Friday, January 10, 2014

Water, Water, Everywhere

I finally felt well enough to go to work yesterday, got up when the alarm went off, and swung my feet to the floor...the wet floor.  At first I thought the humidifier had leaked in the night but nope, too much water for that.  On my way to the bathroom, I found the hallway was filled with a whole lot of water.  Then I heard it, what sounded like a shower running full blast.  In my mind, I could envision a tub filled to overflowing, water running amok.

There is just an indescribable feeling you get when you wake up on a snowy morning and see that there is water in every room and massive amounts of it flowing from your ceiling. I moved pretty fast for a senior citizen, summoning both Kyle & Teelay who came and stared at it with me. I sent Kyle out to turn off the water to the house.  He had no clue what that was about but called Jason who gave some direction. Teelay and I started grabbing about two dozen towels and throwing them everywhere.  Since we didn't have any water, we just put them sopping wet into the washer on spin cycle and dried them as fast as possible for new duty.

I had to wait an hour before the insurance company opened, but they gave me a phone number for some cleanup people they recommend.  By eleven, two handy guys showed up.  I mainly tried to stay out of their way.  Interestingly enough, the one in charge was named Jason and his assistant was named Jared.  After about an hour and a half, this Jason came out to say it wasn't a frozen water pipe as we had all supposed but was from a broken PLASTIC water valve that supplies water to the toilet.  We hadn't noticed that it was shooting up in all the falling down and by the time we had any senses about us, the water had been turned off.  I wouldn't have thought we had such water pressure anywhere in the house anyway.

They could only do so much since they had to send the flooring and a ceiling sample out to the lab for any asbestos and mold analysis.  They will have those results tomorrow.  My Jason came over after work; we went to Lowe's and bought a whole new valve replacement for less than $5.  The plumber said he could do it for $98.  I gave Jason $10 and everybody was happy but the plumber.

What they did accomplish was tearing up all the floors in two bedrooms, the bathroom, the hallway and the living room.  Those will all have to be replaced, along with possibly two walls, one ceiling, and for sure the vanity which got waterlogged.  They left me with 8 horrendously LOUD gigantic fans, one gigantic dehumidifier and a promise to get in touch me tomorrow with some totals.  Thankfully, the insurance deductible is $500 so I am pretty happy, if inconvenienced.  It will take 2-3 weeks (actually took about six months because we all but rebuilt half the house) but will be worth it when it's done.  Right now we are dealing with the smell of wet but are glad to be warm and safe and have running water in the house (not from the house) again, one of life's finest pleasures!

I do not like it, Sam I Am.
I do not like it with a pan.
I do not like it with a fan.
I do not like it, Sam I Am.
I do not like the cold, wet floor
That reaches almost to the door.
I'm in a pickle,
In a jam.
I do not like it, Sam I Am!