A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT - My Dream House - Part Two
20 YEARS - MY PROPHETIC DREAM HOUSE - PART 2
A River Runs Through It
Before you read this post you may want to read My Dream House on Fire.
The year was 1993, a 100 year flood hit Southern Minnesota
The house had a bad foundation, and a river runs through it, I am not talking about the movie, but rather the reality. A small stream 1/2 inch deep and perhaps a foot wide started in the NW corner and flowed through to the SE corner, continuously throughout that eight weeks during and after the 100 year flood the flow never stopped. That is until we poured the new foundation and re-installed the drainage tile just below the top edge of the footings. They had been up on top of the footings before.
The house needed a lot of repairs, we ripped out, tore down, hauled away, dirt, debris, sheet rock, heat ducts, old wiring... and much, much more!
One Sunday morning at 3 am Mark (our contractor) woke up with a start, rains was pouring down and he was concerned for the basement with all the deluge of rain coming down. When he pulled into our driveway, he couldn't even see the window units they had just installed the day before.
A two casement window unit had been pushed right through the opening and was lying face down on the basement floor and was covered with two inches of mud. Once the window unit was out of the way the flow of mud continued to dump several inches of mud, which flowed along the route of the river diagonally through the entire basement to the opposite corner. Another tri-window unit had 18 inches of water pushing against it. Mark said it looked like a 200 gallon aquarium, with out fish. His crew worked all day on Sunday shoveling mud 3-5 inches deep, to uncover the window unit and amke the floor reappear.
This reminds me of that song "I've seen Fire and I've seen rain"
More of this story on my next blog And this Shall be a Sign to You.
Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN
A River Runs Through It
Before you read this post you may want to read My Dream House on Fire.
My Dream House - Part Two
My wife and I agreed to buy Bella's 'dream' house on May 30th of 1993.
We engaged the services of our Realtor, Mary and we made an offer on the house. We started to remove the waterlogged sheet rock and carpet July 3, 1993. filling a dumpster. Our first contractor had to drop the job because his excavation man broke a leg the night before he was supposed to start digging. We prayed and our Realtor recommended a local contractor named Mark. The construction permit was initiated on 7-7-1993. And our Dream house was getting ready to be lifted up while its foundation was removed and then lowered down onto a new foundation... it had already experienced a fire, years before when the same house number was attached to the house next door.
My wife and I agreed to buy Bella's 'dream' house on May 30th of 1993.
We engaged the services of our Realtor, Mary and we made an offer on the house. We started to remove the waterlogged sheet rock and carpet July 3, 1993. filling a dumpster. Our first contractor had to drop the job because his excavation man broke a leg the night before he was supposed to start digging. We prayed and our Realtor recommended a local contractor named Mark. The construction permit was initiated on 7-7-1993. And our Dream house was getting ready to be lifted up while its foundation was removed and then lowered down onto a new foundation... it had already experienced a fire, years before when the same house number was attached to the house next door.
A second contractor was selected and began work excavating to repair the foundation. This process went on until they exposed the lowest level of block on the basement wall on the south side and the contractor said the cement crumbled in his fingers. Mark couldn't sleep all night as he was trying to figure out how to salvage the project. He called me at 4 AM and sounded apologetic, I know we quoted repairing the foundation but it cannot be repaired it has to be replaced. And it will cost more money!
The house had a bad foundation, and a river runs through it, I am not talking about the movie, but rather the reality. A small stream 1/2 inch deep and perhaps a foot wide started in the NW corner and flowed through to the SE corner, continuously throughout that eight weeks during and after the 100 year flood the flow never stopped. That is until we poured the new foundation and re-installed the drainage tile just below the top edge of the footings. They had been up on top of the footings before.
The house needed a lot of repairs, we ripped out, tore down, hauled away, dirt, debris, sheet rock, heat ducts, old wiring... and much, much more!
One Sunday morning at 3 am Mark (our contractor) woke up with a start, rains was pouring down and he was concerned for the basement with all the deluge of rain coming down. When he pulled into our driveway, he couldn't even see the window units they had just installed the day before. A two casement window unit had been pushed right through the opening and was lying face down on the basement floor and was covered with two inches of mud. Once the window unit was out of the way the flow of mud continued to dump several inches of mud, which flowed along the route of the river diagonally through the entire basement to the opposite corner. Another tri-window unit had 18 inches of water pushing against it. Mark said it looked like a 200 gallon aquarium, with out fish. His crew worked all day on Sunday shoveling mud 3-5 inches deep, to uncover the window unit and amke the floor reappear.
This reminds me of that song "I've seen Fire and I've seen rain"
More of this story on my next blog And this Shall be a Sign to You.
Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN
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