If I hadn’t been in the tub, Paul wouldn’t have been in our room with Kate.
If Kate hadn’t resisted sleep for nearly 2 hours, Paul wouldn’t have left the study.
And if Paul hadn’t left the study to be in our bedroom, he probably wouldn’t have heard the sound.
WATER.
From the tub, I heard him shout, “WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY” and then take off down the hall. Kate came into the bathroom as I finished up and threw on a robe. It was a miracle I didn’t break my neck as I walked around the attic ladder and into the kitchen — WATER. EVERYWHERE.
It was dripping down from the lights in the center of the kitchen, dripping all over the cabinets, fridge, and pooling on the floor. I ran back for towels and basins.
We still don’t know exactly what happened. But the bottom line is that water leaked from one of our two water heaters. They are from 1996, so they were getting old in water-heater-years. Perhaps it rusted and started to leak? Either way, it appears that the catch basin under the water heater overflowed — and had slowly been sending water down into the drywall over our kitchen.
Paul bailed out the basin as a first step. We investigated the problem in a variety of tests, turning off and on water in different spigots and at the main house water line. The bottom line is that we don’t have water, at least for now.
Can you see the water dripping from the light and ceiling? (See how the drywall seam is raised? It’s not suppose to be like that. Soggy to the touch.)
After thinking it was just the lights, Paul noticed that a dishtowel on the counter was wet… uh, oh… a few seconds later, we saw that the range was flooded as well. We had to take the cabinet below apart for it to dry out.
The water is pretty gross.
As of this moment, Paul is staying up most of the night to empty the basin in the attic as it fills. The water heater… the 30 gallon water heater… is slowly draining. We’ve tried a few tricks but after having to do the entire clean-up a SECOND time already tonight, we admitted that we were going to just have to watch it… for awhile.
To be continued…
Lady M | 25-Mar-10 at 11:16 pm | Permalink
Oh nooooooo! We’d loan you our ShopVac to slurp up the water, but getting it into the attic would probably be impossible anyway.
Kelly | 26-Mar-10 at 5:44 am | Permalink
Arghhh…awful, awful, awful. That makes waking up to fresh snow seem like not such a big deal anymore.
Janna | 26-Mar-10 at 8:36 am | Permalink
That’s terrible. I’m sorry. House problems make me sad. I hope it gets fixed quickly.
magpie | 26-Mar-10 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
Oy. I hope there’s no really major damage.
The weirdest thing about this to me is that your hot water heater is in the attic. But I guess that’s the south for you…no basement.
Painted Maypole | 27-Mar-10 at 5:46 pm | Permalink
well, crap.