The Flooding of Molly's Apartment

Ok.  So, a while ago I mentioned flooding...and then I got carried away telling the engagement story and didn't really have room in my post to address the water issue.  I'm pretty tired and bored right now, but it isn't really an appropriate time to go to bed so I'll write to you friends instead.  (I know you're out there reading this, my page-views have SOARED recently, thanks!)

I guess it was two Friday's ago.  The Friday after we got engaged.  Stephen and I were pretty pumped, and he was in a mr-fix-it mood.  He came over as soon as I got home from work and insisted that we run to Home Depot to get the bulbs to fix my light that's been out basically since I moved in.  Wow, what a guy.  He then proceeded to fix all the little things that I hadn't noticed were annoying until they were no longer present.  He repaired my fence, installed my fence birds, took out the window AC and even took care of the stink bug infestation we found under the AC.

Then we decided to look at the hot water heater.  This was a big mistake.  He basically bumped the pipe where it connected to the wall and the whole thing came off, spewing water everywhere.   After a moment of shock, I called my landlady who came down to try to locate the water shut off.  Apparently no one really knew where the shut off was for my house.  We tried to plug the pipe with fingers, towels and an old cork, but nothing worked.  Meanwhile my floor was rapidly getting covered by more and more water.  Luckily I regained my brain quick enough to move the boxes of Christmas presents from my family out of the flood.  I had to rescue poor Linus from the bathroom where he'd hidden in an attempt to avoid the water.

We opened all the doors and tried to bail water out that way until the shut off could be located.  We called Stephen's dad to come help us and even then it was a good 30 minutes before we finally turned off the water to the entire property, and then eventually located the water shut off 2-feet underground with no mechanism to actually turn it off.  Wow.

Clean up was kind of miserable.  We used a giant fan to dry things out.  We used a million towels to sop up water and wring it out elsewhere.  The rug was beyond soaked.  BUT.  I look at this as a blessing in disguise.  Stephen's dad fixed the pipe connecting the water heater to the wall.  The old work was crumbly and was going to break at some time anyways (at least it happened while all of us were home and not while I was at work or something).  He also fabricated a water shut off so that we can turn off the water should a similar situation arise.  Also, I figure if Stephen and I can get through that ordeal, we can probably get through anything.

Man I love this man.  He's pretty swell.  I'm also so fortunate to have been so readily taken in by his family.  I stayed at their house for 2 days until the glue set and we could turn my heat and water back on.