I get a call at 5:30 this afternoon from my neighbor telling me I have water gushing from the front door and from the weep holes in the brick, all around the house. I tell him where the spare key is and he had to let me go so he could find the water shut off valve.
He called me back and told me it was pretty bad and the entire house is flooded?!?!?! I rush home to find that the hot water pipe in the front bathroom busted. There was a 1/2 to 1" of water all over and the "Sunk-in" master bedroom had at least 5" of water in it. The feeling of helplessness set in and for a moment it felt like I got kicked in the nuts and wanted to puke!! My wife arrives shortly after me and is in tears as she tours the damage. Luckily she works for "State Farm" which is who we have our home owners insurance thru and called a Fire/Water Damage restoration company that she knows.
Man I tell you what, those guys were here in less than 30 minutes and got right to work sucking up the water. The good news is I am covered and will only cost me $1000 deductable. The bad news is I sat and watched as they removed and ripped up three rooms of wood flooring, one room of carpet, several closets of carpet, and lamenate in the utility room and bathroom. The rest of the house is ceramic tile so no worries there. They also ripped out most of the base boards and molding along the floors. Sheetrock damage in a couple of rooms about 6" up and the cabinets in the bathroom will need to be replaced. As the water that was running most of the day, escaped thru the weep holes in the brick, it also took out half of my Bar/Patio. The water stopped just short of getting the pool table. I also lost a TV, two LCD monitors, One laser printer, one photo printer and all kinds of computer parts (hobby of mine) oh, and it also took out my laser fax.

5 hours later, the house is stripped down to cement floors and there are 4 De-Humidifiers and 16 of the loudest damn turbo fans I have ever seen!! Both the wife and I are wearing ear plugs right now!! I am now constantly resetting breakers and re aranging power cords to try to distribute power evenly. They tell me all these things need to run constantly untill thursday and maybe friday.
The kicker is, we are leaving for Las Vegas on Wednsday morning for vacation. So I must leave my Neighbor in charge of everything till I get back.
So like I said, Today SUCKS!! And the rest of the week ain't gonna be any better even when we are in Vegas!!

 

Just trying to add some humor to an already rediculious day.

 

Hey Buzz, Sorry to see the crap fall your way. I know that I don't have the hassles to go thru like what just happened to you and your family, but you and the wife will get thru this. Kind of reminds me of when Katrina hit. Lot's of folks in dispair. Glad that your post didn't describe a serious illness or accident. Ya'll will get thru it.
On the bright side, all new flooring and replaced equipment, maybe even Mayfair's too! Also, I bet you luck changes when you get to Vegas! Knock em' down there, and come on home with an extra 50k for some wild mods!

 

Sorry to hear about the water damage. I know your down, and looks bad, but remember, its just "stuff" and stuff can be replaced. Everyone is alright and you got the crew and insurance company rolling, so enjoy your vacation. And since your "flying mayfair out there", he should have the house shipshape by the time you get back. And remember 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vagas' doesn't mean the winnings! Good luck!

 

You got some bad luck lately. Was this the clean up crew?

 

Oh man, if thatwasthe crew, I would have had no time to post this last night!!
And I feel a little better today. If we can manage to get an adjuster out today to see the damage, we will feel much better. Kinda hard to take care of stuff over a cell phone 1500 miles away and depend on others to deal with our mess. It would put our minds a little at ease if they can come out today!

Man it is so loud in this house with all these damn fans. And other than the soaked stuff sitting outside and the floors being gone, you can't tell there was a flood. Those deumidifiers (don't know how to spell that) work really well at pulling moisture out of the house. You can still see where the slab around the house is moist but inside is dry as a bone. I am sure thereis still many many gallons soaked in the walls and under the ceramic tile but it looks dry.

And it's gonna be hard to sell your idea on the tools Mayfair. I could take a water hose out to the garage and spray everything down but I don't think they will buy that!!

Man that would be nice to hit it big in Vegas but I'm not holding my breath. My job the next few days will be trying to convince the wife( and my self )to forget about the house and have a good time.

Thanks guys!!

 

Maybe you should think about getting some extra insurance money for your upcoming electric bill. Sounds like it's gonna be a monster.

 

Sorry to hear about the water damage man. I know that sucks. My brother got flooded out in July of '06...had 3 ft of water through his house...within a week we had the house gutted from 4' down...

On a good note...he had been thinking of doing some renovations to his house...so this presented the perfect opportunity to do it...

Didn't you want to change that carpet out anyhow???

 

You beat me to it

Those de-humidifiers aint cheap to run at all.

 

sounds like the **** hit the fan for you..... but its nice to see that things are getting tooken care of!