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| Saturday, December 3. City worker tries to plug a gushing mysterious water main. |
We have entered Week Nine and I haven’t posted in a while. We have been very busy but in this case please don’t equate being busy with progress. We have had several major setbacks that have drained time and funds and worked our volunteers to the max. I have no idea (and very little hope) as to how to get this done. I won’t blaze your eyeballs with all of the setbacks we have experienced in the past week, I will just share a few of them so you get the idea.
Hidden Water Damage
Several days worth of work (one “day" lasted from 7am in the morning to 2:30 am the next morning, non-stop) and $700 of our cash that was needed for other projects was taken up with extensive water damage that we uncovered as we worked and had to fix before we could go any further.
Several days worth of work (one “day" lasted from 7am in the morning to 2:30 am the next morning, non-stop) and $700 of our cash that was needed for other projects was taken up with extensive water damage that we uncovered as we worked and had to fix before we could go any further.
Loss of Some of Our Most Amazing Volunteers
One of our guardian angels, a man who has blessed us with so much of his time, knowledge and incredible energy, has found his own life suddenly challenged and he now finds himself having to make an emergency move. We have pledged to help him wherever we can and we want to thank him for all that he has done for us.
One of our guardian angels, a man who has blessed us with so much of his time, knowledge and incredible energy, has found his own life suddenly challenged and he now finds himself having to make an emergency move. We have pledged to help him wherever we can and we want to thank him for all that he has done for us.
Another volunteer who helped us out has been suddenly inundated with jobs. I am hoping that some of it had to do with the good word that got out about him helping us. We are sad to lose him but joyful that his own business has picked up.
The busy season has made it harder for some of our friends to help so we are seeing less and less folks helping out. This is completely understandable. If we had had a choice (or maybe more advance notice from our landlord), trust me, we would not have chosen this project during the winter, during the holidays no less! Folks have a lot to do, are busy shopping, preparing, decorating and spending time with their families, so it makes sense that getting help will be harder and harder as the holidays approach.
Some folks who promised to help just dropped off the map once the initial promises were made. We totally understand if things have changed but can you at least give us a heads up so we stop waiting and wondering?
Disappearing East Sac Contractors
Yes, these were going to be PAID contractors. We had saved up money and with some donations were going to pay to have essential work done on the house. We had appointments with them, they bid on the job, we accepted the bids and they have either failed to show or will now not call us back. Some folks that I have shared this with said to me, “a lot of contractors are flaky”. I had thought by going with local East Sacramento contractors that we would at least get communication. Heck, we had money set aside to pay these people and they bail without even a call? I had hoped to keep our hard scraped together dollars spent on local contractors but now we are looking anywhere we can find now that weeks have been lost dealing with people who dropped the ball.
Yes, these were going to be PAID contractors. We had saved up money and with some donations were going to pay to have essential work done on the house. We had appointments with them, they bid on the job, we accepted the bids and they have either failed to show or will now not call us back. Some folks that I have shared this with said to me, “a lot of contractors are flaky”. I had thought by going with local East Sacramento contractors that we would at least get communication. Heck, we had money set aside to pay these people and they bail without even a call? I had hoped to keep our hard scraped together dollars spent on local contractors but now we are looking anywhere we can find now that weeks have been lost dealing with people who dropped the ball.
Message to contractors: If you bid on a job and promise to do it can you at least give your client a call if something comes up and suddenly you can’t? Please don’t make folks wait a week or two while your deafening silence eats up precious time.
Broken Mystery Water Main
Yesterday my husband was working in the basement when under the front stairs he saw a partially buried pipe. He went to brush dirt off the top, with just his fingertips!, when the mystery pipe burst! Water began pouring out and when they tried to shut off water to the house it didn’t stop! WTH!?!?! They went to turn off the water at the property line, got it turned off and THE WATER DIDN’T STOP! After calling several plumbers -none of which could make it out for several hours- we figured out to call the city (it would have been nice if some of these plumbers had offered that advice to us). The worker from city of Sacramento came out in amazing time and was able to stop the water. He told us that it was an incredibly old water main that had never been shut off and that even the city didn’t know about. He assured us that on Monday workers would come out and seal off the old mystery main at the street but in the meantime my husband was wet and incredibly chilled in the frigid temperatures and wind. He NEVER gets cold but we had to break off work early and get him home to a hot bath and warm clothes because even with the heater blasting in the car he just could not warm up.
So here I am at two in the morning, unable to sleep because I am just so worried. With all of these setbacks (and more!); I can’t see how we can do this. My husband keeps telling me we will make it work somehow but it would have to be some kind of Christmas miracle to pull this off. There is so little I can do at this point, my CFS is in overdrive and I am weak all the time now. I feel helpless. There have been so many people who have helped us so far that I know we can’t give up. We can’t let them down and let all of their time, donations and help go to waste. This has to work.Yesterday my husband was working in the basement when under the front stairs he saw a partially buried pipe. He went to brush dirt off the top, with just his fingertips!, when the mystery pipe burst! Water began pouring out and when they tried to shut off water to the house it didn’t stop! WTH!?!?! They went to turn off the water at the property line, got it turned off and THE WATER DIDN’T STOP! After calling several plumbers -none of which could make it out for several hours- we figured out to call the city (it would have been nice if some of these plumbers had offered that advice to us). The worker from city of Sacramento came out in amazing time and was able to stop the water. He told us that it was an incredibly old water main that had never been shut off and that even the city didn’t know about. He assured us that on Monday workers would come out and seal off the old mystery main at the street but in the meantime my husband was wet and incredibly chilled in the frigid temperatures and wind. He NEVER gets cold but we had to break off work early and get him home to a hot bath and warm clothes because even with the heater blasting in the car he just could not warm up.
END IT ON A HAPPY NOTE (DANGIT!)
On a happier note we have been able to help out one of our volunteers by doing graphics work for his business. We are still working on it but here is a first stab at a logo for him that I created during the week while Jax took one of his rare naps. I got the idea from playing with his last name in my head. I got "Can O Paint" going through my mind and I started the logo with the can, then came the ladder and the painters tape, etc. I just sent it out to him and haven't heard back. We may scrap it all together but I thought it was fun. What do you think?
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