Haunted House

Halloween 2008 started out much like every other day. Dylan woke up at his normal time of 6:30 a.m. We all ate breakfast and visited with Dad as he got ready for work. Mike left for work at normal time and Dylan and I proceeded to get some cleaning done. I have seriously been slacking on cleaning lately, so I was feeling good about actually getting motivated to do it. We were upstairs cleaning the bathrooms and I needed to run downstairs to get the vaccuum. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I noticed little pieces of wet paper towels all over the foyer. I thought maybe Dylan had gotten into the dog's water dish. As I stepped down onto the wood floor, my foot sank and I was standing in about two inches of water. My heart started to race. I walked over to the bathroom, opened the door and was horrified. The toilet was spewing out dirty water...so much water that the trash can was actually floating!

I immediately called Mike to ask him what I should do (I do not handle things like this well because I am a control and neat freak). Mike, not fully comprehending how bad the situation was, told me to use a mop and get the water up quickly. So, I hung up the phone and immediately started using the mop to soak up as much water as possible. After about 10 minutes, I broke down sobbing because I realized this was going to take hours. I called Mike back and reiterated the whole TWO inches of dirty water thing. At that moment, the washing machine (laundry was part of my cleaning) started to drain and water again started spewing out of the toilet, adding another inch or so of water in the bathroom. I was on the verge of hysterics and Mike finally said he would come home to help.

He arrived home 20 minutes later and found me standing with the mop in two inches of poo water, sobbing. He immediately took over with the cleaning and I called our property management company (this is one time I'm very greatful we are renters and not owners). The management company sent over a plumber. Mike got things set up with the plumber while I took Dylan over to my friend Renee's house. Seeing as how the water was in our foyer, bathroom, exercise room, kitchen and living room...I really didn't want my two year old walking around in raw sewage.

When I got home from dropping off Dylan, I found the plumber in the front yard digging a hole. A few minutes later, he uncovered the source of the problem. The main sewage pipe was completely busted. It has probably been busted since the darn place was built last summer. Raw sewage is completely soaking our front yard and it was only a matter of time before it backed into the house. Plumber got the pipe fixed up and left. By this point, Mike had gotten the water cleaned up pretty well and got a lot of our stuff moved to dryer ground.

Next thing I know, I'm on the phone with some guy saying he is coming to check out the water damage. I head back to Renee's to relieve her of Dylan. By the time I get back, there is some guy walking around the house with Mike saying 'all of this is gonna have to come out.' Now, we were thinking some of the carpet and wood flooring. I head upstairs to take a shower (it's around 3 p.m.). By the time I'm done in the shower, there are about 10 guys in my house completely demo-ing the main level and parts of the garage. That's right folks, the water was so bad it leaked down into the garage. They tore out a good chunk of the drywall and insulation in the roof of the garage. Then they moved to the main level of the house. They completely tore out all the baseboards, flooring, and some drywall. My house is basically not livable right now and everything is covered in dust.

I left with Dylan around 4:30pm to go to a Halloween party and the demo guys were still busy destroying stuff. Around 6:30 p.m. Mike called to tell me they were done, but that I might want to find somewhere else to stay for a few days because he didn't think breathing in all the dust would be good for me and Dylan. I have amazing friends and two of them offered to let me and Dylan stay with them. A couple hours later Mike called back saying the dust had settled a lot and wasn't so bad. So, Dylan and came home around 8 p.m.

Let's just say that I never imagined an overflowing toiled would amount to a complete renovation of an entire floor of my house. These pictures don't really do justice to what we are dealing with for the next who knows how long.

Our living room

Half bath and source of water explosion

Foyer

Water damage on garage roof (this has now been torn out completely).

Broken sewage pipe - source of this whole mess. And yes, it is laying right next to the water pipe. We are very happy that the water pipe wasn't cracked.

Uncovering the source.

The day ended, fittingly, with Dylan having his first 'big person' vomit. Awesome!

(I will have real Halloween pictures later. Just waiting on friends to email me pictures.)