Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Flood!

The first week of March was CRAZY.

Monday: I had just gone to the gym, came back, went to turn on Toy Story for Tucker so he could watch that while I took a shower when I noticed some sloshiness around my feet as I was just about to head back up the stairs. Oh boy. Not good. Called Gary. Gary came home to check out the mess. We moved all the stuff out of the way of the flood. It was a slow leak and we could not for the life of us figure out where it was coming from. So we took a hammer to our sheet rock, so we could see behind the wall if there was any source of water. Cause if all we had to repair was sheet rock, that would be an easier fix than calling our insurance and paying a $500 deductible. But to our wall's sacrifice, we found nothing.

It had rained over the weekend, so we thought maybe it was from that. We turned our water on and off, checking to see if it made anything stop or go. Finally at a loss of what to do, we call the insurance company. They sent out another company to clean out all the water and dry things up. This guy can only really tell me where our floor is wet--he was not there to tell us where it is coming from although he tried to figure it out. Then he says, "Most insurance companies don't cover it if it is an outside source of water coming in." Great (sarcasm). Because that is what it was looking like at this point. I tried to call the claims adjustor and no answer, but we were basically planning on canceling the claim. So how much are we going to have to pay this guy if we cancel our claim? $160 just for coming. Then about $500 to dry everything up. Well, we weren't going to pay $500 for something that we could do by renting big industrial fans for $20 a day each. So then we had to pay a cancelation fee of $60 so the guy would leave.

Darrell came by to check things out, and we all decided that it didn't look like it was getting worse. After we pulled up our carpets and rented stuff to dry out the place, Gary said he'd turn the water back on so I could finally shower. So we turned the water back on and then we saw the leak since the carpet is up. Yup. No shower for me yet at this point.
Finally after cutting some (more) sheet rock, Darrell found where the leak was coming from. He and Gary went outside and dug a huge hole in front of our house. A big, deep, hole.


They found the leaky pipe and fix it. But there is another leak! It's like 9:30 or 10:00 by now and no more time or light to fix it. So were without water till the next day. Tucker was already in bed, and Gina and Darrell said we could shower at their house, but we'd have to take shifts since Tucker was already asleep.

Basically I had given up on taking a shower, when Gary all of a sudden asked when our gym closed. Our gym is not even 5 minutes away. It was 10:30 and the gym closed at 11:00. So Gary went first and then I was off  like a homeless girl sneaking into the gym for a shower.

The next evening we got everything fixed! Here's Tucker and Gary filling in the hole.


Hooray for water that I never realized how much I loved!

That weekend we got all the sheetrock fixed and painted, new padding put in and the carpet re-stretched, and most important of all, we don't look like we belong in an episode of hoarders anymore!

And who knew that Tucker knew how to drill screws into our wall?! He seriously did this by himself. He would put the screw on the drill and stick it to the wall and push the button. I kind of just let him because I wondered if he could. Yup. He can. Gotta hide the tools.

Apparently he was watching his daddy very closely as he was fixing the sheetrock. 
I gave Tucker a clean roller to "help" paint.

7 comments:

Elena Loo said...

Man, what a mess! Good job finding the leak and fixing it all by yourselves! I'm super impressed! You guys are awesome. Tucker is so dang cute! I can't believe he drilled that screw in! Holy moly! :)
Love you lots! Miss you!

The Jones Family said...

Wow! That's nuts! I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that, although I have to say that it is such a blessing that you have good friends and know how to do that stuff yourself. You guys are awesome! And hey, if you can't fix it, apparently Tucker can! :)

*Aliese* said...

How awful! We've had two flood issues with our house and it's just never fun. At all. Glad things are back to normal though! Oh, and Tucker looks stinkin' cute with his drill and screws.

.. said...

Aw, that sucks! But so glad you got it fixed! It could have been REALLY bad if you didn't!

Sandy said...

Love that Tucker is the family repair man... Nate was much the same way. Boys are funny, I wonder if girls are the same way?

Rachelle said...

Oh geez...You are so much more calm than I would ever be if something like this happened to us! BLAH!!!
I think it is HILARIOUS that you let Tucker screw nails into the wall "just to see if he could" - that is awesome!!! I cant believe he reall could...that is impressive.

Jessica Peterson said...

that's crazy! glad everything was able to be fixed. we're dealing with an electrical problem in our garage. not fun at all when things don't go right!