There is nothing more exciting that dropping a camera down your sewer drain to get a first hand look at things. Actually that's not true. There is very little exciting about it. Mostly it is expensive.
Today's cameraing went as well as could be expected. The camera went down the line, and slowly foot by foot we examined the pipe from the inside. Good, another foot, good, another foot, good. This continued on until a blockaged could be seen. And it was definitely dirt. And the best part was that it was just oustide the foundation of the house in the front yard.
At this point my fears were confirmed and the plumber turned to me and once again I heard "Yup, I'm definitely going to be able to make my boat payment this month, and with the way things are looking I'm probably going to be able to make next month's payment too."
This is the point at which my faith in civilization starts to crack. The front yard is no-mans land. If the plumbing problem were within the house my home warranty and or home owners insurance would leap to the rescue to pay for the work. If the problem were out at the street the city would leap into action to save one of their precious tax paying citizens from the evils of backed up sewage. But the 50' from the foundation wall of my house out to the street? No-one covers this. That's solely my responsibility. And this sucks. Alot. Mostly because it is horifically horifically expensive to dig up a trench that is 50' long 8' deep and most likely swampy and sewage laden in order to replace the sewer line. To further complicate things and increase expenses the gas service and water service lines are also run directly above the sewer line. This means that instead of brining out a big backhoe and taking a few minutes to dig down to the line that the plumber will have to use the big backhoe to dig down the first 2 feet and then they'll have to hand dig around the water and gas lines most of the rest of the way. This sucks for them, and in a world where suck rolls down hill they pass the suck on to me in the way of a staggering bill.
So this Thursday I'll be at home watching buckets full of my front yard being dug up while the plumbing foreman browses through the BassPro catalog to see what's new in the way of outboard motors for 08.