well system |

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).

25573981960_4a357441b6_c — this is my hand dug – in a rusted steel drum well head.

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.

26037302875_188987fb49_c — my well system is in that weird cut out space on the right… next to the old shitter…. the thing on the left is my ejector pump….

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:

25597647134_95eaab2996_c — The new system. Moved out of the crawl space – hooked to own fuse box.

25599736173_031a6b4142_c1 — New larger tank and 1/2 horsepower jet pump.

Anyways! yay water! I think by 2018 I’ll have ‘free’ water again 😉

Well, we are 3 weeks underway of getting the farmhouse – livable.

Here are the things we have done:

removed all bathrooms that were not supposed to be there
re-did the main bathroom on the first floor
removed all debris from the yard/house
starting painting
hung window treatments
got all new appliances
installed new well system
installed washer & dryer
repaired all rusted windows
removed paint from all window sills
installed new furnace and water heater

It’s been A LOT of work. Thankfully, Lois has been a huge help with most of these items – the yard looks 1000% better due to her. On the days we were able to tackle things together it felt like we got a lot more done than I would have ever imagined. My Pops has been a major help in figuring out what we can/can’t do electrical wise and prepping for Connelly Power Co to jump in on some things. We still can’t live there until we resolve the electrical issue for the water pump/well system. That is the most frustrating part, since we really can’t live there without water, but everything will be easier to work on, continue to deal with once we live there. Right now, every moment over there has to be utilized 100% so I think I speak for everyone, but I’m tired. I love working on the house and it is really rewarding and exciting, but it’s just hard to not have a bathroom to use there, or water to use – and it’s hard to drive back and forth to our apartment in Broomfield (30 minutes away). Eh, but why am I bitching? I fought super hard to do all this – just at a different pace I think, but oh well in a months time or less it won’t feel ‘so close, yet so far’. Plus, a lot of the things I had planned on spacing out over 2 years will now just be done. So when we do move in we can literally just start enjoying it instead of prolonging some of this fun.

Moving forward I’ll being doing more ‘before and after’ shots on our progress – now that there are some really impressive ‘afters’!

Thanks again, Lois, Pops, Uncle Mark (MD Services – my HVAC/plumbing hero), Aunt Lori, and everyone else in their virtual support so far in helping us get this fixer upper livable!

Here are some photos of the recent happenings: