Today I'm trying to be thankful just to have a cozy home, running water, and heat. Because I am A.N.G.R.Y. at this house and frustrated with the people (in-laws) who own it.
Our well is totally jacked up. There's been issues with it since the first year we lived here, and it's getting to be really stinkin' expensive to replace all the things that are getting broken because of the sand in the water.
First issue- a pump burned out the first year we lived here because the sand in the water forced something to stay open when it should have closed after the water was shut off. $400 repair, plus the time and irritation of digging a 6 ft. deep hole to get to the well, and then filling it back in (had a neighbor do the digging with a fancy digging machine (I hate myself for not knowing what it's called) and then filled it back in by hand).
Second issue- we put a filter on the water line in the basement because we were getting a lot of sand coming out of the faucets and in the toilet. But the filters would get clogged after just one day (or less) and so after a couple weeks of this we gave up and have been dealing with sandy water.
Third issue- the new pump burned out just from the sheer volume of sand it was coping with, and once again the well had to be dug up and several parts replaced, along with a new pump, which was another $500. We did, however, have the sense to build a sort of well house this time, rather than filling in the hole only to have to dig it up again in the future.
And then...the washing machine no longer works on the cold setting because of the sand.
The toilet has had all its inner parts replaced more than five times because of the sand.
The bathroom sink had to be torn out and replaced because of old plumbing/sand.
The shower head barely sprays at all because of the sand.
Every bath taken in this house has a layer of sand at the bottom.
The hose outside works unless we put a sprinkler head on it, which gets ruined pretty quickly because...sand.
The kitchen faucet has finally become so clogged with sand that it's unusable, except for the sprayer hose thing which still lets some water through, so I've been using that to slooooowly fill the sink and wash dishes.
The solution to all these problems would be having a new well dug. Which costs upwards of $4,000. And we don't have that kind of money to put into someone else's house, and they don't have that kind of money to put into their own house, and they also don't think it's that big of a deal anyway (since we haven't asked them to replace/repair ONE SINGLE THING because they would just say no anyway...actually, it would go a lot like this:
Us: The sink is broken because of the sand in the water, can we get the faucet replaced?
Them: A new faucet? No need for that. We'll send your uncle out to take a look at it.
Two months later, he'd show up, take a lot of stuff apart, put it back together, drink a few beers, and tell us how to use the faucet without getting sand in the water...which wouldn't work).
Heaven forbid anything gets properly fixed or replaced around here. Let's just let it all fall apart and decay and rust and break and in 20 years, wonder why this place has been deemed unlivable.
It's so frustrating. They're like this with everything to do with this house. My husband's great-grandfather built it, and I totally get wanting to PRESERVE his original design, but it's FALLING. APART. because they won't let anyone do the necessary work to keep it nice. The hard wood floor in here is totally ruined because they won't let us seal it- "Grand-dad didn't build it that way, leave it alone". Fine. Let it rot.
I think...I think the sooner we can buy our own house, the better.
Still struggling to just be grateful, though. *sigh*