What's wrong with us?

We had great 2 weeks in Holland and Belgium. Visited family, friends, did stuff with kids, without kids - good babysitters in Holland!! -... Then we came home...

The first thing we noticed - how could you miss it! - was the horrible smell in the house. It hit our faces when we opened the door. Oh no, the sewer is broken, we thought. We opened the windows a bit, and let some fresh air come inside. It was Sunday january 4th and the situation was just bearable. At the basement, we discovered a dead mouse, a huge dead mouse. It was not the cause of the smell though, the storage was about the only place that did not smell bad.

Monday... the smell got worse. Tuesday... we got the first plumber. He checked things, did dye tests and said 'I think it is a dead animal'. I should have never have mentioned the dead mouse to him. Wednesday...I started getting worried. The smell was getting worse and I couldn't stand it. Thursday...second plumber came. He went down to the basement and walked straight to the door leading to the hairdresser. (we have a little one chair saloon at he basement). He said that he was here before. Brrrr, in a different life? Of course, it's not ghost story I am telling, it's a plumbing nightmare. He said he was at our house before, when the owners were still living in it. They had a bad smell in the house and after hours of searching, he couldn't figure it out. The owners were not very happy because of the amount of hours spent. You would understand them if you knew what those guys charge for every minute spent in the house.

So years ago, the owners had a bad smell. When we moved in almost a year ago, there was a bad smell. We did find out that the sewer was broken and got it fixed. Since that time, there was always a bit smell in the basement, but well, we innocently thought that basement could smell, because it was under the ground. Silly us! Now, it was obvious it us that the smell was always there, coming in little bits inside the house and every once in a while, it decided to explode and fill the whole place. We had to find out where it came from.

After the second plumber left the house without any results, we started to feel desperate. Think think think... Was it really a dead animal, or a whole animal family, or a horse trapped somewhere between the walls? Was it the sulfur from the grounds around? Was the sewer of the neighbors leaking and coming into our house? Was there something wrong with the heating system - result of the Internet search - ?

Friday...I decided I hated this house, but I also loved it. What do you do then. It is like a bad relationship.

Saturday, we left the house. We decided to go to a hotel and have a nice un-smelly night sleep. We had a nice suite with one bathroom and one sleeping room. The kids enjoyed the swimming pool.

Sunday... we came back home and left for another hotel, a water park hotel. That was great for the kids. The spent hours playing and swimming. We had 2 beds in one room and a living area. In the middle of the night F got sick and we had a big mess in the girls' bed. We took everything off and called the front desk for clean stuff. Sad end of the night.

Monday, the kids went to school and I went to the house. The owner called with two competitor plumbing companies in the weekend. They were both coming. But I started with the 'Mouse man'. He did close 2 holes and I hope we are done with the disgusting 4 leggeds. Then the first plumber came. He did the usual stuff, but he did something new too. The showed me the pipes in the basement going to the pipe that carries water to the sump pit. Against all my thoughts, The water was coming from the front of the house, not back of it. And there went the sulfur theory. The water was not coming from the swamp behind our garden. Then the other plumber came. There were the two of them actually. Oh, they were so happy to see each other. But, thanks to the first plumber, we could focus where the water was coming from. The first plumber, outnumbered by the first one, left the scene...but I am thankful to him, he did a good job. The two plumbers worked hours and finally found out...well, it is still a guess... that the sewer leakage that was repaired was going on probably for years and the ground got full of ....yes, sorry, shit. This sewage was pushed by the melting snow last week and got in the sump pit and the pipe going to that. The only way to know for sure is to dig half a wall length around the house.

I wasn't happy Monday, why do I have to sit there with the plumbers, arrange other people to pick up my kids? I was hoping our contact person would be there and I would be cooking for the evening and picking up the kids and taking care of them. Anyway, sometimes things work differently. After the plumbers left, I went - with the dinner I just made in a bag - to pick up the girls. We went back to the water hotel. Dinner, pool, sleeping and no sick kids... The next morning packed the stuff again, brought the kids to school and waited at the stinking home.

Tuesday evening... I am writing from our final destination before we go back to a non-smelling home sweet home. The irony is just about the reveal itself. Just read further.

We got the news from P's company that we may use an apartment they rented for some colleagues and although the people were gone, the rent was paid till the end of the month. A nice apartment in a nice little town to south of our house. These kind of apartments are actually a mixture of an apartment and a hotel. You have everything in it: furniture, nicely folded cloth napkins on the dinner table, little soaps in the bathroom, a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, the apartment gets cleaned every week, you get clean towels and beds are changed... It is super. The kids loved it, the started playing in the clean looking spacious living room while I was cooking in the decent kitchen. P came and we had a lovely dinner. The kids went to bed and... we didn't have hot water. OK, we came from a house smelling to sewer and ended up in a house without hot water. And guess who was here at 9 pm in the evening? A neighbour who is also working like a handyman for these apartments, a plumber! The good thing is, he could fix the problem in half an hour and he also fixed a door that was not working properly and he left. The feeling he left us with behind is that there is nothing wrong with all those houses, there is something wrong with us!