We FINALLY have running water at the house! Some excellent news in a really sad week for us. This all could have been A LOT worse – but it was still pretty bad. I’m certain the only way this could have been even worse is if we were having to actually live in the home while we had no running water. Also heads up, this post is a long one.
“How did it all begin?” You might wonder. You might also wonder why I would ever buy a house without running water or how I could get my home loan, knowing the lender wouldn’t go for it.
Well, for starters….. I have a well. That in itself should lay the ground work for the clusterf*ck that we have embarked on to get water. Now typically a well is not a BFD – most generally whoever owns the well has information about it like depth, age of pump in the well, location of well, age of well, etc. Most folks actually spend some of their time ensuring their well is safe, working, and dependable. Well, not the folks I bought from. They didn’t know anything about their well system, except the fact that they got ‘free’ water from it. But, in the inspection process I did my due diligence. I learned all about wells, well pumps, bacteria, ecoli… anything that could make owning a well difficult. And to be honest the well was/is still a huge ‘plus’ for me. I got the water tested and figured out what I needed to do to prolong my pipes, appliances, and make sure I was drinking the safest water possible. In fact, the ONLY concession the seller gave me was a $750 reverse osmosis system for my kitchen sink (it’s basically a few step filter system to ensure that drinking water is 100% perfect).
Okay where was I? Ah yes, why would I buy a house without running water? Well, the only time I saw ‘water not functional’ was on the official appraisal – and I actually found the fix with my realtor. A switch had been turned off by MY sewer guy that powered the socket that the pump was plugged into! Excellent fixed it! Well, on my final walk through I noticed the seller had ‘fiddled’ with the pressure switch (that tells the tank it’s full), but after the awful contract we had, I didn’t push buttons at close and the seller actually said it was working. And it did work for 1 flush of the toilet. Then the pump burned the socket out and ta-da! no water on my first day of possession. Remember that communication while under contract has to be the WORST process ever – so they never heard I fixed the water – they decided to upgrade the pressure switch for me… so nice.
Repairing a well or the well system in my case isn’t usually a big deal, if you have all the information you need. In my case, I can only use one well company because my well is not permitted or registered and only the good folks at Geowater will work on my hillbilly clusterf*ck. I know, I get it – I think we’ve all established that I love difficulty let’s continue. Well I first had Geowater come out to see what was going on. We established the electrical was shite – something we really started worrying about in terms of safety for those big amp items. The root of the no water problem was the pressure switch was installed wrong – house warming gift from ma and pa hillbilly. That incorrect installation told the pressure switch on the jet pump to ‘fill the tank to 25psi’ but the pressure would only climb to 20 psi and would never fill – thus the jet pump ran for so long that it burned out the socket it was plugged into…. because the breaker didn’t know to trip……
Anyways. Okay now we have three issues; I have no water, my jet pump is broken, AND the electrical is not set up to support a jet pump safely. Perfect.
12 EASY Steps to fixing the well water:
- re-prioritize the ‘to-do’ list to accommodate cost/time of fix
- call Geowater back and schedule new appointment
- say all sorts of bad things about former owners to self while driving to starbucks to pee while working on new house
- realize that Geowater is installing the reverse osmosis system – not fixing the pump on their scheduled visit – communication crossed with existing project
- call Geowater and schedule appointment to REPLACE well system
- Geowater places equipment and electrical box – can’t turn on water though
- Geowater comes back and hooks up water, tests pump – but can’t leave on because of electrical
- Realize that fridge water line you cut in abandon was actually connected BEFORE main water shut off, so lots of water is actually all over kitchen floor
- Turn off fridge water line
- have electrician come out to label panel and beg him to wire well system to own breaker
- have uncle (HVAC professional) seal drip on jet pump – since we couldn’t run it long enough to test when well guy was here
- FINALLY HAVE RUNNING WATER
It only took me just 2 days shy of a MONTH to make these 12 steps happen…..
New Well System:
Anyways! yay water! I think by 2018 I’ll have ‘free’ water again 😉
ghostfaceknitter.com 
Wow sounds like you had similar problems to what we had when we moved in our house 8 years ago. Pump was not working so had them replace it along with all new piping down in the well. The water was awful and we were having to buy drinking water. Had lots of dirt in it…so water heater and toilet were always dirty looking…not to mention kitchen sink water so had to filter all of it. Then about 3 years later…a man was standing in the backside of the property and hubbie asked what he was doing….he said reading the water meter…what &*%$#@? buried under the leaves and over growing plants was a water meter…who knew??? No one ever bothered to tell us of this. And besides who uses a well plus a water meter…so we hooked into the county water and have been happy ever since. Still buy drinking water cause I do not like fluoridated water. Glad you got running water now….makes you really appreciate the “simply” things huh? I know it did us.
haha yes it does! the simple things most never think about is now the most important thing on my mind! 😉 how funny you had the option for both. maybe i should take a lap around my property again to make sure i don’t have a water meter!
WOW!!! Not a good Wow, the other “how in the world could they do one more epic failure with this house” Wow. How super frustrating and yet not surprising about the pressure switch. You can always text me GIFS when this happens to lighten the mood (although calling GeoWater was probably the smarter idea naturally).
I know right. But I’m SO HAPPY. It’s all safe and sound now – don’t have to worry about water from now on.