New fence? Please...

While I should have been installing my new fence this weekend with the help of my great friends and family, I was doing this, instead:

Apparently, this is record rainfall for Chicago. It's the remnants of the Pacific storm Lowell (sp?) I guess. And the remnants of Ike are supposed to come perilously close to Chicago tomorrow and tomorrow night. The water is so high in the backyard, it's going into the basement now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMgE3NCKm8

Now, so long as that drain doesn't back up or the water doesn't come in any faster, we should be OK. I did have to get out on the roof, briefly, outside our bedroom window, however, to bend the downspout off, as the morons who originally installed it put the elbow at the bottom on backward (bottom portion outside the top portion), so the water was shooting out the seam and creating a lake in between the houses. We had some serious seepage into the room under the front porch because of it, and that seeped into the family room, onto the carpet. I was going to tear that carpet out anyway; now I'll have to do it much earlier than anticipated.

Now, I know that, obviously, what I'm currently dealing with is minimal compared to the folks in Iowa earlier this year and the folks along the Gulf Coast and whatnot, and in Texas. But, even this "much" water is a big deal here. And it's a big deal to me too, especially since I'm going to finish that family room at some point. In a sense, it's making me rethink the next steps.

Hopefully the rain subsides enough to let some of this water soak in and go away, and stop pouring into my basement!

I think they're alive...

fence panels...
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

...because five of them have moved into the yard. Into position.

Next week, believe it or not, we resume activity at Build a Better Bungalow. I have a crew of great friends coming out to demolish our fence and help me install the new one. These are the panels I sealed...I've got about 5 or 6 more in the garage, waiting to be sealed, which I'll have to do this week, in advance of next Saturday's big day.

Plus, I might be able to get the monstrosity around and over the hot tub demolished and outta here as well. And maybe, just maybe, even the hot tub will be disassembled and destroyed. We'll see. Our yard, in just over a week, could look tremendously different and larger than it does now. And that's exciting.