Never a dull moment!

Thanksgiving morning I woke up and was cooking in the kitchen when water kept appearing under my feet.  I didn’t think I had spilled anything yet, there was a small puddle.  I wiped it up and then it reappeared.  What the heck?  I started stepping on the joints of the fake wood floor and saw water seep through each time I put my weight down. Noooooooo!!!

me:  “Lou, get in here, we have a leak.”

Lou walks into the kitchen with Tiara in tow.  I show him the problem and he stares at me like, “now what?”. 

lou:  “Oh, do you think we have a slab leak?”

me:  ” I’m not sure.  It seems to be near the center of the room, but not near the sink or the refrigerator and those are the only sources of water in here, so it might be.  Go get dressed and go next door to see if Mark can help us.” 

Mark is our next door neighbor and a handy man.  I pay him to fix stuff that Lou can’t fix himself.  I then walked outside to listen for our neighbor.  They usually drink their coffee in the backyard in the morning but it was silent over the fence.  Lou returned dressed.

lou:  “Should I go over now?”

me:  ” I don’t hear them out back and it is Thanksgiving morning, maybe you should wait?”

lou:  “If you don’t hear them out there, I don’t want to go over.”  Off he walks to the living room and sits down on the couch.

me:  “I’m going to call my Dad to see if he will come over and help assess the situation.”

lou:  “Ok, good.”

While I am waiting for my Dad to show up  I start following the flooring to the wettest area and decide even though it doesn’t seem wet by the refrigerator, it could be the problem. 

I pull the refrigerator out from the wall.  Yes, Lou is sitting on the couch watching TV, stressing out about this alleged slab leak, while I am moving the frig by myself.  As I move it out, I am instantly hit by this damp, stinky, moldy smell.  It is soaking wet behind the frig.  The floor is buckled and mold is starting to form.  On the corner of the floor, there are some live creatures.  I don’t know if they were worms or maggots or God knows what but I decided to put on gloves and a mask before getting any closer to the scene.

After getting on my hospital gear I got down on my hands and knees and saw the water pipe that leads from the sink to the refrigerator was leaking.  YAY!

me:  “LOU, it is the refrigerator, we don’t have a slab leak!!!!”

lou:  “Oh thank God.”  He walks over to see the mess and looks like he is going to throw up from the smell. 

me:  “Hand me some towels and the trash can.”  He returns with the stuff and just stares at me.  ” I need to pry this flooring up, it is soaked.  Get me a screwdriver.”

lou: “Here you go.”  He hands it to me while trying not to touch anything in the area.  He hates dirty stuff.  He goes and sits back down. 

me:  “Oh wow, this floor came right up.  Hurry, open the back door for me so I can carry it outside.”

I got it outside and then was a little overwhelmed with how to clean up the wet, stinky area.  Luckily my Dad showed up and helped me unhook the pipe from the refrigerator and promised to bring me a fan to dry out the space.  So it dried for a 36 hours and then I pushed it back into the wall until I can get Mark to come over and fix the leak.  Until then we are drinking water from the tap. 

 

 

While I was doing the whole thing I realized how odd it was that Lou was the helper and I was the “handyman” and I was enjoying the work.  Confirmation of my bizarre personality.

Tabitha finally made her way into the kitchen around noon after a late night out and asked me what happened.  After I told her the story she said “Oh, Mom you must be so happy, this probably made your day?”  I just laughed because she was right.  I wasn’t mad, frustrated, or stressed, I was actually pretty happy.  I was also grateful I wasn’t hosting Thanksgiving and we didn’t have a slab leak. 

After I was done with that project, Lou and Trinity went to the movies together, Tabitha slept more and Tiara and I went for a walk.  It was a great day that ended with a perfect meal at my sister’s.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and now it is time for Christmas!  Trinity and I decorated the inside of the house on Saturday, and now I just have to get the lights up outside.  Trinity really got creative in her room.

xoxo tiffani

OMG, I forgot to tell you, Lou started his new job on Sunday.  Yes another new job but with the same company and right next door to the BMW store.  He was promoted to New Car Sales manager at Commonwealth AUDI!  Only 5 weeks of selling and he got his manager job back and right down the street from our house, SO HAPPY!!!!!