As I was fixing dinner tonight, Paint boy noticed B; the 16 year old from next door, running up and down the street.
Just as we were sitting down to eat the doorbell rings. It's B, and he is totally rattled.
B-"Mr. Paint boy, um, there is water coming out of the ceiling. Could you come look?"
Pb- "Dude, where are your parents?"
B- "They are out on their walk and I need help NOW."
Paint boy runs up to their house and I grab all the beach towels from the linen closet.
As I walk into their house, I can hear rushing water. I mean Niagara Falls. I send the boys back to my house for buckets and I start moving furniture and emptying the room.. .
Paint boy turns the water off in the Master bath and the power to the whole house. (One of the pipes broke under the double sink.)
The water is rushing out of the vents, coming through the chandelier and all the seams in the drywall ceiling were dripping. I have never seen anything like it.
About this time the parents get back. They freak out. The mom is in tears and the dad freezes. I try to talk them off the ledge with terms like,"redecorate, new furniture, new carpet..." It was just too much for her, she wasn't listening to anything but the rushing water.
About 2 hours after the waterfall started, we were down to a slow drip. (Do you understand that Paintboy turned off the water and for 2 hours water came out of the ceiling! How long had it been broken and pouring into the master bath to continue to run for two hours out of the ceiling?) They had finally gotten in touch with a water damage company and help was on the way.
B came to our house for a shower, since a teenage boy needs light to shower. Mom and Dad are staying home from work tomorrow to deal with all the chaos involved with insurance and repair people.
I mentioned to Paint boy that I need a new dining room table and if I should be so lucky as to have a leak, I would let the water sit on the table to warp it. Of course, in all his wisdom he pointed out, that we have a bedroom over our dining room and if our master had a leak; I would be getting a new family room. Semantics!
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6 comments:
my father in law tried to fix our powder-room toilet awhile back.. the handle was broken and he got in there.. doing his thing. well, unaware of his magic touch, the tube inside the tank came disconnected.. it was shooting water out all night. we woke up to a flooded bathroom. ..water dripping into the basement. nice. calls were made to the water damage company.. and after making calls to the insurance company, etc.. we realized our deductible needed to ..um.. be changed. it wasnt "set up" correctly. $2500 dollars later..
This same thing happened to a neighbor, (master bath,pipe to sink) only it was the wed before Thanksgiving and they left town. For FOUR DAYS! Being a holiday no one noticed water coming out the front door. They literally lost their house. All the kitchen cabinents fell off the walls, dishes broken, it was like a rainforest in there. Everything covered in mold. Kids stuff posted to fridge covered in green fuzz. The house sat empty for months to dry after the initial clean up. It was then gutted to the studs. (It was the hot water pipe that broke) Thank god the son was home!
OK, check with The Lawyers Wife re: a get together Thursday at the Casa de Chaos.
LOL - the same thing happened to me when Hubby was an active duty Army officer. We were stationed in Hawaii and moving into government quarters . . . Uncle Sam forgot to connect a hose on the back of the washing machine - on the second floor. . . Before the movers arrived with our furniture, we put in a load of bed linens so they would be all fresh and clean to make the beds when they arrived . . . and left to meet the movers at our rented house . . . I came back to 18 inches of water covering the entire first floor and water POURING out of every opening in the ceiling! And we were scheduled to fly home to Georgia two days later for a two week vacation! Omigosh . . . what a nightmare! (But everything worked out OK!)
OMG. Sounds like they need have many, many adult beverages today.
Same thing happened to my SIL's brand new house--they'd been in about a year. The sink connections in the kitchen were not done right and it ruined the entire house. All new hardwoods, carpet in the entire basement, kitchen cabinets on the bottom, etc.
They had to live in a condo for a month.
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