you know how things happen in life that totally throw you for a loop?!?!
well, we just experienced that last week and we are still trying to recover from the after-math.
last weekend, after a wonderful couple of days (we had an ultrasound of the baby & got lots of big, beautiful pictures! we took family pictures up cottonwood canyon in the snow! we visited with danny's parents! and hung out with some of our best friends!) we came home tired & worn out at 12:00 am.
as soon as we pulled up, i had an unsettled feeling since the lights were on and we hadn't been home for a few days. but, danny does have a bad habit of leaving lights on so we weren't too worried. however, as i was carrying a sleeping avery into the house, i heard shouts from danny & my heart instantly starting pumping a lot faster than it should at midnight.
we rushed inside (by now everyone was awake!) and i was met by a burst of water literally shooting out of the bathroom. it looked like someone had turned a hose on in there and was spraying straight out the door. the carpet was incredibly soaked, the bathroom door was hanging off of the hinges, water was dripping from the ceiling, door frames, running down the walls, etc... it was a nightmare.
and then we headed downstairs! (bad idea!!) water was raining from the ceiling. everywhere. i don't think there is a single spot in the basement that didn't get touched by water. the playroom especially got slammed, which was really hard to see, since it was (like the bathroom) one of the nicest rooms in the house.
danny quickly got the water shut off and we were able to see where the water was coming from: the hot water to the bathroom sink. somehow, the pex pipe came loose from the fitting and that's when the damage began. we have no idea how long water was spraying but we guess somewhere around 24 hours. long enough to do over $6,000 worth of damage!!!!
after checking everything out, the kids were officially spooked, scared, wayyyy tired, and grumpy all at the same time. i hopped on facebook to get some guidance (we had no clue what to do!) and then tried my best to calm the kids down. since their room was a disaster, we tucked them into our bed and i think around one they were finally asleep.
in the meantime, i was on the phone calling just about every disaster cleanup company i could find...but of course, though they claim to have "24/7 service"...i couldn't get a hold of anyone! i left lots of (probably very frantic) messages and finally got in touch with "the water damage specialists" (who were recommended to us by a friend here in nephi)
they were incredible. the told us to get as much of the furniture off of the wet floors as we could and they would be out the next morning around 10. we stumbled to bed around 3 in the morning and got a somewhat restful sleep ;)
...
since then, we've been through a lot. the water guys were down almost every day checking on fans and heaters that were placed everywhere throughout the house, removing carpet pads, cutting out drywall, removing our beautiful bathroom tile, etc... but they really were great to work with. they finally finished up on monday (we can actually hear ourselves think in our house now!) so we are officially dried out.
i've been on the phone with more insurance/relocation people in the last few days than i would have liked but we're trying our best to look at the bright side and "find joy in the journey!" (we've kind of failed in that area but hey, we're trying!)
lots of people have said, " at least you'll get a new remodel out of all of this!!" and while they are right, it's been hard to be happy about that because almost everything that got ruined was already a brand new remodel. (of course.)
however, some positives that have come out of this horribly stressful situation:
(^^^ this is how we've felt most of the week ^^^ )
+ we got to stay at a nice, quiet hotel (no industrial strength fans running there!) with a pool! the kids love it.
+ we're getting new carpet in all of the bedrooms, playroom, hallway, and stairs!
+ the guys doing the remodel were able to start on tuesday (the day after the water guys cleaned up all of the fans) which has been a huge, huge blessing (since we currently don't have a bathroom. ok, we've got a toilet downstairs but that's it.)
+ the remodel guys are finishing our stairwell for us and put new drywall in the playroom closet!
...
and, for your viewing pleasure, more pics:
sad, isn't it?!?
thanks for all of your support & prayers.
we've needed and appreciated it all.
