What's a water main?

Things were going along smoothly with all the house sales...

Toooo smoothly...

The buyer of our house had their inspection on Friday.  They spent a lot of time in our basement cellar space.  I wasn't too worried.  We'd had our own inspection just the week before.  No real problems, a couple of minor things but nothing serious.

I guess it is bad form to have the sellers there during an inspection, but we couldn't leave because Thing 2 was recovering from stomach flu.  I got to meet the buyer (a cute 30 something girl) and her (nice but businessy) agent and her (quite charming) mother.  The buyer had to leave shortly after they got here, but her mother stayed, and we got to chat.  Turns out the mother lives about three blocks away.  And the girl's brother lives about five blocks away.  And her aunt and uncle live in the neighborhood.  And her mother went to school with my neighbor three houses up.  Apparently the buyer grew up in a house not far from here.  She knows about old houses.  She likes old houses.  This house just seems golden for this girl.  All goes well.  They leave with smiles.

Then that evening I come down with the stomach flu.  From eight o'clock on, I'm hunkered over the toilet every hour for a few minutes, almost like clockwork.  Suddenly Thing 2's whining about stomach pain doesn't seem like pointless whining anymore.  I'm in agony.  My stomach is totally constricted.  It hurts too bad to sleep.  Hubby goes to the airport to get our houseguests from New Zealand.  He comes back and lets the kids stay up til nearly 11:00.  I'm in no position to argue.  All I can do is groan, and vomit.


My last vommiting session is around 2:00 am.  I spend all of Saturday whimpering and talking on the phone (things are erupting with my church calling since I'm leaving...  Crazy how they left us shorthanded for nearly two months when the other Primary counselor got another calling, but I haven't moved yet and they've already replaced me).  My stomach finally stops hurting enough that I can sleep.  While I'm lying in bed Hubby took the kids and our guests to Snowbird to ride the trams, and jump on the bungee trampolines, and listen to music.


I rolled out of bed Saturday evening around 7:00 pm.  My family was not back yet.  I could actually walk, but my stomach still hurts. I probably COULD go to church but I've already made arrangements not to... we'll let the new councilor dive right in.
I checked my email.  There was a note from my realtor saying the inspection showed a corroded main waterline that may or may not need to be fully replaced.  This could make the house unsellable.
What? WHAT?!?  Frantic emails fly off my keyboard.
A quick internet search shows me this may cost between $1500 and $5000 mostly depending upon how much digging it takes.  They suggest if I can operate a back hoe maybe I could save money by digging it up myself.  I am distraught. 
My good friend who happens to be the primary president calls to see how things have gone with the church stuff.  In talking to her, I tell her the water main news and she says they replaced their main waterline a couple years ago when a couple of their neighbors started getting swampy front yards.  She said it cost $3000 and took one day.   Later an reply from our realtor indicates this is probably what I can expect.  Okay, maybe we can get through this. 


The buyer is coming back with a plumber Monday morning to assess.  At best, this is something that we will just knock off the price of the house and the buyer can deal with it.  At worst the sale of the house will be held up while we deal with the water main ourselves, and she can just move in when it's all over with.  Either way I'm hoping that everything moves forward quickly.


Sigh.