Aaaaagh, or why I love being a homeowner

A few nights ago I was putting my older daughter to bed. As she was changing into her PJs I noticed a puddle of water on the floor next to her bed. Immediately I assumed she had spilled something and not told me. "What is that?" I demanded. "I don't know, Mommy," she said, the picture of innocence. "Seriously, you need to tell me what that is." "I really don't know, Mommy. I didn't do anything!" I was a bit impatient and edgy that night already and I almost started yelling (always a good thing to do with your wide-eyed and wonderful 4-year-old!) but then a little voice in my head told me to look up at the ceiling. OY. There was water coming out of the ceiling and dripping onto the floor.

I ran to get my husband and he quickly determined that the toilet in the third floor bathroom was leaking, and had filled up some amount of space in her ceiling with water. Being a somewhat nervous person around leaks and someone who has had just about enough of surprising and expensive disasters this year, I freaked out a bit. But then my daughter started to freak out so I had to go calm her down. My much smarter husband got his trusty Leatherman tool and a large soup pot, poked a hole in the ceiling and let the built-up water drain out into the pot. He thinks the leak is in the small pipe that takes clean water from the pipes to the toilet, so at least it's not raw sewage that is leaking into her room. Our noses would have told us in five seconds if that was the case.

We've been a tad busy since we discovered the leak so we haven't done anything about it yet. There's still a hole in the ceiling and a pot on the floor. Our daughter is now sleeping in the twin bed in her sister's room, so there's really no sense of urgency to get this fixed. Although I suppose she might want to go back in her room eventually. That twin bed was kind of an afterthought in that room and we don't use it very much, but it sure is coming in handy now.

So yay, there's a hole in my house! Thank goodness the leak wasn't worse and didn't make the ceiling open and send freezing water and pieces of sheetrock onto my precious daughter's face as she slept. That would have just about made me plotz.

Comments

[Heather]

Leaky houses suck! I hope you get it fixed soon ;-(. On the plus side, sounds like the kids like sleeping in the same room ;-).

[Clover]

Oh, I hate those kinds of projects. A big chunck of our downstairs bathroom ceiling fell down in March. We found that much of the plaster was also soaked all due to a leaky pipe. The pipe got fixed, but because my husband is a procrastinator, the bathroom is still not completely finished. Ugh.

My theory always has been and alway will be: The project will always cost three times as much, and will take three times as long as you estimate it be. That is one reason why homeownership sucks.

I hope you get the problem solved soon! Good luck!

[Stephanie G.]

Leaks, water in the basement, = my greatest fear as a homeowner. I don't know why, it just makes me feel like we are really doing something wrong and the house might collapse around us.

Right now I am anxiously awaiting a plunger (how do we not have one?!?!) for a backed up toilet (thank god I caught it before it overflowed on the floor). Just about sending me over the edge.