Water Water Everywhere

Well, I had thought that today's post would be about our wonderful trip to Oregon that we took last week. (We got home really late Saturday night.) Instead it's about water. Lots and lots of water. We have water everywhere, in our lights, on the carpet, in the walls, warping our linoleum. It's just everywhere.

We slipped back into our usual routine this morning. I drove Burke to work and then went to my spin class. Upon returning home, I opened the front door and heard water running. I panicked and ran into the house. The light fixture in our hallway and the one above our stairs were running water. I ran upstairs (we own a bottom floor condo with a main floor and a basement) and pounded on our upstairs neighbor's door. I must admit I pounded really hard as though I was being chased by a murderer, but I wanted them to stop the water. It turns out they had already stopped it. Their one year-old son had pulled out the pipe that goes from the floor to the toilet tank. It must have been an hour or more before they noticed. Their place is flooded, but most of the water ran down the walls into our place.

Poor DH. It was his first day back at work and they had planned all these meetings and things with him to catch up after being gone for a week. I called him, and when he didn't answer, I just kept calling. He was in a meeting with the VP, but when he saw I had called 4 times in a row, he took the call. My first words were, "The house is flooded." He tied up some loose ends and got a ride home. My mother came over also and they worked on cleaning up while I wrestled with insurance companies (there were 5 that needed to be contacted.) Our walls and ceilings were full with huge bubbles of water. DH poked one and about a gallon of water came out. We had to keep poking holes in our ceiling and walls to let out the water. Because the water was filling all the electrical equipment, we also had to turn off the electricity.

Our main floor had substantial damage, but it was nothing compared to the basement. The hallway, ceilings and walls were drenched. The linoleum at the bottom of the stairs got water under it and has started to warp. The walls are a joke. If you lean to hard on them you'll go right through.

While DH and my mother mopped up what they could, I tried to find out if we could call in disaster recovery or if we had to have an insurance person come out and assess the damage first. This took a great deal of wrangling. Whose insurance should pay? The upstairs neighbors are renters, but they have renters insurance. Thank heavens. They got it because it was only $9/month and having multiple policies dropped their car insurance by $20/month. And it turns out that the man who owns the condo DOESN'T HAVE INSURANCE!!!! I'm not one for passing judgment too often, but that's just stupid.

Anyway, I'll write about the insurance battle later. We eventually did call in disaster recovery and they just barely walked out the door. They've ripped out our carpets (every stitch of carpet in the house will need to be replaced) and are coming back to rip out the drywall tomorrow. They said the drywall alone will be $10,000. $10,000!!! I don't know what the limit of our neighbor's insurance is, but I hope it's higher than that. (It looks like they will cover us, but it's still a bit iffy. They acknowledge their son did it and as long as they are considered "negligent" by the insurance company, we will get covered.)

There have been several miracles though. First, is that it happened today -- our first full day back from vacation. If it had happened a few days ago, the whole house would have been ruined. It would have soaked into everything and molded. We would have lost everything. The second miracle is that the worst of everything is in the hallways, bathrooms, and stairs. Virtually no furniture was damaged, no photos, books, paintings, clothes, or anything of sentimental value. Given the extreme extent of the damage (the repair people were amazed at the amount of water in our basement) that is truly a blessing. Even my food storage room was totally flooded, but thanks to the way I store, nothing at all is lost. None of my year supply is lost even though it was totally flooded! That is truly a blessing. And another great miracle is that I have behaved myself as a true Christian. I've been calm and in good humor. As our neighbors apologized, I just said, "Don't worry about it, these things happen." And I really meant it. The husband from upstairs helped me set up a ladder so I could remove the running light fixture above the stairs and I thanked him as he left. He just said, "Why are you thanking me? This is our fault!" I was just glad he helped out. I think it helped lift their burden of guilt. I'm kind of normally more of a "freak out" person. Especially when it has the potential of being really expensive. But I've been calm and in good humor and hardly even had acid reflux over it -- which for me is saying something. My heart rate has been high, but I didn't really get my usual cool down at home after the gym and it has been rather busy.

We're spending the night at my parents' tonight. Our house is full of REALLY loud fans and de-humidifiers. I'm really grateful that we can do that. And I'm grateful that we didn't lose anything of great import. I attribute all of these blessings to the Lord. He has blessed us today far beyond what we deserve. I will work harder to be the better person that deserves such love and to show the gratitude for this gift.