Water Leak!

Wow!  I don't even know where to begin.  On Monday morning, while I was at bible study, I received a text from Erich asking when I would be home.  He asked me to text him as soon as I got home so we could talk.  I was curious what he wanted to discuss - did he get a promotion?  a raise?  job transfer to Colorado?  Isn't it funny that I had visions of wonderful news?  Maybe I'm turning into an optimist.

I drove home happily, blissfully unaware of the news that awaited me.  I texted him as soon as I pulled into our driveway and he was outside before I could even get our little toddler out of the carseat.  This must be really good news!

As we walked inside the house together, me all smiles, I noticed he was not smiling so I thought 'uh oh...layoff?'  We've been there before and it was not fun at all.  He asked how bible study was and then he said he had something to show me in the living room.  What?  Why?  I walked into the living room, somehow believing that there was a pony or something waiting for me in the living room.

Once we arrived in the living room together, he asked me 'what looks different about this room?'  Ummmm...the fireplace, the ladder in the middle of the room, the drywall hanging out in the corner, the freshly finished and painted ceiling.  Nothing about this room looks normal.   As I looked up at the ceiling, my face fell.  Immediately my eyes caught sight of a sag in the ceiling that had not been there before.  Erich looked at me with a sympathetic, somber look and shook his head.  He said 'I'm so sorry but we have a water leak and as soon as we cut that ceiling open, water will pour out of it.' 

I am not exactly sure what I said next but I do remember him asking 'would you like to cut it open or do you want me to?'  I just hung my head and said 'please cut it open....I just can't do that' and then I walked out of the room.  The anger that pulsed through my veins was consuming me at first.  I felt like punching a hole in a wall (haha, I was about to have one).  I heard Erich cut into the ceiling and then the sound of water gushing as I dejectedly walked into the kitchen.  I literally could not speak for about 30 minutes.  I felt sorry for myself and wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

Well, that is really no way to live.  Not for a ceiling.  Not really for anything.  So I didn't let myself stay there for long.  I mourned the loss of my perfectly finished ceiling and then tried to look at the bright side.  No people were hurt.  One tiny area leaked and now I could learn about plumbing and drywall patching...and demonstrate perseverance to myself and to my children.  I was reaching for the positive and eventually my heart believed my brain and I was over it within a couple of days.  I felt a simmering anger for about 2 days whenever I stepped foot into the living room and saw the gaping hole.

Pretty soon I didn't even notice the hole anymore though.  In fact I was talking to my dad saying 'I'm almost finished with the living room' when he interrupted me with laughter and said 'what about that hole???'  Oh yeah. I'm almost finished except for that little thing.

Okay, so onto what in the heck leaked!!!  My dad came over on Monday night to help me and Erich figure out what was going on.  We couldn't figure it out without making another hole, so we cut a hole in the upstairs hall closet which is adjacent to the bathroom (another area to patch soon).  Here is what we found - a completely soaked wooden floorboard underneath the tub, very wet tile outside of the bathtub, and eventually water flow into the living room when we filled and emptied the tub.  It was tough to figure out at first, and I won't bore you with all the details.  It is safe to say that I had google up and running and was working hard to help diagnose the issue. 

At a very late evening hour we found 'Leak #1' which was caused by a faulty drainage pipe.  That pipe was underneath the soaked floor though so it did not cause the floorboards to be drenched.  It didn't take us long to realize that we were most likely dealing with not one, but two separate leaks.  It was late though and we were content to have found one of the leaks, so we stopped trying to figure out the second leak that night.  The kids did not use the shower in that bathroom at all (because we had completely removed pipes and that would have been a terrible mess.

We set up fans to dry out the soaked floorboards.  One fan was going in the hall closet and the other fan was set up in the living room, pointed up at the now exposed floorboards. We let the fans run for a little more than 72 hours and then I turned them off.  The floorboards were totally dry.  On Saturday I began to prep the living room for painting - I sanded the walls and trim, vacuumed, and then washed the walls and trim with soap and water.  Sidenote: would you believe that prepping the room for painting took me an entire day???  I couldn't believe how much work prepping the room was!

At some point I noticed a small pool of water on the piano which was so heavy to move so it has stayed in the room during renovations.  I looked up at the floorboards and saw moisture.  My dad came over and informed me that the floorboards under the tub were completely soaked again!  They had just been totally dry!  Leak #2 was presenting itself.  The guys triple checked the attic because one theory was that it was a leak from the recent rains.  Nope - there were no leaks in the roof at all.  Hmmm...

So, I just painted and focused on trying to get everything else done while my dad ran around and tried to figure out what was going on.  It turns out that leak #2 was coming from the toilet!  The wax ring wasn't on properly and the bolts were the wrong size!  Gross!  My caring dad spent hours today fixing the toilet, attaching new plumbing parts (from leak #1), and then helping me paint the living room!  It was an amazing display of love and kindness!  So we have a fan running tonight and will probably leave it on for a couple of days to try and dry everything out.  Then I am going to cover the living room hole with tissue paper and have the kids use the heck out of that bathroom!  Sink, toilet, shower.  Any leaks should be easily visible in the tissue paper (thanks dad for that tip).

Before patching the hole I have to make absolutely certain there are no other leaks.  I'm thinking about maybe putting a utility door in the hall closet rather than patching the drywall.  Would be nice to easily access the plumbing in case we ever have a situation like this again.