Flooding Is Not My Friend (Part 1)

Also known as: Why My Week Has Officially Sucked (Part 1)


I was able to take Friday off work last week, head to Kentucky for a couple days, and just relax a little. I had Coldplay tickets for Saturday and spent most of Sunday at the pool. It was absolutely a much needed weekend.

I was looking forward to walking into work Monday morning with a much lighter work load and a better attitude. That was definitely not the case.

As soon as I got to work my laptop wouldn't boot up. Apparently over the weekend, something in it knew that it had been worked to death and couldn't go on. So, they had to bring me a temporary computer to work from until they could get mine fixed. In the three hours it took to get a temp to me, I started making a mental list of everything I didn't back up on the network. That 13 page spreadsheet I spent hours updating. Those emails that were too big for my Outlook. The list went on and on. OUCH. We'll chalk that up to lessons learned the hard way.

Tuesday I had some things I wanted to take care of in the afternoon and got permission to leave work early. I was planning on heading out around 2ish. I was still at work at 3:30 putting out fires. I was finally able to leave only getting a call 20 mins later saying that something HAD to be taken care of. So much for a mental health break.

Tuesday night, I got home around 9:30. I was catching up with an old college roommate and I believe I was talking about how I've been in desperate need of a vacation when I heard gushing water. I walked to the kitchen to see water running toward me by the gallon. I turned off the washer and it immediately stopped...but by that time it had already engulfed the small utility room/pantry where the washer and dryer reside and was creeping through the kitchen towards the dining room. I grabbed some dish towels and threw them down so the water would be stopped before it reached the hardwood. I ran to the bedroom and grabbed all the towels that I could find in a matter of .2 seconds. I ran back to the kitchen and thew them all down. I'm not incredibly sure where the logic in that was. There were about seven towels, but about an inch of water had already taken up residence throughout the kitchen. At that point, I grabbed the garbage can and took the trash bag out and slung it into the other room. And at a pretty rapid pace started wringing wet towels out into the trash can. About an hour and a half later, my hand were completely rubbed raw, but I could finally see progress. I called a friend to come help move the fridge and stove to get underneath to make sure all the water was up. I left no spot unturned. My friend left and I finally finished cleaning up around midnight.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I figured out that the drain that drains the washer was clogged. So the washer still had a load of clothes and a full washing machine of water. I decided to wring the clothes out as best as I could and put them in the dryer. I started wringing things out and came across my bathing suit. I didn't want to dry it so I took it into hang in the guest bathroom so if it dripped, it would drip in the bathtub (instead of on my floor if I'd hung it on my drying rack). As soon as I stepped on the rug in the bathroom, I realized that all the water was defintely NOT cleaned up. It had seeped through the wall and into the front part of my guest bathroom.

I grabbed the sopping rug and threw it in the bathtub. I turned around to see what other damage there was.

I stepped out in the hallway.

Then, I cussed.

I could see water in the hallway...on the hardwood floor. I got down on all fours to examine it. As soon as I put pressure on it, water came popping up out of the seams between the boards.

Now let me just say that by this time, I was completely over this whole fiasco. I'd spent the last three hours wringing out beach towels full of water. I was exhausted. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally.

I got the water up the best I could, but I could already tell that there was definite damage to the hardwood and a lot of it would have to be replaced.

I haven't been a homeowner for long. And being a condo owner, I wasn't incredibly sure what was covered and what wasn't. So I prayed. A LOT. That somehow it would all work out and I wouldn't have to pay for it.

I feel like the rest of the story deserves it's own blog. I'll give you a little tease of what you can look forward to:

Waking up to warped boards in the hallway

Arthur the plumber

Crying in my new bosses office

Trying to find a dehumidifier

Working it all out


Let's just say that this week has been ROUGH!

And this post only covers Monday and Tuesday.