Have you ever??...

Have you ever been awaken in the middle of the night because you heard a sound that just wasn't right?

You hear a sound, but what is it? Was it a one time only thing or does it keep happening? 

Then you heart starts to beat faster....something is definitely wrong....where is the sound coming from????

Picture it if you will, 1:30 AM last night. I was having a lovely sleep (No people under 4 feet had yet joined us to practice kung-fu moves while they sleep. Why do they feel the urge to sleep with their feet on your face???) when I woke up suddenly to a hissing sound.

Now, I immediately thought SNAKE, but I remembered that we are on the 3rd floor and no snakes that live here can make that loud of a sound. Yes, I have checked this fact out.

Then I thought, "Oh my goodness a raccoon has gotten in and Rosabelle is about to be eaten!" I jumped out of bed and ran to the demoed bathroom/C's room/ our suite. No raccoon, instead:

A PIPE WAS GUSHING WATER ALL OVER THE SUB-FLOOR OF OUR OLD BATHROOM!

 Picture 3 inches of water.

I only have morning after photos.

I grabbed the burst area and tried to stop the leak, why I don't know, but it was 1:30 in the morning and I was a little alarmed.  Quickly, I realized that I needed Matt. We both joke that finally a disaster has actually occurred when he wasn't traveling. It is well known that freakish accidents happen in our home when he is across the country, ie the time a couple years ago when a squirrel attacked the transformer, got electrocuted, which caused a surge and fried out heater in January.

I ran into our bedroom and said "Matt, we've got a problem!" I thought about saying, "Matt, I need you to be really awake right now." I said those exact words 3 times before I told him I was in labor. I figured if I led with that, he would pretend he was dead.

Matt, thankfully, jumped right up. We both ran to the remnants of the old bathroom and flipped on the light. It looked like someone had turned on the hose and left it on for hours, which is basically what had happened. The exposed plaster and lathes were under 3 inches of water.

A few days before this, we had been watching a This Old House episode and they discussed the importance of knowing where your water shut off valve is located. I asked Matt if he knew and he asked me...both answers were no. Thankfully, I asked Moose where it was on Monday and he showed me. 

Matt directed me to turn off the water so I ran down the first flight of stairs. I hit the main floor and heard.....water running and dripping so showing great common sense...I ran back to Matt. He came flying down the stairs and we flipped on the light. Water was streaming out of the ceiling. Actually, some areas were just dripping heavily. The floor was covered with an inch of water. Matt reminded me to turn off the water. 

  Each of those circles is from a steady drip.

 Water came streaming out of the fixture.

I ran down to the garage and found it to be raining from the ceiling. Climbing over various construction debris I made it to the turn off valve. I turned it off and ran back upstairs as I grabbed every rag we had. We kept the lights off because that area of the house has the old knob and tube wiring. No need to add electrocution to the evenings events.

We sopped up the floor and moved my mom's beloved 1850's barrel desk which was not super wet. The same could not be said for the food in the pantry or anything else in the room. 

A portion of the rags needed to remove the standing water. 

Matt called Moose. We were kind of glad he didn't wake up because what was he going to do?  After the water began to slow we put a bucket under the biggest streams. We were like..."Well, we might as well go back to bed."

Matt is a good sleeper. I kept waking up thinking that the drop ceiling had tumbled to the floor since it was saturated with water. I am going to see if I can remove the water marks and we hope that the seams come back together again. Part of me wanted it to fall down because I hate them anyway.

Around 8 we roused Moose from bed and gave him a rundown on our nighttime adventures. He came over to fix the leak and let us turn the water back on. We were having flashbacks to septic alarms. 

Moose showed up quickly and was impressed by the destruction. C gave me a stern lecture that it was Saturday and Moose doesn't work on Saturdays. I explained that this was an emergency. I got no reprieve. She informed me that "This is not an emergency, Mama!" Glad she slept soundly through the flooding. 

Most things were saved. It is too early to know if the floors will live to see another day. 

So many blessings. Moose could not believe that the pipe didn't burst earlier since the solder was barely holding on. So grateful that it didn't  burst before we demoed the walls. So grateful that I hadn't refinished the floors already. So grateful we found the water turn off valve on Monday!!!!

So very grateful for Moose!!

Nothing but excitement all the time here!

The Dust Bowl, but with insulation, saw dust, and 100+ year old yuckies

It has been windy here on and off over the last few weeks. The house resembles more of a sieve than a weatherproof home. The wind blows --- the drop cloths over the door ways move in and out like the house is breathing. It is very good for eliminating any sort of stink.

I vacuum ALL-THE-TIME. I use our beloved Sebo and the Shop Vac, but it doesn't really matter. Once a breeze blows again, dust, sawdust, insulation, and general yuckies land everywhere.

Now, at first this made me a bit crazed, but now I just pretend that I am living in a current day Dust Bowl. This appeals to my inner History Major and makes me think that if my grandmother could do it, I can too. (The little voice in the back of my head says, "but for how long??? Didn't some ladies lose it because of the dust in The Dust Bowl???")

We are going through the shrinking stage right now. I have some before and "now" photos to share with you....

 The master bath/laundry room when we moved in and now.....

 We recommend not using this toilet. Privacy is doubtful.

 This was our bedroom when we moved in and now.....

This would also be where this lovely photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.

Look at those blue eyes! 

We also are saving every piece of 100 year old clear grade fir flooring we can get our hands on in the house.  We are saving trim, shingles, and siding. All of it we can't afford to get today and why not reuse it?? It is in good shape. All of this has caused our front porch to be turned into what I call 

"The Lumber Yard."

Soon we will be pulling the fir floors in the kitchen. I am not convinced that they can be saved as right now I think they are gross. Anything that touches them is immediately thrown away or burned. E is particularly annoyed by this because he likes to hide food away for later consumption. (He might be part squirrel.) Ohh, he gets so mad at me when I throw his food away, but really wouldn't you when you look at those floors?

Moose assures me that I just need to sand them and they will be fine. He also told me that this stage of a remodel is like being pregnant. "Everything gets really squished and then pop! You have more room." I don't remember giving birth going quite like that.

A nice surprise was that we found pretty fir tongue and grove sub floors in the master bath. We are going to save them and promote them to actual flooring.

They look all dirty here, but trust me, they will be great!

The chicks have left their fluffy little cute stage to the pullet teenager stage. I need to get them a bigger brooder. Every time we come into the bathroom 1 or 2 of them are perched on the edge of the bin. I am just waiting for them to decide to wander into the rest of the house.