Undesireable Effects of the wonderful thing we call WATER!!!

So, Saturday, July 26th started out as any other day.  The day was planned for Allen to go to work, Alyssa, Joslynn and I were going to can beans and beets!  The movie was playing and we were doing really well with ending the beans, and preparing them for the jars.  I had put the first batch in the cooker and sat down to finish ending the rest.

 

 

I went outside to check on the pressure of the cooker and walked back in the kitchen and felt the floor was uneven.  I almost disregarded it, but walked over the area again.  I knelt down, pushed on the laminate and water squished out!!  There were no other apparent puddles.  I pulled the fridge out and saw water spraying from the water hose at the floor.  I immediately turned the water off, cleaned up the little water that was on the floor.  I ran downstairs to Kaylynn's room and was shocked at the damage.  Their were two bubbles dripping water from the ceiling, one on the exterior wall, one on the interior wall and her bed was SOAKED!  I called my handy man brother first, then Allen and he contacted our insurance company.  I asked him to please come home and we started removing stuff from the bedroom.  After two hours of not hearing from the insurance, we placed another call and our claim was "stuck" in the computer system and they would activate it again. 

 



The mattress & box springs  left a trail of water as we pulled it outside!  The mattress saved the carpet from more extensive damage and kept it contained to mostly her room.  Water did leak through the wall and into the back hall carpet, but did not effect the living room.

 

The restoration company arrived at 8:30 pm and started assessing the damage.  He pulled most of the ceiling down, small section of the wall and pulled half the carpet and padding.  Several fans and dehumidifier were placed and he then started on the upstairs.  He ripped up all the laminate in the kitchen, pantry and half of the dining area.  I was surprised at how much was wet.  Under the dishwasher was wet, so fans were placed to blow on that.  He thought that the cabinets would need to be pulled, but said he would be back Monday morning for that.  He left at 3 am Sunday morning and we have lots of fans blowing to dry things out.

 

Plastic to keep the air in the kitchen.  The middle part has a zipper so we can still get in.

The top layer of floor needs to be pulled, its extremely soft when you walk on it.

Cubby under the stairs

Kaylynn's bedroom

 

As Tim, the restoration man, pulled the floor up, I wanted to cry.  First thought was "it's canning season, I need my kitchen!!!"  Second thought was of my brother, Jason, installing the floor for us.  Jason lived with us for several years after his mission and did many repairs and upgrades for us in return.  There were some long nights involved with tearing up the old carpet and linoleum and installing the new laminate flooring.  We had to pour cement to make the floor even, before even laying the new floor.  I appreciate my brothers hard, good work and it made me sad to have that torn up.   That floor reminded me of the good times when Jason lived with us and makes me sad to have it gone.  I wish he were here now to help with the re-model.  Secretly we hope the floor is wet under the cabinets....Allen really wants to get rid of the yellow!!!

Through all that, I still managed to get canned 12 quarts of beans and 13 pints of pickled beets.

 

Tyler, Ashley & Kaylynn are in NY visiting my parents.  We called Kaylynn and asked her if she wanted a "waterbed"  She said no, because she was afraid she would put a hole in it.  We explained what happened and her only concern was "is my radio OK".