Sewer Problems

For several weeks our neighbor across the street has had a pile of dirt in her front yard. The pile of dirt has represented a neighborhood sewer problem and a complicated and expensive fix.

Two of our neighbors have had water in their basement (one with significant water damage and several times) and our basement drains have been doing some funny stuff. The city has tried on more than one occasion to fix the problem, but was not able to do it with the equipment that they had on hand.

This weekend while we were working in Cedar Rapids (future post about that trip) the city brought in the heavy equipment a dug a 22 foot hole to hopefully make the repairs.

It is kind of a bummer that we were gone because I think that it would have been really exciting for the kids to see. On the other hand it was probably good that we were gone because there was a mountain of dirt at the end of our driveway! The pictures are compliments of our neighbors (my parents!).

Start of the digging. Yes they are digging right next to the street. Unfortunately part of the street caved in as well. Can you say expensive?


The water that was filling the bottom of the hole as they dug. To much rain.


Stand between our house and our neighbors (not my parents). That mountain of dirt was at the end of our driveway.

The mountain of dirt created a nice dam for Friday afternoon/evening's rain. Yes that is our house. The city had to come back and finish on Saturday due to the rain.

Guess who gets to pay the bill for all that work? That's right, yours truly, along with several other neighbor... yippee.