Nov 29, 2020
Fence and related issues resolved
Tuesday mid morning we had a meeting with our financial advisor. Sadly he is permanently retiring, he was semi retired and had kept us on for the past two years. News to us that was rather unexpected. He invited us and his admin ( who is also retiring ) for lunch at the Kelowna Yacht Club.
We all wore masks until seated and we were appropriately distanced because of the large table. Just after this photo was taken Colin’s phone rang. It was maintenance giving us notice that they were going to be working on our property. We had been told on Monday that we would get at least one days notice, before they started digging. We just got a one minute notice! So we ate quickly and drove home.
This was taken from the car as we came down our street. Where were the workers. No one was digging.
Oh but they were, on the other side of the fence! But why I asked. Well they just thought it might be easier to start there. This was our first indication that the fence might be in the way. Colin spent hours laying new landscape cloth and levelling his cement slabs to match the concrete. I mentioned before that our plan is to push the shed closer to the fence in the spring.
Quite late in the afternoon they started to dig on the correct side of the fence. Ever so carefully they pushed back the rocks and removed the landscape cloth.
They set out tarps and very carefully shovelled the under layer of small rock on one side and the dirt on the other. It looked very neat but I figured that would not last. It turned out that I was correct.
They left at 4:30PM as it was starting to get dark. At this point we had no idea what was going to happen the next day, on Wednesday. Needless to say I was upset at my yard being dug up. Colin was more like ” nothing we can do about it” and decided to put the tree up and sort out the branches. My heart was not into Christmas but after a glass of wine I redid what he had done and fine tuned it a bit, bending branches here and there. We took no photos as we were still dazed from all the unexpected activity. Neither of us can remember if we put the tree lights up Tuesday or Wednesday. We do recall the Colin made creme of leek soup from a Knorr package.
Later I read and enjoyed eggnog with rum and a piece of banana bread.
Wednesday was all about digging and more digging. Before noon they knew that there was a five foot diameter concrete top that went under the fence to the second hole on the other side of the fence. Fortunately the found a smaller diameter opening and eventually were able to get it open.
There was a lot of rock, mud and some twigs.There was no sign of a pipe coming from the drain in the road. So they started to remove the mud and rocks. They were gone a good part of the day but came back to do more digging. Lots of breaks and a one hour lunch. At the end of the day they said that in the morning ( Thursday ) they might need to remove the fence including the steel posts and the cement used to keep them in place. Again more shocking news.
I did contact our fence builder and he was not available to come until Friday. So we decided that no one was going to take our fence apart except the builder. Meanwhile I started to put out some of our Christmas cutsies. Things that were not going on the tree. Thinking back as I type this, I am pretty sure that we did put up the tree lights Tuesday. However neither Colin nor I can recall what we had for dinner Wednesday night. Our minds remained in turmoil.
When they left for the day they once again said that they were not sure what would happen with the fence the next day. They still had not found the pipe.
Thursday morning was spent making the hole deeper. They took away two loads of rock. Paul is actually standing in the hole. They tried using a shop vac to suck the mud. Took about two minutes for it to clog.
Having removed a good deal of rock they tried an experiment. Insert water into the pipe within the drain.
And water began to run into the hole. The found the pipe. It had not collapsed but was full of mud and debris that went down the drain from the road.
Mission accomplished, sort of. None of these fellows had been in the park with this dry well had been installed. They could not believe that whoever had built this had filled it so full of rock. They hope that it will fine now. So do we.
They began to put things back together by putting soil into the hole. That confused me as they just shovelled dirt out.
New landscape cloth was laid and bit by bit it all came back together. They did say that it was impossible to level the cement slabs behind the fence. Colin said he had done it and expected it to be done. It took a while but did get it levelled.
They did a good job of cleaning up, better than I expected anyway. Our patio, the driveway and the street are covered with splotches of mud. The fence has dirty handprints all over it.
I was called out for a final inspection. The wind was blowing and it was cold. I didn’t have time to put a jacket on.
It looked good but not as perfect as it had been when we finished the big clean up last Saturday. The best part is that we did not have to take the fence part. We still need to wipe down the fence and the gate and move some of the landscape rock. But other that putting the outdoor Christmas tree back to where it should go ( more or less ) we left it at that.
Colin went out to pick up Chinese take out for dinner. It is time to get back to our regularly scheduled life. I took part of Friday off and all of Saturday to just sit and read most of the day. Today I am feeling more like myself. Hence this post which took a few hours to edit photos and write this synopsis. It really could have been worse but it was bad enough to shake me up. It has just been thirty days since we took the hedge out and it has not been an easy time. Time to get on with Christmas.
A very special belated Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. I’m sorry but I totally forgot about your Thanksgiving. I hope that each one of you had a very special day and dinner.
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In addition to your good news that your new fence will not be touched, I just read in the “Wall Street Journal” that (as of this past Friday) United Airlines has started flying the Pfizer vaccine to regions of the US and Canada (first stop was Chicago) to position the vaccine for immediate use and distribution as soon as the US FDA and Canada’s Health Ministry signs the clearance papers on December 10. Health care workers and first responders will be first in line for the vaccine as early as December 15. Our age group will be second in line, and production capacity in the US and Germany continues to expand. What a Christmas gift!!
We are not in any hurry to get the vaccine. We prefer to wait and see what side effects or other problems may or may not happen. But yes a great gift for those in a rush to get vaccinated.
What an ordeal you have been through. Hopefully now you can relax and enjoy your new fenced yard.
Thank you Sandy. Always great to hear from you. Wouldn’t it be great if that fenced yard had a few puppies in it 🙂
What a stressful situation you guys were under. So good to read that it has been resolved. As a tip, maybe keep the photos for a future reference or make a drawing where the pit is situated should this ever come up again. Just think if you had moved the shed already and the guys wanted you to move it back so they could dig under it. What a nightmare that would have been.
Now its time to relax and put it behind you and come spring time you’ll have it all cleaned up.
Take care.
Yes stressful. We have documented everything very carefully by photo. If they had to dig under the shed they would have had to dig into our coloured concrete patio. A true nightmare. Fingers crossed that all is well.
Glad they got things put back together fairly neatly. Even though you were not directly involved it can be very stressful. Did they make certain the water would drain into the Lake and not just flow into your catch basin? If not the problem could return.
Be Safe and Enjoy the season.
It’s about time.
The water is not draining into the lake but rather into a dry well/cistern on the front/street side of our new fence. So there is a possibility that we will have an overflow into our yard if there is a problem.
Well hopefully that’s the end of your issues with the water line and that the dirt cleans off your fence. I am looking forward to seeing pictures of your indoor decorations 🙂
The dirt will come off but I haven’t bothered as yet. Pictures coming bit by bit.
Holy! Holy what a train wreck I would have been firstly loosing our financial advisor would be like loosing my left arm,I love our guy and he has been with us for at least 25 years.Then all your hard planned work that was just completed and gorgeous may I add,to be put in the line of fire,wow! I think you handled everything wonderfully it would have been a double fist wine night for me. I’m so glad for you that things turned out okay.
So glad that you understand what I went thru, including the loss of our financial advisor. He has trained someone but just not the same. BTW, wine made no difference. I just felt gutted.
Thanks for getting it.
What an ordeal you have had to put up with… nothing is easy…
Good to see how you overcome adversity.
Keep staying positive. Fence looks great! I loved the old one, but this one is very nice too.
Thinking of you.
Paul Jan and Jazz.
So glad that you understand what I went thru, including the loss of our financial advisor. He has trained someone but just not the same. BTW, wine made no difference. I just felt gutted.
Thanks for getting it.