Let me preface this blog by saying that my current irritations are absolutely nothing compared to the heartache and tragedy going on in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or other parts of the Midwest that have had such horrible flooding and storms. I am aware that by comparison everything that's happened in the last few days is a drop in the bucket, is of no real consequence, and will resolve so much faster than what others are going through.
Having said all that: We got a significant amount of water in our basement last Friday. Did you know last Friday was the 13th? Isn't that hilarious and ironic? Can you sense the joy as I type that?
We have a creek behind our house. It's pretty far behind our house. We have a big yard, a fence, then some railroad tracks, then the creek. Our house actually sits on a bit of an incline, too, so water isn't something we worry about too often. Regardless, the creek flooded halfway up into our yard, covering our fire pit, leaving about six inches of standing water in our shed, and causing water to back up through the downstairs toilet and the shower drain and into our finished basement.
We were in the basement around midnight trying to find the plugs for all the drains and the toilet. As I was standing in the bathroom, I heard the toilet do a loverly *glug glug glug* sound, and realized we were in trouble. We got the plugs all in and unplugged all electronics and moved them to higher ground and went to bed. There was nothing else we could do.
Brian got up in the morning and went downstairs. When his foot hit the carpet, water squished up and splashed all over his foot. Nice. It was a mess. Our tiny shop vac wasn't doing the trick for sucking the water up. Naturally, all Rug Doctors in town were rented, so I went to Target and bought a carpet cleaner. It's something we had meant to do anyway, so we figured oh well, no biggie.
When I got back from Target, Brian informed me that he had hurt his back while tyring to shop vac the basement. Awesome. I felt so bad for him. So I went to work on the basement with the new carpet cleaner, which did an awesome job, but still took two hours for just the tiny hallway by the bathroom, and it was still soaked after that. We did the best we could on Friday.
Saturday I had to get my hair cut, so Brian got up to mow the grass. When I got home the front hadn't been mowed, which is fine with me, but it was weird. I walked in the door at 11:30 and Brian was having a beer. He then informed me the reason he was having a beer was that there was so much water in the shed that it soaked the air filter on the mower and he couldn't push mow the front yard. So he came in to work on the basement, turned on the carpet cleaner, and it made a horrible noise. Turns out running it for so long had melted something that turns the brushes. He fixed it so it still sucks up water, but it doesn't clean carpets, which sucks, because that's half the reason we bought it.
Okay, so the basement started to dry out. We had the dehumidifier running nonstop. The entire house REEKS, but that's the least of our problems. Then on Wednesday Brian got up and was in the shower, and called out, "Cort, I don't have any hot water." Hmmmm. I realized that the day before my shower had been pretty much luke warm, but I had forgotten about it because of everything else. Turns out, our water heater -- which we just installed in April -- wasn't working.
My dad came over and replaced the thermocouple, which he and Brian both agreed was the problem, and that helped for a while. Brian had a nice warm shower that night. Thursday I got up looking so forward to a steaming hot shower or bath. I jumped in, ICE COLD. Awesome.
So I called Whirlpool and got them to activate our warranty. They sent a repairman out -- who was supposed to be here between 8 and 5 today. So specific -- who said it was the gas valve. Cool. But he has to order one. Not cool. It's going to take a week. A WEEK WITHOUT HOT WATER, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!?? is what I screamed inside my head. But I just smiled at the nice repairman, who wasn't responsible for any of this mess and who could do nothing else, and said okay. Then I cried a little, 'cause I feel like my house might collapse on top of me any second (which is clearly an exaggeration, but roll with me here).
Then I called Lowe's, which is where we bought the water heater, and told them the situation. They said we could exchange it, but we had to unhook the whole thing and bring it in. So Brian went over there and got the new one, and tomorrow, after our family all comes over to have a fabulous beer and carpet ripping-out party, we will hook up the new water heater. The second one this year.
And before you ask, yes, this is all completely unrelated to the flooded basement. Just a coincidence. A lovely trick the universe is playing because it has such a fabulous sense of humor. If you need me I'll be the one laughing like a lunatic while I pick out and pay for my five bottles of red wine at the grocery store. Tata!
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1 comment:
AAAAAGH. I feel your frustration. I saw your MSN post and I'm glad your showers are warm and your house smells better.
My friend had the water main to her house break, and it took almost two weeks to get fixed, partly because it was a holiday weekend, and partly because One Call took forever to come out and mark the underground stuff for the water guys to dig.
Her source of water for two weeks was a hose hookup from her neighbor's house. Not wanting to take advantage, they strictly used it for bathing, cooking, and drinking.
Oh, and she's an anal-retentive clean freak, so not deep cleaning her house (occupants including herself, spouse, three children, and two slobbery mastiffs) for two weeks nearly drove her insane.
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