On April 15th, tax day, I went about my Monday chores as normal. I got the two big kids off to school, said goodbye to my hubby on his busiest work day of the year, and got Nate ready for Mother's Day out. Monday is also laundry day. So I got all of our family's dirty clothes...at least a week's worth, and organized them on the floor in the laundry room. I started a load of laundry and hurried to take Nate to school. It was 8:45 am.
After dropping Nate off at school, I took my time at Target and went to Walmart to exchange our propane tank for the grill. I was trying to make my 10:30 am physical therapy appointment, but the darn propane tank was rolling around in the car. I decided to quickly drop it off at home on my way to PT. It was 10:10 am.
I pulled into the driveway and opened the garage door. In hindsight, I vaguely remember seeing water pooling in front of the garage door but didn't think much of it. As the garage door opened, I was greeted with a sight that would drastically change my summer plans.
Water was falling through the ceiling of our main floor into our basement garage...Or what I thought was water. My first thought was disbelief; my second thought was that the washing machine had busted. The laundry room was located at the top of the garage stairs. I quickly jumped out of the car and ran into the house. As I ran through water falling on my head, through water in the hallway that connects to the kitchen, and into the Laundry room, I still thought, well, it was water.
I called Mark to let him know the washer was broken and that the scope of water was beyond my independent handy woman skills. As I was describing the scene before my eyes, I glanced at the toilet in the laundry room. It was overflowing. At that moment, I realized we needed a plumber. But believe it or not, I still thought it was just water.
While I waited for the plumber and my hubby to arrive, I decided to start on clean up. I got my shop vac and sucked up "water". I grabbed all of our towels, soaked up the water, and rung them out. And then did the whole process again.
When the men arrived, the plumber took one look at the situation and asked if I had checked any other plumbing fixtures. He told me to go look in the kitchen sink, the next room over. I almost threw up.
Yes friends...my washer was just fine. My sewage line had backed up and began a ciphining effect while I ran a load of laundry. I was gone for a short amount of time but sewage is classified as class 3 water. We called our insurance company and within the hour, this is what my driveway looked like.
I quickly pulled a few things out of kitchen cabinets that I might need over the next 2 weeks. Ha.
This was done in a period of five days. Not exactly what I had planned for that week. Did I mention Mark had a conference that started on April 20? And I was supposed to join him for a romantic getaway on the 21st, 1 week after D-day? By some miracle, my in-laws graciously came and stayed in our wartorn house so that we could get away. I am eternally gratefull. I don't think I could have lasted this long without the chance to get away.
Even though it has been almost 3 months, we still do not have a kitchen. I can see the finish line, and I am excited at the potential. I want to share all about this process, but for now, I will at least let you know how it started. Hopefully I can share more details as we finish up a major remodel. I have always wanted to design my own kitchen.
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