Our Smelly Mess

The sewer backed up into our basement.  Everything was gross and covered.  I  gaged.  It wasn't just our basement, but also the outside drain as well.  We spent days going through our stuff to see what was OK, what was going to need to be cleaned, and what would be trashed.  At first the basement smelled like the pigs at a fair; moist, yucky poopy.  Then after some initial cleaning like a swimming pool, but with a smelly foot problem.  Finally, just like bleach.

This is the big truck that came to snake and suck out the drains.  Turns out there was a separated pipe in the front of the house.

Inital digging with some of our plants still in.

Good-bye plants and tree.  Good-bye bricks.

They had to drill a hole into the house and start with new pipes there, then take it under the road.

It was such a mess and I was sure that our yard would be messed up for a long time.  But, surprisingly, 9 days after the "flood" the yard, bricks, and tree were back.  We are still missing the plants and flowers (we'd planted just 3 days earlier), but it is finally over.  We still have to go through our yucky stuff and clean once more before we move everything back into the basement.  I never want to experience that again.  Just dip me in bleach!