We moved in and just a few days later, at 11pm I walked into our closet and stepped in water. I was sick to my stomach - I started to survey the damage and realized half the closet was soaking wet. So I pulled out all the stuff I had just put away a few days earlier and tore up the carpet.
I investigated the water heater that sat just on the other side of the wall and it appeared to be fine. I checked out the washer also in the same proximity but it too looked fine.
I pulled up the carpet and put a fan on it (thank heavens for the industrial fan from our Milwaukee flood days!). The next morning it was still really bad. I pulled out the pad and laid it outside to dry and vacuumed up more water. I remembered another handy tool from our flooding days - a moisture meter. I located it amongst a lot of boxes in the garage and started measuring the water content in the walls. It was very evident where the water was coming from at this point and even more clear was the fact that the drywall was so saturated it would have to be cut out. (Thank heavens Steve was at work, because cutting drywall out of our new home wasn't what he wanted to see happen!)
Sure enough with the wall open, I could see that it was indeed the washer leaking. Fortunately a plumber was able to come out that afternoon and $45 later he had fixed the problem. But then of course we had a whole in the drywall!
We waited for my dad to get in town so he could do a nice patch job on the 1.5 x 3 foot hole! (which I'm glad he was able to show me how to do it, I'm sure I'll do it in the future on another hole!)
Of course when you give a mouse a cookie...he'll ask for a glass of milk...
After replacing the drywall and needing to repair some of the baseboards...well it was a great opportunity to replace all the baseboards...and if I was going to go to the trouble of replacing baseboards - I might as well choose a new fresh white paint color...and while we were at it, a couple more built-in shelving areas would be nice...If you give a mouse a cookie!
Honest? This was your cookie? I was hoping for something a little less accidental and something more fun. Glad you could find the problem, especially without Steve home. Nothing like your dream house breaking in the first week. Sometime I'll have to tell you the story of water pouring out of our basement ceiling . . .
ReplyDeleteI was hoping the story ended with, 'and since we tore up the carpet we just decided to replace all of it!' Then that $45 leak would have been a really great blessing, right?!? We need to get together like asap. I'll call you this week as my life as returned to somewhat normal {although yours obviously hasn't!}.
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