One thing leads to another, seems like. The other day, a basement water alarm sounded off with a shrill call for our action! I had just begun laundry. By the time I got downstairs, the washer was attempting to pump out water, while the standpipe was clearly rejecting it all. The result was a dirty stinky mess bubbling up from the pipe and down the wall. Nice.
This is what the leak looked like (after massive cleanup, mind you):
To get to the root cause of the issue, we had to gain access to the standpipe – which is directly behind the laundry room wall. Which would mean it was somewhere behind this wall in the neighboring room:
Long water-alarm-house-project story short: we had to call an emergency plumber for weekend work to snake our standpipe, other pipes, and get things moving in the right direction again.
HOWEVER . . . This standpipe thing led to another thing: a surprising and inspiring discovery. A secret clubhouse. 🙂
the 870 club hangout 
original artwork by miss Meuchel 
a rainbow envelope for club cards 
retro waxed cup and design ideas for painting 
painting and icky plumbing
Looking at the children’s artwork was fun and my mind wandered. What were these kids like? Where are they now? Would they remember painting underneath a staircase in their childhood home? And took as many pictures as I could. Who knows if/when we’ll open up this space again. Finding all the cheerful rainbows definitely inspired me and made the standpipe issue not as big of a thing in the end.
