Well

Before we put an offer on this place, we sought out and contacted the couple who had lived here the 17 years before the fly-by-night folks that were listing it for sale. Amidst the information we received was that they had "never had any trouble with the well." We knew that the owners at the time had replaced the well pump. That wasn't too surprising since it was 40 years old. We thought it was one less thing for us to worry about. We had a comprehensive water test done, and the quality was better than the water co-op to which we belonged at the time. We thought we were good (as long as the nearby quarry didn't mess with the water table.)

As it turns out, the contractor the previous owners hired to replace the pump broke the bolts off of the well cap when they removed it. So when they were finished, they just covered the top of the hole with the rubber seal... and covered it back up. Yup, the well head is buried. I'm sure the gentleman who built this home designed it that way so that there was no unsightly pipe in the front yard. The down side was that when the submersible pump failed, the well had to be unearthed. Digging it up every 40 years is probably not too unreasonable. It's not too deep.

Since the cap was not replaced and the well left unsealed, we of course ended up with water issues after a time. I noticed them a few weeks ago when we had some torrential rains in a short amount of time. Although the water tested positive for E. coli initially, a second water test (before doing anything) came up clear for E. coli. That's impossible if we had actually had a contamination before. Maybe our initial sample jar was contaminated?

I'll spare you the details, but we had a trusted well guy unearth the well and add a pitless adaptor. Cha-CHING! That was pricey. So now we have the muddy path from the new sewer line in the back yard, and the muddy patch from the well extension in the in the front yard. At least they match, right? Well, except for that big ugly pipe that now sticks out above ground. We'll see what the next water test turns up before we do anything else. And we'll have a DIFFERENT lab test it. 

Oh, and I learned the the pump is 350 feet down. That's great news. The well man was impressed by the depth. And who knows how much deeper the well is?!