When it Rains, it Pours....Literally
Over the last several weeks, we have had SO MUCH RAIN and it is affecting everything!!! Farmers have lost crops because they are drowning, people at work have been fighting water in their basements all week, phone lines have been down, and events have been cancelled due to flooding. Somehow, it has even managed to postpone our anniversary which was Thursday night. Josh and I had already decided that we would celebrate at home on Thursday since it was a work night and we would go out to dinner on Friday night. However, Thursday night ended up being the only night last week that it wasn’t pouring! Our grass had been growing like crazy due to all of the rain, so Josh decided that he needed to mow on our anniversary as that was his only chance. We weren’t celebrating that night anyway, right? Ok, so that ticked me off at first, but he was probably right; if he waited, he would not be able to get a mower through it. So, he mowed and we celebrated a little afterwards… I made some fun Mexican food and pina coladas to remind us of our honeymoon. We were still planning on going to a nice dinner the next night, but when we got home from work, there were tornado warnings on our path to the restaurant and by the time it cleared up, I decided we should just wait until the following weekend so we wouldn’t be so rushed and tired…
We also had big plans for Saturday, including city wide rummage sale day and a wedding to go to! However, I woke up at 6 am to torrential downpours. Hoping it would clear up, I started cleaning the house and going about my business. As I mentioned earlier, lots of people had started fighting water in their basements and were surprised that ours was still dry. Our basement seems to handle water very well, and we have never had a problem… until Saturday. At 7:45, I decided to just go down and take a look. There was a puddle of water under the pool table. Great… I went and woke Josh up and told him I was going to my parents to get the shop vac. Driving the 2 miles to my parents house took about 15 minutes due to the fact that there were rummage sale shoppers out in the POURING DOWN RAIN!!! There were cars everywhere-seriously people, do you really want to find a deal so bad that you are willing to get DRENCHED for it!?! One street I saw was literally closed because the water was as high as a car’s bumper. I have never seen so much water. As excited as I was about rummage sale day, there was no chance that I was venturing out in that, but whatever… Anyway, by the time I got back home, the water had spread all around the basement floor and was rising. It was coming up through our drain and through some old screw holes in the wall–they were spouting water like faucets! Josh and I were desperately trying to plug the holes but did not have much luck. They were too close to the floor to be able to put something under them to catch the water and there was no way the shop vac would make a dent in this mess. It was filled after 1 minute and would have to be taken upstairs to be emptied. I called my dad and he and mom came over. He said that it appeared that our sump pump was not working. Since we have a “dry” basement, who knows how many years it has been since it has had to do anything! He told Josh to go buy a portable sump pump and some plumber’s putty for the holes.
I went to my parents’ house while Josh went shopping because there was not much else I could do at that point. When I got to my parents, I made a mad dash for the garage through the rain in my flip flops. As soon as I hit the concrete, I slipped, flew up in the air, and fell flat on my back. Well, I would have been flat on my back had my left arm not somehow twisted and went behind me. So there I was, pregnant and laying in the mud and rain, knowing that my basement was flooding. I was starting to hate this day! Luckily, I was not seriously injured, just a little sore!
Josh picked me back up on his way home. When we got there, the entire basement was about 4 inches deep in water! He got the sump pump going while I started plugging holes. The water pressure was so strong that they kept busting back open, but we finally got them to stop. We lifted the washer and dryer onto wood blocks to hopefully avoid damage. We started getting other things off of the floor that had been in areas that we thought were fine… Josh picked up a plastic tub which contained his prized PEZ dispensers from the 80s that are still in their original cardboard packaging only to discover that there was a crack in the bottom of the tub and water had gotten in. We frantically took them upstairs to lay them out to dry. I know he was really upset and I felt awful for him. I went back down and found a box of baseball cards totally drenched. I started digging out my Christmas decorations. Most were in tubs, but I had one regular cardboard box. I put this on the dining room table. After I walked away, the box broke open because it was so wet, and my Santa Claus cookie jar fell to the floor, broke in half, and was floating in the water. This was when I about burst into tears-not because of the cookie jar-just because of everything. I was overwhelmed!
The water must have still been coming up through the drain because after 12 hours of siphoning a steady stream of water up a hose into our bathtub, there were still 4 inches of water in the basement! During this time, I went to the wedding without Josh so he could keep an eye on things. He cleaned out our gutters to make sure water was flowing as much away from the house as possible. We went to bed with the same amount of water in the basement as there had been that morning. However, we pleasantly woke up to a “dry” basement. By dry, I mean there was no standing water. Of course we needed to start cleaning but had to teach at church, so that had to wait a few hours.
After church, we got right to work. We used the shop vac to get as much of the water out of the carpet as possible (which was probably about 70 gallons!). Then, we moved everything off of the carpet, rolled it up, and took it to the backyard to dry. That may sound easier than it was. We have a pool table which weighs nearly 2000 lbs, plus the ping pong table, pinball machine, sectional, dining room table and chairs, Christmas decorations (including our Christmas tree), luggage, tubs of storage, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention that carpet is HEAVY! Josh and I barely moved it in ourselves when it was new and dry. When it is water logged, it is much heavier. Luckily one of our friends came over and helped with that part.
