River City has more than lived up to its name this year. Two serious floods and persistent freeze/thaw with heavy snows and rain has got our old house a little troubled.an all too familiar site in Indiana this year!
Over the weekend a few new concerns came over me as I found my way to the basement for some spring decoration retrieval (my wife refuses to step foot in the basement since a flying rodent was spotted there at the beginning of the first flood). On this occassion I noticed that the bottom of the plastic tote containing fake Easter basket grass was dripping with water. Then I noticed a few large piles of sand that appeared to have worked there way up through the cracks in our basement floor.
We had our own personal visist with a FEMA inspector a few weeks ago. We had some water in the basement with the flooding, but nothing was damaged outside of our sump pump having a melt down. But, I was concerned about some other cracks in the old foundation and sand seeming to seep in. Add that to the high level of moisture pushing in and I think we've got a problem. It seems as thought the ground water pressure on our basement has been too much for the 150 year old walls. Walls appear to be sagging, plaster cracking and water around the outside of the house seems to be pooling back against the exterior. This has only been in the last few months. We were going to get a dehumidifier, but saw the cost of them-wow! Then the FEMA guy said it would have been covered by them. DOH!
Oddly enough we've already been rejected by FEMA for any kind of assistance (even as damage continues to make itself visible)......and FEMA asked us to get a rejection letter from our insurance company-which we did. So, now, I'm afraid we're hanging out here with our pants down so to speak. I'm not one for handouts-but don't offer then pull your hand back! And what is it I pay insurance for anyway?
We had some friends over for supper for the first time last night. They loved our house. I kept making excuses for the walls falling down-but they said, yeah, but old homes have character. Well, I guess so, and I love our old place-but the character is really starting to wear me down!
2 comments:
I hate to get too political but Plymouth's flooding problems this year and in coming years will likely be traced back to the County Surveyor's "slash and burn" tactics of turning the Yellow River in German Township into a dangerous deep,steep and arrow straight ditch. These practices have been outdated for years and yet they continue in Marshall County....The "Republican" Farmers in German Township have such power with the surveyor that these primitive methods are common place. They frankly don't give a "dam" about the impact they are having downstream!!! They profess to be stewards of the land and yet the committ these sins!!!
So what you're saying is, if I get turned down by FEMA and my insurance provider, I need to file a lawsuit against the drainage board for damage to my home?
I like it!
HR
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