Living

Where to begin?

Maybe Saturday morning when the rain started?

Or Sunday when the rain kept pouring down?

Maybe at the point when I’m just waking up Monday morning  to hear Price yelling,”the apartment is flooding!!!”

Yep, that is a good starting point.

So with those words our Monday began. And what a Monday it was.

6:20– I grab my glasses, or maybe they were already on, whatever, and run out of our room to see Price at the point where the water was in our living room. I run through the water to my scrapbooking paper tote on the floor, in the water, and hoist it up to the chair (yay, saved like $200 worth of paper!). Price is running around trying to figure out what the hell is going on. There is lots of yelling, and grabbing things off the floor.

“Is it coming out the windows? Is the printer ruined?”

“No, it’s not the windows, it’s not the walls.”

“Oh my god!”

“It’s in the office”

“Is the computer okay?”

I run outside, barefoot, in the rain, to the front of the house to get our landlord. Frantic door bell ringing does not work, back in the house to get my phone to call them.

“S, sorry to wake you but the apartment is flooding.”

Back down stairs there is running around in water trying to grab things and move them to higher ground.

6:30– The water was only an inch and a half or so but the area it is effecting was pretty big- whole living room, bathroom, office, closets- and it is spreading and rising (another 1 in the deepest area). With the homeowners witnessing the destruction of their property they got to work quickly helping us move things and figuring out what to do. Mission critical- get a sump pump. Since the basement* has never, ever flooded before they did not have one. It never even crossed their minds that it would happen, otherwise they would have never put hardwood floors in there, which S tells me as she is rolling up her pants. And these are not the pop in place home depot floors, these are the professionally laid, sanded, polished floors.

7.00– Finding a sump pump in a state that has been experiencing wide spread flooding due to rain amounts 8-10 inches in 2 days is nearly impossible. Luckily, G finds one at S’s office building. we can’t find the point of origin for the water. Clearly it is coming up but from where? Most of the water is in the middle of the apartment, but there is not obvious source there- no sub floor piping access.  One of the lowest points is checked, under the tub. Yeah, lots of water there. So the sump pump is put there and the garden hose is shoved in the tub so the water has a place to drain. This poor little pump is working hard to keep things at bay, and it seems like a losing battle as we discover water coming in from the South end of the house. Shit, move the bed! Our box spring is now wet.  Ahhhh! Chaos continues, G manages to get another sump pump one held for him in Worcester- a good 45 minutes away. Plumber is called to come to see if there is anything he can do.

8: 45- Calling work to let me know I’ll be late. Duh.

until 10– Price and I are “cleaning” things up as the 1 sump pump is chugging away. I drive the 3 blocks down(it’s raining!) to the best bakery ever to get breakfast and Price a big coffee. The rabbits have been moved. They are royally pissed because this is normally their out of cage time. Jack is scared/angry and protesting by picking up the castle with his teeth and slamming it back down.

On the bright side, Monday is trash day so I start carrying out some ruined items to the curb. Our living room rug, an otoman, a decorative pillow that became a sponge. The water went into our office closet. The one with all our architectural drawing and model materials. So I’m carrying out wood, large drawing pads, graph paper, and foam core to the trash. Price is wet vac-ing up the living room. We flip out bed up to let the box spring dry.

10: 45– Plumber comes. He does something under the floor where our book cases used to be. I am too distracted to care. (I later learn that he opened up some pipe causing the water to slowly drain directly into the sewer pipe)

11.05– Walking to the train to get to work. When I was first up in the morning I was sans shoes. Price made me get my rain boots on so I would not be in the cold water all morning. Well, I learned that my rain boots had holes in them. Unfreakin’ believable. I don’t even notice the wetness until I am calmed down on the train.

12.45– Price emails me saying that the water is generally gone because of what the plumber did and the 2nd sump pump G got.

4:15– Price leaves late for his 4pm class.

7:30– Price just beats me home since I stayed late to make up some hours from coming in late. He goes over the situation room by room. Our bed is flipped up so the box spring can dry, the office closet has been emptied out into the office, our tub is filthy from water the sump pump has been dumping in there.

8.30ish maybe, kinda a blur- Drinking wine. ServPro FINALLY comes. I get they are busy dealing with the other water damage in the area but thanks for being like 8 hours late. Plus, G had to commit to paying an extra $325 BS emergency fee. Total Servpro- $1525 . S is calling G to get to the house since he doubted they would actually show so he is at Home Depot buying 4 dehumidifiers. ServPro sets up 8 annoying loud fans, 2 huge dehumidifiers. No, wait, 1 keep tripping the fuse so now G sets up 2 of his to take the place of the 1 big dehumidifiers.  I’m busying my self on the phone outside and checking things inside- like the 1 non-plastic box I have of photos and scrapbooks I made during highschool- damp feeling but not ruined.

10:45– I shower. Quickly. I yank as much house out of the shower as possible, rinse out the dirt, and quickly shower.

11.45– After watching (can’t actually hear) the news I crash on The Cos’ (the sofa has a name, Emily named it).

4.45– I wake up. I tip toe around the apartment, load the washer with wet dirty towels, feeding the rabbits, find clothes to wear.

6.00-I move sofa cushions and make Price move over so I can lay next to him. I break down and cry into his shirt for a min. We finally get up at 6.20 with the alarm.

7.00– on my way to work. I get an iced DD coffee and spill some of it on the floor and my leg as I sit down on the train. FML

Now- drinking more wine. Trying to tune out the loud fans. The lights are flickering because 8 huge fans, and 3 dehumidifers are taxing the system. In all about 850 sq feet of our apartment was visibly wet. The floors are buckling/cupping and the doors are expanding so it’s hard to open/close them. The rabbits are out of the apartment because I did not want the fans kicking up dust making them sick and driving them BS crazy.

I can’t wait for Thursday night since I’m driving back to CT to stay over for the night before going on to Philly to spend the weekend with my friend Dawn. My mom is going to watch the rabbits so they are out of this insanity.

*Sure we live in a basement, but it is the most tricked out apartment ever. The place was renovated within the past 8 years- solid oak hardwood floors, amazing paint job, jacuzzi, dishwasher, disposal, washer/dryer, in total about 1200 sq feet. Plus there are legit full windows in the rooms and smaller ones through out so it is not a complete cave.