Right now, everything is still drying. Hopefully we don’t lose too much… I think the carpet is salvageable… at least the carpet that Josh and I bought. There was one room of old carpet that we are throwing out, but it was already kind of gross. We had to relight the pilot light on our water heater since it was covered in water. I just hope all of our appliances work and we can get it all put back together. I was so tired and sore last night that I wanted to cry…ok, I did cry… but I think it will all be ok. Through it all, I just kept thinking about how it could have been worse. So here are my “thankful” reflections from the crazy weekend:
1) I am thankful that Josh and I worked as a team to get this taken care of. These are the kind of situations where it is easy to snap on each other because of stress, but we actually kind of had fun together in between our sheer exhaustion.
2) I am thankful that it cleared up by the time of the wedding. As upset as I was about everything that was going on, I just kept thinking of the girl who was getting married and how bummed I would be if it was storming that bad on my wedding day. Luckily, the sun came out by 4:30, in time for her wedding.
3) I am thankful that Josh and I were not out of town for our anniversary! We usually go out of town but had decided to go later this summer. I am so glad we didn’t come home from a trip to find that mess!
4) I am thankful that I even thought to go to the basement and check as early as I did. Sometimes it will be days before we go down there for something.
5) I am thankful that we were only fighting inches of water. Lots of people were fighting FEET of water!
6) I am thankful I didn’t break my arm when I fell. I wouldn’t have been much help that way! I’m also thankful I fell on my back and not my stomach. I’m sure the baby would have been fine, but I would have worried like crazy!
7) I am thankful that city wide rummage sales have been postponed until next week so I can still go!
8) I am thankful that Josh looked in his tub and found his PEZ dispensers before they sat too long under water.
9) I am thankful that we don’t seem to have any major expenses as a result of this.
10) As cheesy as it may sound, I am thankful that we have a house to live in. As crazy as this weekend seemed, I had to think of how traumatic a housefire must feel… and am just thankful that in the scheme of things, this was a very minor catastrophe!
Over the last several weeks, we have had SO MUCH RAIN and it is affecting everything!!! Farmers have lost crops because they are drowning, people at work have been fighting water in their basements all week, phone lines have been down, and events have been cancelled due to flooding. Somehow, it has even managed to postpone our anniversary which was Thursday night. Josh and I had already decided that we would celebrate at home on Thursday since it was a work night and we would go out to dinner on Friday night. However, Thursday night ended up being the only night last week that it wasn’t pouring! Our grass had been growing like crazy due to all of the rain, so Josh decided that he needed to mow on our anniversary as that was his only chance. We weren’t celebrating that night anyway, right? Ok, so that ticked me off at first, but he was probably right; if he waited, he would not be able to get a mower through it. So, he mowed and we celebrated a little afterwards… I made some fun Mexican food and pina coladas to remind us of our honeymoon. We were still planning on going to a nice dinner the next night, but when we got home from work, there were tornado warnings on our path to the restaurant and by the time it cleared up, I decided we should just wait until the following weekend so we wouldn’t be so rushed and tired…
We also had big plans for Saturday, including city wide rummage sale day and a wedding to go to! However, I woke up at 6 am to torrential downpours. Hoping it would clear up, I started cleaning the house and going about my business. As I mentioned earlier, lots of people had started fighting water in their basements and were surprised that ours was still dry. Our basement seems to handle water very well, and we have never had a problem… until Saturday. At 7:45, I decided to just go down and take a look. There was a puddle of water under the pool table. Great… I went and woke Josh up and told him I was going to my parents to get the shop vac. Driving the 2 miles to my parents house took about 15 minutes due to the fact that there were rummage sale shoppers out in the POURING DOWN RAIN!!! There were cars everywhere-seriously people, do you really want to find a deal so bad that you are willing to get DRENCHED for it!?! One street I saw was literally closed because the water was as high as a car’s bumper. I have never seen so much water. As excited as I was about rummage sale day, there was no chance that I was venturing out in that, but whatever… Anyway, by the time I got back home, the water had spread all around the basement floor and was rising. It was coming up through our drain and through some old screw holes in the wall–they were spouting water like faucets! Josh and I were desperately trying to plug the holes but did not have much luck. They were too close to the floor to be able to put something under them to catch the water and there was no way the shop vac would make a dent in this mess. It was filled after 1 minute and would have to be taken upstairs to be emptied. I called my dad and he and mom came over. He said that it appeared that our sump pump was not working. Since we have a “dry” basement, who knows how many years it has been since it has had to do anything! He told Josh to go buy a portable sump pump and some plumber’s putty for the holes.
I went to my parents’ house while Josh went shopping because there was not much else I could do at that point. When I got to my parents, I made a mad dash for the garage through the rain in my flip flops. As soon as I hit the concrete, I slipped, flew up in the air, and fell flat on my back. Well, I would have been flat on my back had my left arm not somehow twisted and went behind me. So there I was, pregnant and laying in the mud and rain, knowing that my basement was flooding. I was starting to hate this day! Luckily, I was not seriously injured, just a little sore!
