Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The joys of being a homeowner...

So.

On March 18, Matt walked downstairs to see the ceiling leaking. Turns out, the toilet that had stopped up on Tuesday night and we hadn't gotten a plunger yet....it kept running and overflowed, flooding the bathroom, the carpet outside the bathroom, and the ceiling downstairs.
We had a company come and clean up all the water, which entailed ripping up the vinyl floor & subfloor in the bathroom, ripping up the carpet padding, blowing air up into the ceiling to evaporate it, and running big dehumidifying fans to evaporate everything. Big headache.
Then, last week during my spring break, a contractor came and repaired everything, which lasted from Tuesday through Thursday.

However, we got some nice new vinyl flooring out of it! So I was happy. And the contractor is a super nice guy and only charged us what the insurance gave us. He was supposed to charge us $500 more, because we have a $500 deductible, but he didn't. Super nice guy. I even invited him to eat dinner with us the night he finished, since he wasn't done until 730. He's the kind of guy I would be friends with.

So yesterday, I walked in my front door and heard water running. "That's odd," I think, "is Matt home early?" But I didn't recognize the sound of the water. It didn't sound like the sink, or the dishwasher, or the washing machine. I walk into my living room, step onto soaking wet carpet, see the kitchen flooded with 1/2 inch of water, look towards the sound, and see water coming off the wall. (I thought it was coming out of the wall, but I learned today that it wasn't)

Commence running around trying to remember how to shut water off, call mom, remember that you turn water off at the street, try to find the water shut-off, don't know which one it is, try to find a neighbor with a tool to shut it off, then finally get a small wrench, cram my hand into a tiny dirt space, and after some grunting, manage to shut the water off to the house.

Followed by panicky conversations with insurance, home warranty, my mom, and a plumber who was too busy doing his taxes to come out to my house, so he lost the job.

My mom came over and took charge, set up the shop vac and started vaccuuming up water from the vinyl floors, and told me to get the steam cleaner to suck up water from the carpet. Oh yeah. duh. We filled and emptied the shop vac twice (TONS of water) and the steam cleaner 8 times. until it died. I hope its not dead forever. it was only the second time I had ever used it :(

By the time Matt got home, I was lighthearted (thanks mommy), and just looking forward to new vinyl floors and carpet. The hardwoods are slightly waterlogged too, but I'm not sure if they need to be replaced or not. I really like the hardwoods, so I don't care if they get repaired or replaced, just so long as one of those two happens. However, the vinyl is so light that everything shows up, and its not in great condition anymore. It has some stains and couple small tears from the previous owners. The carpet is old, and too light, just like the vinyl. It is really hard to get stains out of. As I was steam-cleaning the carpet the other night (for the first time ever), I thought to myself "Self, I would really like to get new carpets." Be careful what you wish for, huh?

So I stayed home today, since I have more leave days than Matt does. Plumber came and I told him that the water was coming from the wall, so he cut into the water-soaked wall, and there were no pipes. He realized that it was just the icemaker line that had cut off. He tested that theory by me grunting and groaning again with the wrench, turning the water back on so he could see where it was coming from. Yup. icemaker. did alllllll that.
He showed me how to fix it myself (he was stereotypical and said that my husband could fix it. bump that. i can do it) so I don't have to pay anybody to do that, too.

Now the company is over doing all their drying stuff again. Different company this time though.
It's crazy how far the water went.

This greatly inconveniences us, since more than half of the living room is soaked, and all of the kitchen and laundry room is as well. This means walking on plywood until everything is dry, not having any living room furniture to sit on, or a table to eat at (they will be stored in the garage) THEN an insurance agent is going to come assess the damages, THEN the contractor can come and begin making everything right. SO who knows how long it will be before we have our house back. Living in the bedroom may sound romantic, but I assure you, it is not.

When the drying guy first got here, he was saying that he could save the carpet and the vinyl. I think, "damn. i could have at least gotten some new floors out of this". But then the carpet was coming apart when they pulled it back, so he said we should be able to get new carpet now. And now he is going to have to pull up all the vinyl, which means we will have to get new to put back down.

I am clinging, CLINGING, to those final products where we will be grateful we had a water leak so that we could get these new floors.


UGH. Now I just found out that they may have to pull up all of the hardwoods. I really like the color of the hardwood. I dont want it gone. Im hoping they can repair it, or just pull up the damaged pieces, and maybe we have enough extra in the garage to replace the damaged ones.
Mostly, I just don't want to have to pack up and move everything in the dining room thats on hardwood. There is a lot of valuable stuff, and packing it up to move it will risk things breaking or getting damaged.

And the water went into the bathroom too. thats okay. i liked the floor in there, but im okay with new floor too. either way. its just another thing to add to the list.

I'm aggravated now. They have to come back tomorrow to finish the job, so hopefully Matt can take off tomorrow. I think it will be pushing it to take off two days in a row, during my new assistant's first week. Oh yeah. that's for another post, another day.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I'm a proud momma!

Tyson is about 19 months old now, which means he is technically still a puppy for a GSD, but he is calming down, so that is wonderful! He is listening better when we tell him *not* to do things, and he is generally calmer in most situations.

I took him to doggie daycare today, since we were having house repairs done, and he wouldn't be allowed downstairs. plus, having strange men in the house really stresses him out!

The lady taking care of him just runs a doggie daycare out of her home, not like Camp Bow Wow where we usually send him. She is tons cheaper, and we went to the same church when I was little, so I like to take my business to people I know, if possible.
She is in a wheelchair or walks on crutches, so I was a little concerned Tyson might be too rambunctious for her. I think she was a little hesitant when she saw how big he was! He's almost 95 lbs, so she was surprised he was so big, and I was apprehensive leaving him with her, in case he got rowdy. However, she is a dog trainer (she trains service dogs) so I figured she could handle him.

She said he was an ANGEL. He got along really well and played gently with her 10 week old lab puppy, as well as her golden retriever. She said the Sherriff's Dept. comes over to check on her once a week, and they came today and loved him. She said he was very polite and a joy to have!!

Whaddayakno? That is just such a relief for me to hear. I feel like a proud parent right now! It is great to know that I can leave him at a strange house with a strange person and strange dogs, and he can still get along well. I know part of that is his genetics & temperament, but I can take a little credit, can't I?!

With German Shepherd Dogs, you have to work so hard to make sure they know you're in control, and for them to obey you in all situations. Now I know he is nowhere near as trained as a police or service dog....he still has some behavioral quirks that I can't quite get under control, but I am quite proud of myself and him!