The water, she is rising.
Where we live - sandwiched between the river and a giant watershed on an admittedly pretty piece of land - floods in spring and fall. A lot. Often. Whatever.
While it's beautiful - look! The trees! They're surrounded by water! It's hauntingly lovely! And the ducks! Watch them paddle around the meadow! - it's draining (yes, bad pun) to live in a spot where the main concern two seasons of the year is 'How wet is it going to get?'
Last flood (a few years back) we had a young beaver come swimming into the woodshed, carefully select a piece of firewood, and paddle away to construct a (doomed) dam near the stream that feeds the watershed. I'm sure he thought he'd found the water-rat McDonalds.
I'd like that to go, please. With some cookies.
Today Bear went down to check and found the trusty sump-pump in the basement had failed, leaving five inches of water in the basement.
He was blase. (I'll get the big pump out. It'll be fine.)
I....don't do well in these situations.
The Frank Lloyd Wright house, Fallingwater?* Would freak me right the heck out. A house? Built over water? Are you insane?
Now, I love boats. One of my favorite retirement fantasies used to be living on a houseboat somewhere warm. (Although that might be due to too many Robert Parker novels.)
But a house should not have water under it. Nosiree.
Now, this is definitely not as bad as it could get. It's nowhere near the hell we went through a few years back when the entire neighborhood flooded. And B has pumped out the water and now the (properly working) sump pump is doing a fine job of keeping the basement dry.
But I'm still uneasy.
I don't want to be queen of the nile.
Not even the river I'm on.
*Hey, SL? Ever been there? Well, you should. It looks insanely cool. Just not...you know, to sleep in.
10 comments:
I would be more concerned about the mold rather than the water itself. Providing, of course, that the structure was sound.
I hear you. I grew up in a town that had major flooding issues on a regular basis. Even though my house was a half mile uphill from a tiny little creek, one year the flooding was so bad the water was lapping our front yard. Consequently, I have never ever bought a house near water.
Oh I remember the days when our street flooded as a kid (no storm sewers, 2 minute walk to Lake Ontario). I became a whiz with a shop vac at the age of 5 and we used to go from neighbour to neighbour with everyone pitching in for the clean up with fans and vast setups of shop vacs and squeegees on sticks to get the water to the drain.
Even when we were looking for houses I REFUSED to consider anything with a sump pump for fear of reliving those days.
All that to say been there, done that, hope this is a dry season and hope the spring is just wet enough that the peas are happy but basements are dry!
I would love to live by running water but it is true that you will have to run the risk of flooding. Most rivers have a clearly visible floodplain. Best to build above that floodplain. I understand your concern but at the same time I envy you. I just did a post on my dream house. Check it out and you can see that I am obsessed with living near water.
fallingwater IS creepy. i could never live there - the water would swallow me, i am sure of it. plus it's built for people shorter than me...i spent the whole visit feeling like i was going to bang my head off something.
I hope you don't flood. I hope the beaver swims back and helps construct a dam to keep you safe from floodwaters. Hey, it could happen...
OMW! that sounds frightening. Hope the waters don't rise too high.
It does sound frightening...i hope it doesn't rise too much...but i suppose in a winter with so much snow, that is a tall order.
Take care and be safe!
Golly. Living on an arid plain makes it hard to imagine life with beavers stealing your wood. Although, there are beavers up in the mountains. Perhaps I will see one this weekend. I will shake my fists at it in your honor.
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream....
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