Braving Transition: "Mommy, my bathroom is all wet"

Waking up at 1 am to hear, "Mommy, my bathroom is all wet. Can I use your bathroom?" is not at all what you want to hear. The only other thing that could make me jump out of bed so fast would be a fire alarm. As soon as I stepped into the hallway I could hear the gushing sound of water as my feet starting splashing through water. Lots of water. The hallway was flooded. The bathroom was flooded. The laundry room was flooded. My daughter's room? Half flooded. Yelling ensued as I ran into the bathroom to turn the valve off. I realized as I did that that the hose going from the valve to the toilet had cracked. I gathered as many towels as I could while curse words flew in the darkness. Guess you can't sleep through that because my husband finally got up.

As I clean up the water upstairs, my daughter and my husband go downstairs to get more towels. Next thing I hear is, "MOM! You definitely do NOT want to come down here!" When someone tells you that...come on...you know you have to go check it out. Water in the living room. Water coming out of various points in the ceiling. Water hanging from the fan blades (which had been turned on all night and had proceeded to fling water in every direction). We have wood laminate floors downstairs and needless to say they are ruined.

Two hours later we have most of the water cleaned up and buckets set out to collect the last remaining drips. We put fans out and wait until morning to deal with the damage.

Three things I am thankful for:

1. Our daughter woke up when she did. If the water had kept going all night the damage would have destroyed so much more and I am sure we would have had to move out for awhile.

2. The only thing of ours that the water got to was our wedding album. However, it still only got the album wet and our photos are still good! Whew!

3. This is a rental house. We are living here for awhile until we decide whether to buy a house or find land and build. Thankfully, none of this is on us and was not our fault.

Now, on to weeks of repair. The drywall is getting repaired this week downstairs. My daughter was displaced from her bedroom for a couple of days so her carpet could dry with an industrial fan. Soon we will probably be getting new carpet for the house instead of wood laminate.

Lesson learned? Check your toilets to make sure they function properly and that the hoses are in good shape. Makes me want to check our washing machine and make sure there are no issues there either.

On a bright note... my husband and I had a weekend getaway in downtown Indianapolis. It was a much needed weekend away from the house and without a kid. Now, we look forward to our week long family vacation to the Smoky Mountains in October. Can't wait!