The Hardest Part...

...as Tom Petty informs us, is the waiting.

We're supposed to get a monsoon of biblical proportions this afternoon. Talking weather head this morning was saying it could be as much as 5" - of rain.

Major flooding expected in all low-lying areas, river beds, ponds, stream, etc.

I've upgraded my basement sump exhaust from 20' of flexible hose (that was at the end of its lifespan) to 12' of 1½" diameter PVC pipe.

So, basically, I'm waiting to see how the new arrangement handles the water. I'm also waiting to see if my (ancient) PVC-fu skills are still intact.

If you don't hear from me soon, send a canoe...

That is all.

UPDATE:

[POUNDING on wood] So far, the new arrangement appears to be exceeding expectations. Pipe's doing what it does, carrying the water away from the house.

Made an important discovery in the process: A reciprocating saw is about 1,000 times better than a hacksaw blade at cutting out the rest of the hole for the pipe...

The Dri-Basement guys made one teensy mistake when they finished the system - they made the pipe that comes out of the wall into the outside about 6" too short. It stopped juuuuust shy of the end of the farmer's porch, which means that when it runs, it dumps water against the porch supports.

I had previously overcome this shortcoming by cementing a female PVC screw-in joint on the exit pipe, and getting 20 feet of 1½" flex hose from a plumbing supply house and running that down the front lawn.

This came to a crashing halt during the last snowstorm, as I had put the flex hose on to handle the melting before the snow, and neglected to remove the pipe before we got 10" of heavy, wet snow. Water got trapped, pipe froze solid, I spent two hours two Saturdays ago under my front porch with a hair drier...

It had the unfortunate side effect of finishing off the flex hose, too. So this morning I found myself at Home Despot, buying 1½" PVC pipe/fittings/etc. Got everything assembled and tied in (including some creative digging up of my front lawn that will need to be revisited after things dry out a bit.

But for now, it appears that the new system is working - 12 additional feet of 1½" diameter PVC discharge pipe brings the water far enough on the front lawn for gravity to take over. Rather than backing up against the house (BAD) and then running down the side lawn into Mom&Dad G.'s house (BADDER), the water now goes out onto the front lawn and into the street.

Noah's got nothing on me. His kids were grown when he built the ark. Otherwise, he'd have never finished...