11:15 a.m. // 27 April 2007

Four hours sleep, have to go to work in several hours. I stayed up till past 3 knocking down drywall. Surprisingly, in small doses, it's kind of almost fun. Crumbling damp wallboard -- makes you feel like you have power over the situation.

Our septic system backed up from the severe rains on Tuesday. Maybe a little more than an inch deep in the deepest parts, but the water went all over the bottom level (which is a semi-basement). We waited two days for somebody to come help -- the plumber said he couldn't do anything but told us that it was septic; the water excavation people waited some 20 hours to tell us that they couldn't really do anything for us, especially because it's septic; the septic company said there's no way to ensure it won't happen again unless we install a brand new system.

Finally a restoration guy came out and told us the septic water had soaked into the drywall while we'd been waiting for someone to come out, and they would need more than a few thousand dollars to replace and dry everything.

Homeowners' insurance won't cover the work because we don't have flood insurance. We are covered for water damage, including plain old septic tank backups, but somehow, because water from the sky forced the tank to back up, it's considered flooding. Our streets never got anywhere as bad as downtown Denton, but our septic tank drainfield was flooded.

So now we're going the do-it-yerself route. Should only have to replace a foot of drywall, at the highest points. Dwayne and Josh have been marvelous. Meanwhile, I've had to be at work. But I'm taking next week off.

I lost some books to the water, including some L.M. Montgomery paperbacks that I'd decided ten years ago to give to my future children, or whatever; also some magazines, but nothing important, just late-'90s issues of Wired and my old Britpop mags. Dwayne lost a whole box of books but nothing he really cared about. Also, the file of old Jackson 8 fliers (the originals) got wet. A lot more of Josh's stuff got soaked because he had been living pretty low to the ground, but most of it wasn't valued and he's kind of zen about the matter -- it's lightening his load for moving on out.

Haven't had a shower in three days (the guys are going on four). Must muck out the bath.

[ADDENDUM: Best tool for locating and removing drywall that's damp and needs to come down -- steel-toe boots. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM. It makes the task easier and also more awesome.]

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