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Swear word #1: 5:00 a.m. this morning (Robert had just left for work at 4:30): Jordan comes running up from her bedroom (in the dungeon basement) and wakes me from my visit with Sharon. (I was holding one of her babies and she had moved far away and it took me so long to get there.) "Mom, there is water POURING into the basement and it is all the way into my room."
What the @%*@&?!?!?
I jump out of bed and run down stairs to see what looks like a burst pipe literally spraying water EVERYWHERE!
I have no idea where the shut off valve is, so I run to grab the phone, not having any idea of who to call. As I am dialing an unknown number (my family is in trouble when there is a real disaster!), Jordan informs me that she found the culprit...
Swear word #2: ROBERT!!!!
I grab the plunger and lift up the stuck handle, to stop the CONSTANT flow of water pouring
out onto the floor. For at least 30 minutes water had been entering the basement anyway that it could find, including but not limited to the heat vent!
out onto the floor. For at least 30 minutes water had been entering the basement anyway that it could find, including but not limited to the heat vent!
I go back down stairs to assess the damage and find a mess from H. E. double toothpicks!
Not only is water all over the floor and entering the rooms and getting all of our boxes of stuff wet, it is dripping from the ceiling all over it as well. I tell Jordan to turn off the furnace because I think it is entering the furnace too.
Swear word #3: Call to Rob's work: "Rob you left me with a mess I DON'T know what to do with!"
Rob: What do you want me to do? Do you need me to come home?
Me: No. I will try to work on it until you get home this afternoon.
Swear word #4,5,6,7,8: I wade through ice cold water to get the wet vac and try to find a place to plug it in. Kinda scary when you are standing in water.
With Jordan's help, 30 trips up the stairs and one half a bathtub full of removed water later, Rob calls to see how the progress is going.
Me: We are still doing ok but can you bring some new boxes home when you come? We will need some.
Swear word #9: It is 60 degrees in the house and the furnace in fact does have water in it, and will not work. I am chilled to the bone and welcome Rob's call that he is coming home to help me. I take back one of my swear words. Rob opens the furnace and uses the blow dryer to try and dry it out. No luck.
Swear word #10: I have to break down and call the service repair man and that is like pulling teeth with me. He comes a couple of hours later and replaces a part and turns it on.
Swear word #11: The smoke alarm in the kid's room starts blaring. I run in there and start looking for smoke. None. The SMELL of the wet heat vents is rampant and is determined to be the cause of the alarms. I go back and check in with the repair man as he is pulling out the motor and other various parts to clear out more water. More mental swear words.
Swear word #?: There is a PILE of garbage that is piled up on the porch from our excavation through the water soaked debree, that I don't know what to do with. Time to call in the troops. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Smith for helping to haul away the mess!
The rest of my swear word savings: The repair man tries the furnace again and all the smoke alarms in the whole house go off. I am hoping he knows what he is doing. All I can think about is the house that blew up last year in Saratoga Springs. As Jordan and I are praying to the smoke alarms, the repair man hands me the bill.
Swear words from my reserves: Over one and a half hundred dollars later, the repair man was gone, the heater was warming us up one more time, the majority of the water is removed, the salvageable items were reboxed and the floor was drying.
Now, was that as agonizing for you as it was for me?
A special thanks goes out to the following:
Jordan! She is really the hero in this saga! Any more time lapse and I would have been throwing out much of mom and dad's storage as well...
Rob! He has helped me appreciate all the mornings I didn't have to get up and play around in ice cold water and what not! But most of all for coming home and helping with the overwhelming project. He also ran to 4-D plumbing and got a new part for the toilet so that would NEVER happen again!
Grand Smiths! For jumping up that early in the morning and hauling all the damage away.
The repair man! As hard as it was to dish out that much money especially right after Christmas, I would never have been able to do what he did. The first minute the alarms went off, I would have been calling (or trying to call) 9/11 to come and save my family from an imminent explosion!
All the kids for hauling stuff up stairs and keeping the rest of the house under control!
And last but surely not least, to the divine intervention that kept this situation from being even worse! I truly believe that He kept that water from finding its way to my parent's things. I know this because it went EVERYWHERE else. So yes I am VERY grateful!
Rob: What do you want me to do? Do you need me to come home?
Me: No. I will try to work on it until you get home this afternoon.
Swear word #4,5,6,7,8: I wade through ice cold water to get the wet vac and try to find a place to plug it in. Kinda scary when you are standing in water.
With Jordan's help, 30 trips up the stairs and one half a bathtub full of removed water later, Rob calls to see how the progress is going.
Me: We are still doing ok but can you bring some new boxes home when you come? We will need some.
Swear word #9: It is 60 degrees in the house and the furnace in fact does have water in it, and will not work. I am chilled to the bone and welcome Rob's call that he is coming home to help me. I take back one of my swear words. Rob opens the furnace and uses the blow dryer to try and dry it out. No luck.
Swear word #10: I have to break down and call the service repair man and that is like pulling teeth with me. He comes a couple of hours later and replaces a part and turns it on.
