So the other day J goes to turn on the tap and nothing happens. *insert unamused face here*
We had no idea what had happened, but thought that perhaps it was connected to the pressure tank we had to replace back in June. We aren’t plumbers and nothing was immediately apparent, so we called a professional and after some fiddling around he determined that our well pump was likely fried. We pulled out all our documents from the previous owners and there is one scrap of paper from 1976 with our well information on it. 6 gallons per minute, 200 feet deep. Location illustrated with a sketchy ballpoint pen drawing on the back of the paper with some rough measurements. Sounds straightforward, yes? But no, it took us like 2 days to actually find the stupid thing. J and the plumber dug in a bunch of different spots and our neighbour even came over and tried to use some witching to locate the water, but there was nothing. The sketch says it’s 5′ from a rhododendron and 6″-7″ beneath the surface. Well, it’s been quite a few years so unless the writer didn’t know that the bushes on our driveway are actually junipers, the rhodo is long gone. Also, 6″ 40 years ago could be pretty different now…
After one last attempt to dig in a different location the well was finally found and, with the help of a random passerby on a bike, was pulled up the 200′ and laid out on the driveway.
The driveway is a bit of a mess now… ha
Trying out the witching:
So, the saga of “Joys of Home Ownership” continues… the pump we ordered won’t be here until Friday at the earliest and in the meantime we wouldn’t have water if it weren’t for a hose running to the neighbour’s house.
Oh, and I thought $500 for the pressure tank was crappy, this is going to cost triple that. UGH. It better last another 20 years!
We just had our pump go out as well, less than 6 months after buying our new place….ugh. What a mess. It’s gonna take us forever to pay it off. Thankfully we didn’t have to dig around for our pump, but what a hassle.
It’s going to be so expensive!!! I’m kind of freaking out. These are the things we have to do to live self-sufficiently though, I guess. Hopefully your new pump lasts for the 20 years they supposedly do! 🙂
Our pump was over 35 years old and belonged to a house that doesn’t even exist anymore. I’m sure you won’t have to replace it anytime soon!
So sorry your pump died. I totally get the unexpected surprises that come with an older home. How awesome is your neighbor though? And can I just tell you how jealous I am of your black soil? Here’s hoping your new pump lasts twice that long.
WE WON THE NEIGHBOUR LOTTERY. He is the best and has bailed us out so many times. Seriously haha. I hope the new pump lasts a million years!! 🙂
[…] while we were away ($500!) -Our pressure tank died in June (Another $500!) -And we had to install a new well pump, switch, wiring, and other stuffs in December […]
[…] you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll remember that we had a drama with our well pump a few months ago. Finding the well location proved difficult and we had to dig in a few locations […]