Like the Sound of Rushing Water

I had just turned out the lights when I heard a bang and then like the sound of rushing water or was it Laura's fan - maybe it had tipped over. So I followed the sound back into the bathroom, turned on the light and behold...it was rushing water, coming out of the wall behind the toilet! We had a painting on the wall above the toilet. It had fallen to the floor, snapping off the supply line to the toilet. The toilet shut off valve was on the wrong side of the break so I had to turn off the water outside. Of course, making my way in the dark out to the front door was quite a challenge in itself - I had forgotten about the two plastic tubs that I had set out last night - right in the way. Once the water was off, we had to clean up a couple of inches of water in the bathroom. Only a little had come through the bathroom door onto our bedroom carpet. With the water to the house off, the water cleaned off of the floor and all the hardware stores closed, we decided to go to sleep and get an early start on the repair when Lowes openned in the morning. All was well.

Or so we thought. Laura got up in the night - about 3:30 a.m. - and the carpet from the bed to the bathroom was soaked. As we discovered, even though the water supply valve to the house was closed down as far as it would go; and even though water would not come out of any other faucet in the house, it was still dribbling out of the broken pipe. Though the trickle was hard to see, it actually was flowing at a pretty good rate - enough to flood our bedroom carpet. More clean up, cutting out of soaked carpet and pad - its turning into quite the morning.

I made it to Lowes when it opened at 6:00 a.m. Of course at that time of the morning, the Lowes employees are right there to help you - not! So I fumbled with getting what I needed, picked Laura up a coffee at Dunkin Donuts and headed home. The actual repair only took about ten minutes - if only I had had the valve last night.

So here I sit waiting for the CPVC glue to dry before turning back on the water supply for a pressure test. Laura is napping until then. We are debating what to do with our bedroom carpet with a third of it cut out. Plus the bathroom linoleum is ruined - I guess I'll be tiling that this week even though Laura had promised a break from home repair projects.

I love my home...I love my home...