And Then There Were Three: Oh no! H2O!

Almost 2 weeks ago, Nicky was working in the yard and noticed that the water heater pipe that drains from our attic had a slow drip coming from it. He called a plumber first thing Monday morning to come out and look at it. The plumber showed up around 1:30 that afternoon, and he and I climbed into the attic to check out the tank and pipes. He took one look at it and said he could be there at 7:30 the next morning to replace it. One hour later, I had a water fall coming through the light fixture in my pantry and about 1/3 of my house had an inch of standing water.

I called Nicky, then I ran for the FIVE towels that I had in my house. Realizing that would make no difference, I grabbed a few blankets... Note to self: buy more towels. I called Nicky to see what I could do until he got there. He knew I didn't know how to turn off the main line in the front yard, so he told me to go into the attic and try to shut off the line that ran to the water heater. I pulled down the attic door in a bit of a frenzy, and the ladder popped out and hit me in the head. That's when I started crying. (Side note: I had a dull headache the whole next day and took a 3-hour nap. It's been theorized that I had a mild concussion...)

I climbed into the attic and started turning every knob I could find. Nothing happened. Nicky made it home and got the main line turned off, and we started making phone calls. Service Master was there within an hour to start pulling out baseboards and sheetrock, and setting up fans and a dehumidifier. He was there until 8:30. On Thursday, everything was dry and Service Master was able to finally pull everything out. On Friday, the plumber installed a new TANKLESS water heater. A hot shower never felt better!

I need to give a shout-out to my friends. I was hosting book club at my house that night, and when I sent a text to the girls letting them know what happened, they came to the rescue! My friend Layne, who is on maternity leave, showed up with towels and baby Sloane in tow. My friend Rikki's husband was working from home, so she called him and asked him to bring towels. He also stayed to help Nicky shop vac the water. My friend Natalie picked up a trash bag of dirty towels and washed and returned them to the others. Layne and my friend Leah let me do laundry at their houses until I was able to get my machines hooked back up. Amazing!

Here are a few photos of the chaos that was my house. It's not all put back together just yet, but we're making progress...

View from the living room - my washer, dryer, and freezer are partly in the living room, partly in my breakfast area. My refrigerator is in front of my kitchen sink.