Day 4

Today is the fourth full day since January 28th, when ServiceMaster first arrived to begin helping us recover from our water disaster. Some progress continues to be made, though a bit more slowly. The insurance company is doing a good job of working with us, and we have reconstruction lined up and ready to go when we clear the drying stage.

Drying is not happening very fast in the living room or in the affected upstairs areas. This house has plaster walls, and with latex paint over plaster, the drying times can evidently be longer than with drywall. A decision was made this afternoon to demo most of the ceiling in the living room first thing Monday morning. Also, the head guy at ServiceMaster is now doubtful about saving the carpet, since he thinks the stains may be too severe and odors are starting to build. They will do test cleanings early next week to see what is possible.

This afternoon he removed six fans and one dehumidifier, all from the shop area. That part of the basement is quite dry now. The east half still has fans operating on it. He also slowed the speeds on the living room fans, and so we have a drop in noise level, though we are still very tired of the constant sounds. That will continue through the weekend.

Kathie and I have been cleaning, examining personal items, logging damaged items, and repacking and storing our possessions. I have the shop almost back to normal. I really don't mean to give it priority, but I do have to find out what is damaged, and at the moment, there is little I can do in the upper levels. In thoroughly going through things I have found a number of other tool accessories that will need to be replaced, but all-in-all, not too bad. I still have to unstack and sort out all the lumber that is too warped or damaged. That too can be claimed as a loss.

Thank you to all of our many friends who have called to wish us well and to express their sympathies. Two of Kathie's investment club members brought us a "care package" this afternoon. We are grateful to you all for everything from your good wishes, to care packages, to checking in on us, and to offering us places to escape from time to time. We even have an invitation to watch the Super Bowl in the peace and quiet of a friend's home.

Finally, for this Day 4 posting, let me share some additional "looking back" pictures. ServiceMaster just sent me the 60 pictures they took when they first arrived. No, I won't bore you with all of them, but here is a glimpse of what the first impressions were. (The ServiceMaster person who sent these to me is a Frink! I'm trying to learn if we are related!)

This shot from the outside is interesting because of the clearly visible water line on the brick facia. I could still see this several days later, though it is now only visible in the five or six layers of brick just above the ground. Notice the arc it has from just below the upstairs area where the break occurred in our bathroom.


This was an area of the living room ceiling that had originally been opened some years ago to repair the drain in our bathroom shower. Quite a lot of water probably came through here onto one of our best chairs. Also, the patching plaster that covered this square broke free and fell all over the chair and floor--see a later picture.


We think this is the heavily saturated carpet in the living room.


Water was beading on the ceiling and brought with it color from the floor joists. That discoloration continues on the ceiling and also on the carpet, perhaps bleeding both up and down.


Here is the bathroom where the problem began. They had pulled things out of the vanity storage area. The linoleum was eventually torn out to permit better drying of the subfloor.


Here is how my table saw looked. It looked worse by the time I got home. Lots of elbow grease and steel wool has gotten it back pretty much to normal, thank goodness.


Here is the lathe, which sits below the dining room. Quite a bit of stained water made its way into the dining room as well.


The drill press got its share, and its table will have to be replaced. It was only a month old! Also notice all the soaked, stacked wood.


Basement ceilings were very wet. This is the sheeting beneath living room and dining room floors.


In a line descending directly down below the ceiling hole in the first picture and the chair in the living room was an area containing lots of stored boxes of Christmas decorations, electric trains, and other important personal items.


This is the chair that sat directly below the patched ceiling area mentioned above. You can see how soaked it is and how much of the patching plaster got all over it.


Finally, here is a water-stained and now dead laptop computer.