Our First "Wish We Were Still Renters" Experience

So things have been moving kind of slowly at our house. With the exception of a short trip by Andy’s dad last week when they installed under-cabinet lighting in the only three cabinets that are actually installed, well… things have been dragging.

In the last month, the only other thing we’ve done is finish the guest bathroom – but I’m not complaining!

In fact, last night, I was SO GLAD we hadn’t finished our hardwood floors yet.

Because we came home to this:

WATER. (DUM DUM DUUMMMMMM). Our downstairs ceiling was dripping.

I think we actually stopped, looked at each other and went “UH OH.” Just like in cartoons. Then we RACED upstairs to find the leak.

Is it the washing machine? Nope, all seems okay. Is it… oh, oh yes. It’s the master bath. Because the water has made it’s way OUT of the master bath onto our carpet. It’s invading. It’s relentless. It’s in our downstairs ceiling.

Andy turns off the water at the sink while I grab a towel and mop upstairs, then we hurry downstairs to watch our ceiling leak like it’s a freak show at the carnival.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“I think I’m going to break the hole so all the water will come out,” Andy says. “There can’t be that much more water in here or the ceiling would have broken.”

He grabbed a nearby tool and popped a hole in our mushy sheetrock, and what followed was a strong, constant stream of water gushing out of our ceiling. But it didn’t stop coming.

“No way!” we kept saying. “No way it’s still coming.”

But it poured out for about five minutes with no signs of stopping. No dripping, just POURING. Andy turned off the water to the whole house, and I did the only reasonable thing I could do: I grabbed the camera.

When we were satisfied that there was no chance it could still be leaking, we chopped up that beautiful ceiling that Andy had worked so hard to repair several months back.

I love this first picture because Andy is smiling. It reminds me of something you’d find out of an episode of a DIY show (“How to Stop Plumbing Leaks!”) where the DIY guy is all calm and happy:

“First, I’m going to stop this massive plumbing leak. Now, I’ll calmly mop up the gallons water that have soaked into the brand new carpet. Now follow me back downstairs where I’ll cut a hole in the new ceiling. Great. You’re doing a great job.”

Fortunately, I can be relatively calm in those situations because I know Andy can handle it. Something broken? Andy will fix it! Plumbing leak? No problem! House burned down? Andy will figure it out!