :)

That said, all is back to normal. And we, who aren't addicted at all (wink, wink) can go back to Netflix and watch Bones.

Having said all that, it's a bit disturbing that one can plop down $120 for a new device, and have it fail spectacularly right out of the box. It seems quality control isn't really a thing at Netgear.

Ah, well ... caveat emptor.

Saturday: New Alternator & Other Stuff

I got the alternator belt on, reassembled the remaining pieces, & had the truck running in five minutes' time this morning. This, only driving to Sears, where I purchased the Serpentine Belt Tool which is specifically designed for the problem I encountered at mid-week, and should have had in the first place (d'oh!).

It's astounding how quickly a problem evaporates once you have the proper tool for the job, like most things in life. At any rate, my thanks go out to my older daughter for helping me with the project, and to Uppy, who provided moral support & much encouragement!

* * * * *

The two moose calves about which I wrote yesterday are being housed temporarily at the Alaska Zoo here in Anchorage ... while their fate is being decided. Apparently it's standard procedure to kill orphaned calves, to keep them from either starving to death or being eaten alive by bears. This time, however, it seems Governor Palin got involved and issued a 'stay of execution'.

* * * * *

It's 46 and cloudy this morning. AccuHunch Weather issued a guess that we'd have sun & 66 today. It could still happen, but right now it looks more like it could rain.

I've spent the last two days agitating because of the unfinished repairs on the truck, and now I'm going to go put my feet up & relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow? Well, now ... that's another story.

Active Tuesday, Part 2

So to put a cap on the day, I stopped after work at the Sallie Ann Thrift Store (Salvation Army, for the uninitiated) and dropped off some donations.

I noticed on the way that the fan didn't seem to be pushing much air through the vents in the truck, but thought maybe I was imagining things.

As I turned in the driveway at the store, the radio (which was on) started turning itself off and back on again.

When I parked, the windows wouldn't go up or down, nor would the truck start again.

It appears the alternator died a few days ago, and thanks to our lovely modern automotive technology, there was no warning. I've been running on the battery for several days, it seems.

So ... a tow truck and a repair. But you know what? God's in His heaven, and I had a pretty good (if hectic) day.

It's all good!