Splish! Splash! Sploosh!

These are not sounds you want to hear in your home but they are exactly what I heard when I entered our home 1 week ago today!

When I first went in it was dark and I honestly could not figure out for a moment what was happening.  Thankfully I had not flipped the normal light switch as I’m not sure what would have happened.

I quickly realized the sound was not some kind of critter but the sound of water splashing onto my couch.  Oh no!!! 

I turned on the light over the stove, away from the couch and it quickly became apparent that what I had hoped might be a little leak was anything but!  There was water streaming from 2 different holes in the ceiling plus a 3rd location through the ceiling fan….thus why I’m thankful I hadn’t flipped that switch.

Realizing the water was coming from the second floor I ran upstairs to find the water was pouring out of the bowl of our toilet!  Suspecting it was plugged I quickly grabbed the plunger, cleared a clog and stopped the water flow.   I’ll admit at this point I think I was in a bit of shock!

I went back downstairs to asses the damage and called my parents.  They offered to come right over but I knew this was more than any of us could handle.  (Can I say that Hannah was a trooper through this all!  When we first went into the house she waited in the front hall for a bit then went into my room upstairs to watch TV while I tried to make heads or tails of what was happening.)

When I first entered the house I did what any normal person does when they find water streaming from their ceiling, I put bowls under the main drips.  (The bigger one in the lower part of the picture filled up in about 3 mins!)

LOL!!!  If I’d taken even a moment to put my hand on the couch I would have realized that the bowls were pointless as the couch was already a huge 7’ sponge!!

This video was taken after clog had been removed and the water to the house was turned off.  It gives you a bit of an idea what we were facing.

I called my friend Carol who helped me with contacting my insurance company while at the same time her husband hurried over and helped me assess the damage.   In between this time I called the emergency number on our insurance policy, a claim was started and I was ensured I would be contacted soon by the next person who could help me.

It was safe to say the carpet in the family room was SOAKED!!

The picture above makes me giggle as the face cloth was Hannah’s help as she threw it on the floor and stepped on it to help me soak up some of the water.  Thank you sweetie!

My dad had recommended that I put food colouring in the back of the toilet to see if it leaked out.  Sure enough it did which helped me realize that the initial problem had been caused by ‘the perfect storm!’

1.  The toilet was flushed just before we left home in the morning but unbeknownst to us the toilet got plugged.

2.  The toilet water was running high in the tank which normally caused the excess to go down the pipe in tank and then down the pipe in the floor.  The clog stopped this from happening so the water had no where to go but up and over the toilet bowl!

3.  We were gone from the house for a little over 10 hours!  10 hours for the water to run and run….and  run!

David and I walked through the house assessing where it was wet and where it was not.  There was water (a lot of water) on all 3 levels of our home yet it was also contained in specific places.

Around the toilet on the second floor plus in Hannah’s room and in the hallway.

The family room spoke for itself in that the carpet water squished up the sides of my shoes as I walked on it.

The water was also pooled in a few different locations in the kitchen. 

In the basement the laundry sorting area was wet as water again was streaming onto the floor in a couple of places and also onto the washer and dryer. 

I cannot imagine the amount of water that went through my house that day but I will say that my little drain did it’s job and whisked away as much of the water as it could!  There had been a few clothes in the bottom of the washing machine but no water Wednesday morning.  When I arrived home Wednesday night there was at least 6” of water in the bottom of the washing machine!

David encouraged me, helped me calm down a bit then headed out.  Thank you so much friends for all your help!!!

Somewhere in the midst of all this I called Nana.  Papa to the rescue as he brought supper over for Hannah who enjoyed it picnic style in my room.  Thank you Papa!

By this time less than 2 hours had passed and yet the insurance company had started my claim, assigned it to an emergency clean-up company and a representative from that company was in our home!  Arron came in and together we walked through the house.  He calmly answered my questions, helped me to learn what would happen next and provided me with his email and phone number so that I could contact him any time I needed.

Since all of this had happened after business hours he could not confirm that I had insurance coverage so we needed to wait for Thursday morning to take next steps.    I decided to sign off on paperwork that would grant he and his company permission to begin the cleanup process as soon as insurance coverage was confirmed.  We also placed a lock box on the front door as I knew there would be a ton of people coming and going from our home and there was no way I could be home each time they were there.

Arron left at 10pm, I finally put my little trooper to bed…and then began final prep for an interview I had at 10am the next morning!  It never rains but it pours….literally this time!

To be continued….