Josh picked me back up on his way home. When we got there, the entire basement was about 4 inches deep in water! He got the sump pump going while I started plugging holes. The water pressure was so strong that they kept busting back open, but we finally got them to stop. We lifted the washer and dryer onto wood blocks to hopefully avoid damage. We started getting other things off of the floor that had been in areas that we thought were fine… Josh picked up a plastic tub which contained his prized PEZ dispensers from the 80s that are still in their original cardboard packaging only to discover that there was a crack in the bottom of the tub and water had gotten in. We frantically took them upstairs to lay them out to dry. I know he was really upset and I felt awful for him. I went back down and found a box of baseball cards totally drenched. I started digging out my Christmas decorations. Most were in tubs, but I had one regular cardboard box. I put this on the dining room table. After I walked away, the box broke open because it was so wet, and my Santa Claus cookie jar fell to the floor, broke in half, and was floating in the water. This was when I about burst into tears-not because of the cookie jar-just because of everything. I was overwhelmed!
The water must have still been coming up through the drain because after 12 hours of siphoning a steady stream of water up a hose into our bathtub, there were still 4 inches of water in the basement! During this time, I went to the wedding without Josh so he could keep an eye on things. He cleaned out our gutters to make sure water was flowing as much away from the house as possible. We went to bed with the same amount of water in the basement as there had been that morning. However, we pleasantly woke up to a “dry” basement. By dry, I mean there was no standing water. Of course we needed to start cleaning but had to teach at church, so that had to wait a few hours.
After church, we got right to work. We used the shop vac to get as much of the water out of the carpet as possible (which was probably about 70 gallons!). Then, we moved everything off of the carpet, rolled it up, and took it to the backyard to dry. That may sound easier than it was. We have a pool table which weighs nearly 2000 lbs, plus the ping pong table, pinball machine, sectional, dining room table and chairs, Christmas decorations (including our Christmas tree), luggage, tubs of storage, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention that carpet is HEAVY! Josh and I barely moved it in ourselves when it was new and dry. When it is water logged, it is much heavier. Luckily one of our friends came over and helped with that part.
Right now, everything is still drying. Hopefully we don’t lose too much… I think the carpet is salvageable… at least the carpet that Josh and I bought. There was one room of old carpet that we are throwing out, but it was already kind of gross. We had to relight the pilot light on our water heater since it was covered in water. I just hope all of our appliances work and we can get it all put back together. I was so tired and sore last night that I wanted to cry…ok, I did cry… but I think it will all be ok. Through it all, I just kept thinking about how it could have been worse. So here are my “thankful” reflections from the crazy weekend:
1) I am thankful that Josh and I worked as a team to get this taken care of. These are the kind of situations where it is easy to snap on each other because of stress, but we actually kind of had fun together in between our sheer exhaustion.
2) I am thankful that it cleared up by the time of the wedding. As upset as I was about everything that was going on, I just kept thinking of the girl who was getting married and how bummed I would be if it was storming that bad on my wedding day. Luckily, the sun came out by 4:30, in time for her wedding.
3) I am thankful that Josh and I were not out of town for our anniversary! We usually go out of town but had decided to go later this summer. I am so glad we didn’t come home from a trip to find that mess!
4) I am thankful that I even thought to go to the basement and check as early as I did. Sometimes it will be days before we go down there for something.
5) I am thankful that we were only fighting inches of water. Lots of people were fighting FEET of water!
6) I am thankful I didn’t break my arm when I fell. I wouldn’t have been much help that way! I’m also thankful I fell on my back and not my stomach. I’m sure the baby would have been fine, but I would have worried like crazy!
7) I am thankful that city wide rummage sales have been postponed until next week so I can still go!
8) I am thankful that Josh looked in his tub and found his PEZ dispensers before they sat too long under water.
9) I am thankful that we don’t seem to have any major expenses as a result of this.
10) As cheesy as it may sound, I am thankful that we have a house to live in. As crazy as this weekend seemed, I had to think of how traumatic a housefire must feel… and am just thankful that in the scheme of things, this was a very minor catastrophe!
5 comments:
I hope you don't have stuff drying outside still--it looks like rain for tonight!
I can't believe this! What a nightmare! We had a similar thing happen in our house when I was in highschool - only we WERE out of town and it was not just water, it was sewage! Yuck! I am SO sorry! I'm glad to know you had a few things you could be thankful for in the midst of the craziness!
Umm.. you'd think I could remember your anniversary since it happens to be next to my birthday and all... :) Happy anniversary !!!
Hope you stay dry for a little while.
Hey, I was thinking of you guys last week--sorry you had such a crazy time! I can't wait to see you next weekend!
Hey, we had a somewhat similar but less tramatic circumstance when I was pregnant with Faith. We had a water pipe break in our basement. We came home from being gone for the days and I thought I heard a fan on downstairs-it was water rushing out of our pipes! We did the suck up water thing till one in the morning then had to get up for church 2. I will pray for you guys as you finish clean up.
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