Impatient for spring!

As the snow melts in this too early spring-like weather, the muddy mess of my ruined front garden appears. Six inches of top soil are placed on top of fill to replace an excellent humus-rich front yard. The thornless honey locust is replanted in this muddy expanse, and may survive.




Over in the front side garden a forlorn pile of crazy paving waits for me to use again for the paths through the front garden. I will need to buy rolls of weed prevention cloth to lay under these. And, at the front of the garden, more breeze blocks to replace those that disappeared with the excavators last fall.




These are the perennials I removed from the front garden last fall. I hope all survive when I transplant them back into that front section. In the rush to get ready for the excavators last fall I forgot that as well as the perennials there were many tulip bulbs in that section. These were lost and will be replaced next fall.




Snow patches still remain as do the piles of bricks I use to edge the pathways. Perhaps by 2012 the front yard will be back looking somewhat like it did in its prime.

"Its like deja-vu all over again." Yogi Berra.

The road is closed and is being torn up again outside our house. When I asked why, it seems that the water main break was not fixed the last time they dug a hole. Unexpected hydro (electicity) lines were found. Hydro was not on-site, so the break was not fixed. This time, all appropriate organisations are here, we hope!

There's another hole in the road.

A song, popular in England in the 50s or 60s goes: "There's another hole in the road. Well,well, well, I'm blowed. Look, there's another one, same as the other one. There's another hole in the road." (My imperfect memory says it was sung by Lonny Donnegan.)

At 8 00 am the City began to dig yet another hole in the road in front of our house, almost on my across-the-road neighbour's lawn. This time it is to repair a leak in the water supply lines.


The digging machine is blocking my neighbour's driveway. She will not be too pleased.






The work is promised to be completed by 4 00 pm and the water supply will be restored by then. At 10 00 am the water is still on so Julian was able to have a shower on getting home from work. We do have the upstairs bathtub filled with cold water for when the water is cut off.








After this excavation, only one more set is scheduled. That set is to dig down to the foundations in front of our house so as to drill through that wall and then dig a sump pump pit inside the home to aid on flood relief control. This was supposed to have been done early in the fall but it never happened. Perhaps it will happen in the spring?

POST SCRIPT: The digging is on a section of my neighbour's lawn. I just saw the machine uproot and break the Roger's Cable supply to her house. She definately will not be pleased since this is the second time this has happened, and Rogers is not swift in replacing it.

The saga continues!

Today, one day after the road was resurfaced and top soil added to my messed up front yard, another man from the City appeared at our door. This time from the water department. It was the same man who told us two or three weeks ago that the waterline into the house has a leak. He had now received a report from the pople that excavated and replaced the sewer lines that indeed there is a leak. Why it could not have been fixed while the line was uncovered last week is a mystery.

The leak is, apparently, on City property. More excavations seem to be likely on the street outside. I did tell the other City people about the purported leak before last week's excavation, and they did promise to speak across departments. But.....

The Big Dig: Day 2.

This is my garden at Day 2 of the Big Dig. Yesterday, at around
3 00 pm we were advised not to let any water from the toilet, bath or sinks into the drains.
"Do not flush!" Sometime today, that order will be rescinded.





The Dig is extended to more than halfway across the road. Our across-the-road neighbour was able to get out of her driveway even so.






At least it keeps our neighbour's daughter (and us) entertained. She is off school today, under the weather.

The Big Dig: Oh, my front yard!

This morning, just before 8 00 am the Big Dig started. Lots of construction vehicles and men arrived to close off the road and begin excavating. The plan is to replace the collapsed sanitary sewer lines from my home and from my neighbours. Both lines go under our beautiful front yard where our perennials were to be found.



This is the beginning of the excavation. At the far end of the trench are the remains of the storm sewer. The men in the trench are hand digging to find the sanitary sewers. The water line is exposed and the sanitary sewers are beneath that.






The plumbers also arrived but major disagreements arose as to whether or not the trench should be extended to the footings of the house so as to enable pipes to be installed for a sump pump. The engineer's description of what is needed for this does not make sense to the crew here. And to excavate there would mean removing the air conditioner unit for which other crews would be needed. One job leads to another, and another, and another.....

Another busy day

The day started at 8 00 am when the contractor who is to start the excavating on Monday arrived to give us an estimate about the extra costs of excavating on our land to replace the storm sewer. My heart sank when he mentioned that since the storm sewer is located below the sanitary sewers so these would have to be replaced too. His estimate, of just over $3000 including replacing the pipes, was a very pleasant surprise. Later in the day he emailed the contract to us. He estimates the total job will take two days only.

Most of the rest of the morning was spent in readying the Studio for Sunday's teaching class and for Adrian's 40th birthday party on Saturday.

At tea-break time, Anne pointed out an article in the local weekly newspaper that said the Ottawa City Council had approved increasing the plumbing grant to $7500 so that sump pumps could be installed where needed in areas with a high flood risk. We are in such an area. We had received a letter approving the installation of such a pump, but we had balked at it because the expense was not covered. Now we needed to revise our thoughts.

As it happened, the Dennis, the plumber from Plumbing Now was scheduled to come at 1 00 pm to finalise his bill for work done on the back-up valves and to receive payment. I contacted the engineer who had recommended that the sump pump be installed and discussed where it should be located. We already had approval for the cost estimate from Plunbing Now.

