One Thing Leads to Another. . .

One of my first blog posts-- in fact, many of the first ones-- were about my feelings toward the American Fork Pressurized Irrigation Project. To refresh your memory, they were not GOOD feelings. My experiences this week haven't changed that.

After tearing up our streets, they arbitrarily put green boxes wherever they wanted to in our yards. They told us that we had until the end of March to hook our sprinkling systems up to this new water system, otherwise we'd have to pay $250. (Does the word "blackmail" ring a bell?)

As our sprinkling system is near our house, and their green box is by the road with a sidewalk in between (Seriously-- they couldn't have put the box 10 feet to the right on the OTHER side of the walk?), we decided to pay one of the groups that came around offering to do the hook up.

They told us it would be $300 (normally $200, but it was extra far away and across a sidewalk. GRRR.) We said go. They got started right away and dug to the water main. That's where the problems started.

The valves were shot in the main box. They said another $200 to replace that. One thing led to another, and to make a long story short, 2 days later, we're up to nearly $8,000 to be able to use the city's pet project.

The sprinkler guys have been very nice. They should be. We're paying their mortgages for a few months. They tore out the crazy overgrown bushes in front of the house for free. Now the house looks naked and the yard looks like a war zone.

What I find especially ironic about the whole situation is that, between the kitchen and the yard, we've sunk nearly $25,000 into the house in the last year, but the house is probably worth about $50,000 less than it was the year before.

At least I won't have to water the yard by hand this year. Maybe my flowers and garden can last past August this summer. . .