Swear word #11: The smoke alarm in the kid's room starts blaring. I run in there and start looking for smoke. None. The SMELL of the wet heat vents is rampant and is determined to be the cause of the alarms. I go back and check in with the repair man as he is pulling out the motor and other various parts to clear out more water. More mental swear words.
Swear word #?: There is a PILE of garbage that is piled up on the porch from our excavation through the water soaked debree, that I don't know what to do with. Time to call in the troops. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Smith for helping to haul away the mess!
The rest of my swear word savings: The repair man tries the furnace again and all the smoke alarms in the whole house go off. I am hoping he knows what he is doing. All I can think about is the house that blew up last year in Saratoga Springs. As Jordan and I are praying to the smoke alarms, the repair man hands me the bill.
Swear words from my reserves: Over one and a half hundred dollars later, the repair man was gone, the heater was warming us up one more time, the majority of the water is removed, the salvageable items were reboxed and the floor was drying.
Now, was that as agonizing for you as it was for me?
A special thanks goes out to the following:
Jordan! She is really the hero in this saga! Any more time lapse and I would have been throwing out much of mom and dad's storage as well...
Rob! He has helped me appreciate all the mornings I didn't have to get up and play around in ice cold water and what not! But most of all for coming home and helping with the overwhelming project. He also ran to 4-D plumbing and got a new part for the toilet so that would NEVER happen again!
Grand Smiths! For jumping up that early in the morning and hauling all the damage away.
The repair man! As hard as it was to dish out that much money especially right after Christmas, I would never have been able to do what he did. The first minute the alarms went off, I would have been calling (or trying to call) 9/11 to come and save my family from an imminent explosion!
All the kids for hauling stuff up stairs and keeping the rest of the house under control!
And last but surely not least, to the divine intervention that kept this situation from being even worse! I truly believe that He kept that water from finding its way to my parent's things. I know this because it went EVERYWHERE else. So yes I am VERY grateful!
13 comments:
Oh, wow, Bon! What a nightmare, to say the least!!! I'm so sorry that happened. How awful! I think I could forgive you for the swear words this time!!! ;-) You're good, though; I would have probably told my hubby to come home; you actually braved it yourself until he decided to on his own anyway. I probably would have screamed, cried, run away... I don't know.
I'm glad you didn't drown, get electrocuted, or freeze to death! I would have missed out on this whole story! ;-) Okay, that and I'd miss you. Besides, what would your family do without you? Honestly, though, I can't believe you actually plugged something in while standing in water like that. You're nuts! I'm glad you lived to tell about it! Good luck with it all.
Love y'all! :-)
I will give you the swear words I've been saving in my cursing account. I think everyone else should pitch in too, especially Tami who has never used any of hers. We hope you never have to use them, but the dungeon is kind of old--just consider is swear insurance for a rainy or toilet overflowing day. You are a true champ!
change the is to it. thanks
My goodness Bonnie! The only thing I can think to say is "It sucks to be you!!"
Cory
Thanks Cory! I can't imagine it would be too fun for you to be me! :)
Do I detect any sympathy there?
Bon, you have all the sympathy from me. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It does bring back some not so good memories for me of backed up sewer. Oy! You're a trooper. So, uh, you should check on homeowners insurance and see if you can't replace some of things you lost, not to mention new floors and walls.
I am curious how much damage did it really do? What all did you lose?
Maybe all the black widows are gone now...
PS
I would give you my leftover swear words, but there arent many left. I will probably need them. I am with Pip though, Im thinkin Tammy has plenty to give away. I assume she would gladly share!
Oops,
Tami, not Tammy- Maybe its best to stick with Tamster.
Tami,
Thank goodness the things we lost,(computer equipment, books, movies, some food,etc.) were nothing that can't be replaced. Considering that a lot of memorabilia was among the flood damaged stuff, we did not lose it. Because I was able to get right down there and because Rob was able to come home, most of the stuff thrown out was the water soaked boxes-a whole trailer and truck full of them. The most costly thing was the furnace and Rob's time off work.
Sharon, the water coming from the toilet was not from the sewer thank goodness!
Shellie, the water was not high enough to get all the black widows. I'll borrow one of Tami's swear words for that.?.?.? (That the black widows are still there.)
Shauna, I had the same thought, Bonneville Mariner would be a great new name. Now why didn't I think of that?!?!?!
I do have sympathy for you. That was just my first thought, and Sharon said that I needed to post it. She was laughing and encouraging me when I posted my rude comment. So it's all her fault!!
Cory
It seems that all are in agreement. I concur! You can have my stash, as I will not likely be needing them--well, maybe needing them, but not using them!
Just for future reference, does it count if you think it but don't say it? Not that I have, mind you. Just want to know in case it ever comes up. :-)
You are welcome to them, Bon! Especially in this case.
I am glad you didn't lose anything irreplaceable, but it still stinks, regardless.
Love you!
Happy New Year!
:-)
Tami
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