Home buyers have it so much easier today. There are fewer surprises for them once they move in.
The first home I bought as a “we”, was in 1972. It was not customary to have home inspections then. You bought, then when the surprises hit, you considered it a function of home ownership.
Our first home was a small 3BR ranch on ¾ acres. It was just outside the city limits therefore it had a septic system. The leach lines were tiled to the back of the yard. The problem was that the back of the yard was sloped upward … meaning it was higher than the house … AND higher than the septic tank.
S**T DOESN’T FLOW UPHILL
As you can imagine, this caused problems. The previous owner had planted a willow shrub “downstream” of the septic tank. As with all willows, they LOVE moisture and will direct their roots to the “water”. (I use the term “water” loosely here.)
We only lived in the home 4 years, but that willow shrub quadrupled in size. Just like Erma Brombeck’s book, “The grass is always greener over the septic tank”, our lawn was always greener in that section of the yard. This old photo shows the green grass leading to the willow. The leach lines actually ran uphill to the left of this area, and the grass WASN’T greener over the leach lines.
Rural septic systems have improved immensely in the years since. There are more leach lines and owners can flip a switch to use half the lines for a few months, then switch to use the other half to allow the previous lines to do their proper filtering. Some homes have an aeration system which doesn’t require leach lines and processes the “contents” so thoroughly that the outflow is clean enough to drain into the open land, such as a ravine. (They say the water is clean enough to drink, but I think I’ll pass on that.) Then there is the “mound” system which is above ground and quite involved in how it must be built.
I must say these new systems, while better, wouldn’t be nearly as much fun or provide as much joking within the family and our friends, as watching the willow double in size every year.
FUTURE ARTICLES ON THIS “HANDYMAN’s DREAM HOME”:
- Outflow pipe from a sump pump should be longer than 1-foot to avoid burning up the motor & flooding the basement during a hard rain.
- Why a laundry chute shouldn’t dump the clothes on the furnace.
- Why burgundy carpet is a bad thing for kitchen floors.
- Think twice before you decide to paint the basement ceiling black.
Copyright © 2009. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
