Third time's the charm

These are not stock photos but round three of the basement flooding issue.  Apparently, there is a lesson to be learned that has been lost...Sunday, we pulled up the carpet yet again! 

Last week, I hired a company to fix the sprinkler system and they came but whined and complained about the amount of digging that was going to be required.  At first, I went out to help him but then realized, with the help of Sam that I shouldn't be paying someone to do work that they actually refuse to do on their own.  He was right, so I told the kid to leave and I would find a different way to handle the situation.  

The same day, another maintenance guy came by as I was digging up the sprinkler lines and said he could do it, no problem.  I showed him where the broken lines were, gave him the three heads that had been broken off and he went to work.  I was under the assumption when he said it was fixed, that it was truly fixed.  He turned on the sprinklers and that was that...side note...I know this house was built poorly but get this...my sprinkler controls are attached to my neighbors house!!  MY NEIGHBORS HOUSE...MY CONTROLS...MY SPRINKLER...That I pay for myself. 

Long story short, he misinformed me and did not fix all three heads.  He assumed the third head wasn't a big deal and rather than dig to find it, figured the water would surface like a geyser and voila!  

Well, it was a geyser of sorts but went further down in the ground and found it's way into my basement again, under the footings.   I spent Sunday digging, and digging and digging some more. It was a swamp.  

Because of all that water, it settled the trench so fast that the gas meter started falling off my house again.  

By Tuesday I thought I had fixed it all but the maintenance guy for the HOA came by and blew a gasket at the condition of my gas meter...You can barely see if slanted in the picture above...it got worse. 

Tuesday night, I spent the night re-digging the same hole.  This time, I dug down nearly 4 feet to expose the gas line so I could lift up the meter and fix the settling issue with the ground.  

It looked like this...

 That little yellow pipe you can barely see is the gasline and all that water!!!  I kept digging and to fill in the air pockets so it wouldn't settle so much.  I lifted the meter back up into place and wanted to leave the hole open to dry up the soil a bit so my basement would dry out faster.  But no...that is not what happened.  I came home from work yesterday and the HOA guy was filling my hole in!!   I'm so bugged.  

It is what it is.  I can't even deal with this situation anymore.  I thanked him for trying to be helpful but it undid all my hard work and plans.  He didn't appreciate my attempt at kindness and some yelling ensued and I basically remember why I loved social distancing so much. People are mean and angry when it is completely unnecessary.   I've gotten nothing but criticism from the HOA here.  It's ridiculous. 

I sincerely hope this is the last post I ever have to write about this stupid house.