Learning the Hard Way

(Warning: This is something of a "feel sorry for myself posting.)

I wish I could look back at that prior posting and still feel playful. Today has not been a good day. At about 10:00 this morning, while still in WI, we received a call from our valiant house cleaner to say that when she had arrive at our IA house to do her usual cleaning, there was water pouring into the living room. I immediately launched into helping her get to the basement to find the water shutoff valve, which she did and which she turned to the "OFF" position. Throughout our phone conversation, I was getting unsettling comments about the condition of our living room and basement and whether or not she would be able to clean. (I encouraged her to just leave things as they were and leave.) It turns out that a pipe had burst in the half bath in Kathie's and my bedroom. This is a pipe with which we had had previous trouble over the 18 years we have lived here, but it always recovered after we nursed it through any seriously cold spells while we were here. The problem is that we weren't here for the nursing, and it burst, evidently. This pipe is probably not installed to code, since it is very close to the overhang of our second story. (Indeed, it may be in the overhang of the second story. Anyway, it burst, I'm guessing on January 24th, when I understand the Iowa City temperatures dropped to something like 12 below. Today is the 28th, so water may have been spewing into our home here in IA for four days!

Kathie and I, in spite of a serious wish to veg out in WI at our lake home, knew that we should head for IA. First, we called ServiceMaster and asked them to go to our home to begin cleanup processes. (Later we learned from Rob that he would have chosen Steamatic, but by this time, it was too late. By the way, so far, ServiceMaster is doing OK.) We also called our favorite plumber, Muller Plumbing and Heating (note: Amber), to come out and repair whatever was wrong or to isolate the upstairs bathroom. Then we packed up and headed south for a quick (8 hour) trip home. To add to complications, Kathie has a bad cold, or possibly a flu, and the ride home was agonizing for her. She was a real trouper, though, and we got back at about 7PM, after several phone consults with ServiceMaster.

We are now back in IC, and we are endeavoring to get life back in order. As I write this, I must admit that I am under the influence of a stiff drink before bed, and so please ignore any typos or incomplete sentences or whatever.

When we arrived, we opened the back door and were greeted by a sound something like that of a ride in a commercial jetliner. The house is full of something like 15 dehumidifiers and fans that are attempting to dry the house out. Here is the "scene of the crime" where the pipe burst under the sink in our half bath. The linoleum in our bath had to be removed, and about 1/4 of the carpet in our bedroom is soaked. It could be worse.



Once the flooding began, the water flowed into our living room. Evidently, the entire north wall of the living room was saturated and spilling water into the living room. In addition, water spilled into the center of the living room from our shower area, probably destroying a favorite living room chair in the process. Now there are numerous fans and dehumidifers in there endeavoring to set things right, and there are lots of new holes in the walls and ceilings, which were introduced to allow water to exit.


From my biased point of view, the worst problem is my beloved woodworking shop. Once the water seeped into the basement from the living room, it spread out and effectively "rained" all over the basement. My shop seemed to take the worst hit. Power tools are rusting and wet. I'm going to have to spend all day tomorrow with steel wool and wax to try to maintain their integrity. Here is what things look like now. I'd be down there right now working, except that it is so incredibly humid that I can't make progress. Do you see the rusted table saw table and the rusted jointer/planer table? Yikes!!!


The things we had stored in the basement have gotten soaked, including Christmas decorations, my electric trains, and who know what else. Here is some of the damage.


All the way home from WI, we imagined the worst and kicked ourselves repeatedly (at least, I did) for not having taken precautionary steps. For example, we are extremely careful with the WI property to shut off the water when we aren't there and to take other steps to make sure that the home is safe. Why do we think we can leave the IA property and not do the same? Duh!!!!!!! Also, since this pipe had given us some minor problems in the past, why didn't we get it fixed much earlier??? Hindsight!!!!

Right now, the house is so humid, that you could start an Environmental Rainforest Project here. And I feel like I'm sitting in my window seat in a 737--the fans are something else.

I guess I'll just go to bed and hope that tomorrow is a better day. At least this isn't a health problem, and I still have a terrific set of kids and grandkids to make me smile! (By the way, thanks to Rob for stopping out when he was very busy at work to check on things for us while we were driving back!! You're the best, Rob!)