Sigh. It's been a banner week for home repairs around here.  

First the furnace died. Again. Apparently the person who installed our heating and A/C system is completely inept.... and is no longer in business. A couple of months ago we found out our thermostat was wired completely wrong. Thursday we found out that we had a condensation problem in the furnace, again due to faulty installation.

Water is a recurrent theme around here. Friday we found out we had a major water leak.

It all started when a large puddle developed in our backyard/mud pit. All of this water came out of one of our foundation drains.

Naively, I thought it was just melted snow. Er, no.  It grew over the course of a week and became an impromptu wildlife refuge.

It took a couple of days to locate the correct workmen to come and investigate our problem. (You don't call a plumber for an outdoor water leak. Who knew?) When right men did come, I knew we were in for trouble when I saw this.

There nothing like a backhoe coming up your driveway to make you nervous.

And then they started digging. This was after I couldn't get anyone to come out and mark our gas lines. When you live in the boonies, apparently no one is responsible for making sure you don't blow yourself up.  The guys with the heavy equipment said they'd just "go slow".  I was just a tad nervous.

Look how cool, calm, and collected this child running the backhoe is. Seriously, I have socks older than him. Yes, I took this picture from inside. It was really cold on Friday.  

At this point, I ventured outside to ask why they were digging a hole on the opposite side of the house from the puddle.

See this hole?

Look closer...

This mini-geyser caused all the problems. There was a leak at the point where the water line came into our house.

Apparently we were really lucky that the water didn't come into our house, because the child backhoe driver/welder said the hole where the pipe entered our house was very poorly secured. Of course it was! (Slapping hand on forehead.)

Methinks this house will continue to be full of surprises.