How do I keep my wife from telling me I told you so?

[alloy]

A few years back i bought a shop and oddly enough a house came with it. Wife happy, me happy, life is good. The first winter my shop flooded . Previous owner didn't disclose that this happened. Ok, dug a hole in the ditch in back of the shop and put a sump pump in. Good to go.

Two years later the zoeler pump died. Another flood. So I replaced it with a ridgid 5 year warranty pump. Life is good again. Well............snow happened last week and it was melting and it so happened we had a big wind storm last night. Power went out at 9:45. No biggie, go to bed early and hopefully power wil be on in the morning. Power was on, good to go right? Came out to my shop and it's flooded. Checked the pump and it's fine. Hmm.......................whats wrong? Crap, turns out sump pumps need power to run.

Well last week I was working on the nova bucket seats and had them on the floor on some old carpet attaching some new seat tracks. Had them on their sides. Wife later came out to the shop for something and put the seats upright in case it flooded. Told me about this and I said no biggie, won't flood, we have a good sump pump that will keep them dry. So how do I keep my wife out of the shop to keep from getting the dreaded "I told you so" and and being reminded of it for the next week?

 

[Ken from ontario]

"Talk to the hand" sign on the door?

 

[Just for fun]

Oh Boy.... Your in for it now! Been there done that, not the exact situation but still been there and done that.

Tim

 

[JimDawson]

You are sooooo screwed

 

[Ken from ontario]

I have never needed to deal with sump pumps in any of the homes we lived in , but if I had to depend on the pump so much, I would look for a fail safe system, unless there's no such thing for sump pumps.

 

[john.oliver35]

Tell her she is right, then go buy a generator that just happens to have a welder attached to it.

 

[RJSakowski]

The gravity drain in my basement is pretty well fail safe.

Barring that, some creative landscaping, possible trenching and/or a french drain will help tremendously. The upper foundation of our barn is below grade (the road was built up after after the barn was built, raising the elevation). When the barn was re-roofed, a new gutter was installed, cutting down on the water from the roof. I dug a ditch around the barn foundation to divert runoff from the road away from the barn. I actively remove snow from the upper side of the barn to minimize Spring thaw runoff. Where we used to have several inches of water in the lower barn, it is dry for the most part now.

 

[silence dogood]

First, don't argue with wife. Tear down shop, replace with boat where shop was. And put your tools in that. If it floods again, you could work (play) or go fishing in your boat. Then you got life good both ways.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Definitely get out in front of it. Catch her off guard and tell her she was right before she is aware of it. I have found it is the best way to disarm them.

 

[OldFatMan]

Generator with the welder attached is a really good idea. Can see it now. You were right- thank you dear. I bought “us” a welder/generator so you don’t have to think of everything all the time. We really are a great team.
44 years under the same management here and I still have my scalp cause I never think of these things on my own much. Let us know how it works out.