A Wet Mess!

It's official - my least favorite month is November.  From here on out, I'd just like to skip it.  Last November did not end well for us, and well, this month is not off to a great start.

Let's just say we had our own little Hurricane Sandy experience at home yesterday. What started as an overflowing toilet, has flipped my life, and house, upside down. I was getting ready for work yesterday morning when I heard what sounded like the toilet running. Please note: this was no more than 2, maybe 3 minutes after just going to the bathroom. I rushed into the master bathroom to fiddle the toilet handle, when I found myself standing an a good inch of water. The toilet was not running -- it was overflowing, and at a very rapid pace. Little did I know anything about the emergency valve on the side of the toilet, so I did what anyone would do -- I called daddy! I was a frantic mess, and after about a minute of twisting and turning an emergency 'pull' valve, I got the water to stop. At this point, I was now running late and was hoping to get to the polls to vote before heading to work. My ever-so-kind mother just told me to throw towels on the floor to absorb the mess and to go to work, that she'd come over and clean the mess and wash the towels. 

I grabbed Easton and headed downstairs, only to find a nice surprise of water leaking from my recessed ceiling lights. Frantically, again, I called my parents, who remained calm, told me to put pots under the lights and to head to work -- dad was on his way!

I am now running nearly thirty minutes late, yet I dropped Easton off at daycare, and headed to the polls. After standing in line for nearly thirty-five minutes, it was clear that I wasn't going to make it work for my 9:30 meeting, so I called to inform work and swung back by home, where my mom was doing laundry. We cleaned up the mess in the bathroom and I was getting ready to head into work, when we noticed the carpet in the living room was wet, squishy wet. One thing lead to the next, and after taking a closer look, it was determined that the water traveled not only quickly, but randomly, and vigorously. Carpet, walls, ceiling, tile, wood floors, basement....all wet! It's seriously amazing the amount of damage 5 minutes of overflowing water can do. I'm grateful I realized the problem before I left the house!

Next thing I knew, I was on the phone with my insurance company, making a claim and obtaining numbers for restoration companies. Within 3 hours, an estimator was at my door, and within the hour, another two men arrived to test for water and to take a gazillion pictures. At this point, it was evident that the water had traveled the path with least resistance and affected all three stories of our house from top down. Once it had been determined where the water was, in came another crew of guys to start the mitigation, a.k.a. dry-out, process. By 6pm, my living room was turned upside down, carpet was pulled back in every affected room, plastic was draped from ceiling to floor and 12-15 fans and dehumidifiers lined my driveway.

So here we are, 24 hours later. The Restoration Company has wasted no time and is hard at work to get the place dry. They estimate a good 5 days for the dry-out, however after 24 hours of dry-time, they are optimistic about the damage and feel we are making great progress. Next week we will meet with the adjuster and will be able to get a better idea of what exactly we are talking about in terms of damage, and what the next steps are in terms of reconstruction.

Living Room

Master Bath and Guest Bath

In the meantime, we're shackin' up back at Tom and Carol's -- just like the good ol' days. Except this time, we have a toddler in tow. It's a good thing they love company - and Cooper!