When Dennis arrived I was able to discuss the locating of the pump with some understanding. Dennis will contact the excavation company and be here at 8 00 am on Monday morning. In that way the external excavation needed for the sump pump and its ancillary pipes will be done when all the other excavation takes place. Dennis even thinks his crew could finish the installation inside on Tuesday. (Given his timelines in the past, we will be pleasnatly surprised if this happens.)

After Dennis left, Anne said, "You will be very happy about this email." I had an order for four baskets from a past customer of mine in Brooklyn, New York. After lunch I packed these baskets, took them to the mail, and returned to give the customer her 20% discount for sales made during my pre-Christmas sale. (That sale ends on November 30th.) This was a nice way to end the day.

Final preparations for the big dig?

Yesterday, Steve from the City called to say that the big dig to replace and repair the sanitary sewers would start on Monday, November 30th. He also said that the storm sewer on our property needed replacement. Then we received a flyer in our mail box advising us (and our neighbours for blocks) that because of the big dig the local bus service woulfd be re-routed off our street for three days.



Given all this I began what I hope is my final preparations for that dig. I removed the crazy paving pathway, more perennials and most of the bricks that formed a patio area. The bird feeder also had to be relocated. We anticipate that the section to the edge of the raised garden will be excavated.





The crazy paving forms a forlorn looking rubble mass on top of another stretch of crazy paving.







And the bricks form neat piles awaiting replacement, hopefully before the snow flies.

Removing perennials and shrubs

Sometime next week, this section of my front garden, a section of the sidewalk and a section to the middle of the road will be excavated in a eight foot wide trench to fix the collapsed sanitary sewer lines. The City of Ottawa has contracted out this job and says it will start next week. A similar excavation was made a few houses away to repair a similarly collapsed sewer line. The proposed contractor says the tree in this photo will have to be removed. He will place it back at the end of the project but will not guarentee its survival.






The pock marked ground shows where I have dug up perennials and shrubs in preparation for the excavation. I have transplanted these to a section of my vegetable garden.






These are the transplanted shrubs and perennials. I will put them back into the refilled section in the spring.






The contractor will replace the top soil in the excavated area at the end of the work period. The sidewalk will be replaced and the road resurfaced. If this job follows a typical schedule, the final resurfacing of the road will be in the spring or summer.

Where the next excavation will be.

This morning another City worker appeared at the front of the house armed with a digital camera. I asked him who he was and what he was doing. He was Steve, the person at the City who spotted the collapse of the sanitary sewer pipes on the videos taken several weeks back. He was waiting for a contractor to come to show him where to excavate to repair the sanitary sewer. The white pole marks one edge of the proposed excavation and the black pole the other edge. The excavation will go onto what I thought was my land as far as the spade. That is located at the curb stops, where the City turns of the water lines to the houses

As you can see from this photo a goodly section of my front yard will be dug up. The excavation will extend across the sidewalk and to the middle of the road and will be very deep. I will dig up as many perennials and bushes as I can in the eight foot swath and transplant them over winter to a section of my vegetable garden. The tree will be dug out by the contractors and replaced in its position as the work ends. Most plants are dormant at the moment and so most should survive.

The work is expected to begin the week after next. The storm sewer will be replaced too from the curb stop on and any water leakages from the water lines fixed too. Fun times ahead.

It never rains but it pours!

It has been a frustrating morning to say the least.

When we got up we saw that there was a bobcat style of back hoe parked at the bottom of our driveway. "Is that for the excavation for the sanitary sewer break or is it for the installation of the back-flow valve on the storm sewer line?" we wondered. The answers soon came as Fred the plumber arrived. It was for the excavation for the storm sewer. But where is that located was Fred's question. On Monday a City crew had marked the location of the sanitary sewer lines, but not the location of the storm sewer.


We waited until another plumber arrived with a video camera to put down the storm sewer line, and thus locate it.

Then the back hoe operator arrived, and eventually work on excavating the storm sewer line began.







What we were not prepared for was the discovery that the storm swer line was broken in several places in the first 50' of its path beneath my front garden. After the 50' mark, the camera became submersed in water.


My neighbour, Richard, and I viewed the video that shows the breaks. Much of the front garden will have to be excavated. And this is not covered by insurance. It is specifically excluded.

What is next?

Where to replace the sanitary sewer line

This morning a workman arrived to establish where the "dip" is in the saniatry sewer line at our house and next door. Once more the video camera was sent through the line. This time the results were that the line had collapsed 16 meters from our house beneath the sidewalk. The sidewalk in front of our house is now inscribed with graffitti: "collapse."




Green lines also go to the middle of the road at right angles to that evocative word.






Green lines also decorate my front garden. They compliment the red lines that show where there are buried hydro (electrical) cables.

When the workman finishes checking our neighbour's sanitary sewer line, we may have three excavation sites marked. One for the storm sewer and the needed back-up valve and two for the collapsed sanitary sewer lines. It will look like an archeological dig before it is all over!

One job leads to another: redux!

Yesterday I wrote about how this section of the front garden will be excavated to install a back-up valve on the storm sewer line. This morning I received a call from "Steve" of the City of Ottawa. There are two sanitary sewer lines in addition to the storm sewer line. Earlier, in October, back-up valves were placed on those lines, one in our half of the semi and one in our neighbour's half. Now Steve has had time to review the videos taken of these sanitary sewer lines after they were cleaned out. Each has a sag in it. Fortunately for us, these sags are on City property, not ours. The City will pay the costs of replacing the lines and eliminating the sags. It will entail digging up portions of our gardens and lawns since our yards do extend onto City property. At least we will find out where our property lines are!