Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Monday Monday....

Remember that great 1966 song by The Mamas and The Papas? I have always loved that song, but yesterday I embraced it, with my own minor lyric changes, below.

Monday Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Oh Monday mornin', Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee
That Monday evenin' my poor house would still dry be


Monday Monday, can't trust that day
Monday Monday, sometime it just turns out that way
Oh Monday mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be
Oh Monday Monday, my house did flood, unknown to me.

Every other day, (every other day)
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But when this Monday came, early in the afternoon
A-you can find me moppin' all of the time

Monday Monday, not good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
But Monday mornin', Monday mornin' was the last I'd see
My carpets dry, my ceiling firm, and woe is me

Every other day, (every other day)
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But when this Monday comes, this sad Monday comes
A-you can find me cryin' all of the time

Monday Monday, can't trust that day
Monday Monday, it just turns out that way
Oh Monday Monday, water won't go away
Monday Monday, it's here to stay
Oh Monday, Monday
Oh Monday, Monday

Yes, we had a flood. I walked into the kitchen after a couple hours of gardening and saw --


Water! Spraying! From that little aluminum box on the back of the fridge! That is where the water line for the ice maker connects. There was an inch of water all over the kitchen floor, and see where the copper tubing goes down through the baseboard? Yep, the water was running down that hole, and through the wall below into the basement living room (but I didn't know that until a few minutes later, when I slipped at the base of the stairs and splashed down in my brand new indoor pool).

I always experience a moment of paralysis when something shocking like this happens. The steps are obvious -- shut off the water, stop it from pouring down the hole, place buckets under the dripping light fixtures in the basement, and vacuum it up. Why then, did I pace back and forth across the kitchen three times while wringing my hands?!

I managed to call my home teacher who miraculously was home, and he brought over a wet vac. I had two, so I put Nathan to work with one, and I took the other downstairs. We had the water up off the floor in a couple of hours. But then the real fun began, for the water damage went farther than I originally thought. The insurance company referred us to a restoration company, Service Masters, who came Monday evening and began to measure moisture levels in walls and set up fans. They arrived at 7pm and left at 10:30. Really nice guys and seemed very competent and thorough.

Here are some pictures of what my house looked like after they left for the night.

The carpet in the hallway was soaked and the pad had to be removed. The big blue machine is a dehumidifier and the greenish-blue round one is a high powered fan--I have a dozen of these monstrous noisy things in my house.

The view from the top of the stairs. The blue tape arrows point to the part of the wall that is wet. On the left they have removed the tape from the drywall to permit air to circulate inside the wall.

From the bottom of the stairs.

View of the door leading to the stairs from the basement family room. The laminate flooring had to be ripped out.

Family room. Note the beautiful circa 1975 upholstery on that sofa. We have decided it is time to say goodbye to this gift from my parents. When it is time to reinstall the flooring, it will only be in the way, and we are planning to replace it later this summer, so now seems like a good time to send it to that big family room in the sky. If anyone wants a third hand, ugly, uncomfortable sofa with a king size hide-a-bed (aka The Rack), speak up now or forever count your blessings.

Basement hallway viewed from master bedroom door. Yep, all that flooring has to go too.

Basement office ceiling. Water was dripping from this light, thusly ruining both the flooring and the ceiling at the same time. The jury is still out on whether the ceiling can be saved.

Boy, am I grateful for small blessings like Homeowner's insurance.

9 comments:

  1. Yes it is tragic. But we get a new floor in the bathroom right? Also our house is always warm! And we are supplied with a never ending source of WHITE NOISE! Also I have spent just about one half hour surrounded by that blessing of ginormous fans and I can totally see how they would drain your energy throughout all of today. Also impair your hearing temporarily. I think we really should get a hotel for a week.

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  2. I think that you should live at my house. Also, I agree that the big fans are loud and annoying!!!

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  3. Oh my dear friend... Words escape me. (Which is rare! :) ) You said that the water was leaking into the office ceiling. Any chance on small blessings and that your hated computer got ruined and you will get a new one??? :) Good luck with everything!

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  4. Like Noahs flood...this too will pass and bring rainbows. I am sorry for your distress but once again your brilliant writing made me smile and chuckle a little. let me know if you need help. we leave on sunday and you can come live here :)

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  5. I am sorry to say that I can totally relate to this, as the toilet in our upstairs bathroom of our old house overflowed several times. The first flood was almost as bad as your flood and we experienced much of the same joyful things you are going through. Those fans are ridiculously loud. On the bright side this prepared me for what to do when my roof began to leak. After our first flood, I managed to be my own restoration specialist and avoided making too many claims on my home owners insurance. I just pulled the carpet back and removed the wet pad. We finally had to give in and get a new roof. We have also experienced floods in our new house. So far, we have managed to catch them early on and we have not had to tear up any flooring. Hey you already have good news, in that you get to get rid of your couch.

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  6. I am like deaf now. Those fans were so big that if you put a piece of paper by them it would fly down the hall and across the living room. You could Fly a kite With those things.

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  7. This is adding to my original post, 'cause dad wouldn't let me finish. I guess that is because it was eleven 'o clock P.M., but it is summer now!
    Also, no one will play settlers with me. Dang.

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  8. Also, Mrs. Patrick said that her springville neighbors went on a three week vacation cause the dad had a heart attack and the exact same pipe broke not on the first, but on the second day they were gone and it flooded the entire ground floor and then, so much water was on the floor that the floor on the ground floor fell, FELL into the basement. all the furniture was smashed, and the interior walls fell with the flor. the only thing that wasn't destroyed was the ceiling on the ground floor. Then the family comes home and they open the door and-

    THEIR FLOOR IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    The dad almost had another haert attack. Unlucky, Isn't it?

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  9. I am indeed grateful that I discovered the leak only two hours into it and not after three weeks, for having my floor collapse into the basement would be waaay worse than three days of fans.

    It has been determined that we must get new carpet upstairs (yay!) and new laminate flooring throughout the basement. Also they ended up cutting open a couple of walls to expedite the drying process, so there will be some wall repair and painting.

    Happily, all of this is covered by insurance, and so... now it is just a matter of time to get things back to normal.

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