Last Monday -- Encore

I spoke too soon. The hurricane of sound is about to return.

DH and I have been staying at my parents' house since it's just too dusty and smelly to be staying at our home. But we came here tonight to find a good photo of me (quite the task indeed) to include with an autobiography that I am required to submit to the MBA program. (Really, I don't think of myself of terribly bad looking, but I'm not photogenic in the least.) So anyway, we're sitting on our couch going through photos when we hear our upstairs neighbor turn on the bathtub water. Concurrently we hear water splashing in our bathroom. I wish we'd had a camera at that moment because as we looked at each other, our expressions were priceless. We looked at each other in stunned horror then quickly set down the laptops we had on our laps and ran into the bathroom.

At first we couldn't see anything leaking and thought we had just imagined it. Then I looked down by the toilet and there was water all around it. I felt sick. I thought that our toilet must be leaking and this was clearly then our responsibility. I'm already nervous about the expense we'll have to bear for repairing everything else, and the thought of replacing a toilet and having to dry out everything again on our dime was painful. But then DH noticed that there was water splashed all over the top of the toilet. Huh? As we looked around we saw that from the holes the emergency clean up crew had drilled into our drywall above the toilet, water was running out. It had bubbled the paint and splashed out onto the toilet. The drywall was soaking wet. DH just put his finger through the hole and pulled. The wall came out easily revealing two huge holes drilled in the bathtub drain of our neighbors. When the crew punched the holes in our wall, they went right through the drain as well. Since Monday night, every time they've taken a bath or bathed their son it has been draining right into our wall.

I am so grateful that we were here at the moment they were running water down the drain or I don't know when it would have been caught! *sigh* But that probably means more holes punched and more loud fans. Hopefully, they won't need to bring in the dehumidifier. Those are REALLY loud. I had called our repair company earlier today and told them we had a mildew smell. She assured me that anti-microbial stuff had been sprayed on everything and we couldn't have mildew or anything molding. Which, assuming that there aren't two huge holes punctured in the drain pipe, she was right. We've been smelling their bathwater sitting in our walls.

At least we discovered it now. They can't begin repairs until all the appraisals are done, which won't happen until Thursday at the very earliest. So this means that they can get it drying and ready for repairs in time to not set anything back. I really am full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the support and tender mercies that are occurring with all of this. It could have been so much worse.