Dream Book Design

That One Time We Thought It Was Dog Pee

This weekend J and I had huge plans. I wasn’t going to go in to work until Saturday evening, so we were going to get a TON done that morning. It started off great, with some baseboards being installed by 8am, and then it took a turn, a bad bad turn. We went to move some of the baseboards from our ‘storage area’ for them, aka our living room. We have had the boards piled up there since we moved in, and have only been grabbing ones off the top here and there, not moving much stuff around. Jeremy noticed a wet spot on the wall, and called me in the room to complain that Boomer must have peed. We then quickly found two other spots on the ground, and started to get anxious. We {as quickly as we could} moved all the baseboards out {those things are freaking long and heavy} and immediately knew that we weren’t just dealing with Boomer being a bad boy and peeing, we had a serious leak.

As soon as we became aware of the problem, we immediately called a plumbing team similar to Milwaukee Plumbing Services and a restoration team. Leaks are really tough to repair by someone who has no idea how to carry out the job. Yes, we could have tried our hand at the task, but what good could it have brought? Moreover, it could have made the leak worse. We have heard our friends talk about how they tried to repair the leak on their own and made it worse, which is why they had to call someone from firms like I Need The Plumber & AC (which is known to be ranked as a top pipe leak repair in Port St. Lucie). Anyway, this was one of the reasons why we were determined about hiring professionals.

Speaking of… This is how everything looked the day of:

Uh-huh, thats all our brand new flooring ripped up. And those perfectly smoothed out walls- they’re gone! So heartbreaking, but we obviously need to get it up and out so we don’t have issues later down the road. This was Saturday, today there is way more flooring up and the wall is knocked out a whole bunch more. I cannot show you it though, because this is what I see:

They sealed the room up, but a dehumidifier in it, and are going to start working more this morning. It was sad to see the floor gets ripped up, and sad about the smooth wall, but what makes me cringe the most is the fact that they are having to rip out some of our kitchen cabinets as well! Yes, the cabinets that we JUST got all in..

We also got on the phone with our home warranty service. This is an important step – checking what your policy from 2-10.com, or anywhere else, covers is vital to ensure your home is able to be repaired when situations like this arise.

Those two uppers are coming down since there is most likely damage to the dry wall, since it is splitting underneath the cabinet here:

Suck, suck, suck. So much for the kitchen almost being finished, and for us making great strides. Braylens birthday party is also oficially not going to be here anymore, since I would rather not have a bunch of sweet one year olds running around literal construction zones. Ugh!

So- thats where we are at. We are bummed. We just felt like we were making a dent on the to-do list, and now this! Such is life. Hopefully they can get it all fixed and back to normal ASAP.

Have you guys ever dealt with leaks? Any helpful tips for us, both physically and mentally?;)

Comments

  1. Cortney says

    So sorry to see this! My gosh – I can see how you must be tremendously frustrated. �� Just remember that it’s a good thing that you caught it now, or you would have been dealing with a much bigger problem down the road.

    Do you know the source? Good luck and try to keep reminding yourself that you aren’t ripping out the rest of your great kitchen (which you may have had to do I you didn’t catch this now).

  3. House Crazy in Michigan! says

    My heart goes out to you…this has to be SO discouraging after all your hard work. I had a leak in my gallery/studio one winter when a faucet froze. I woke in the morning with a message in my mind (like an angel taking to me) “go out and check the studio something is wrong.” I went out and found water POURING out from UNDER my fridge. After a real scramble to turn off the water (this turn off valve was located in the pool house under about 30″ of snow (a very long story here). I cleaned up as much as I could. Then I called the insurance company, they sent out the repair guys. They punched a hole in the wallboard and set up fans/commercial dehumidifers etc. It took two weeks, new wallboard and new paint but the repairs were done. It was a LONG two weeks. I had to pay the $500.00 deductible too. I know your pain!! Another similar story: 3 months from moving in, the septic backed up into our shower stall. UGLY/STINKY! Turned out we needed a whole new septic system/drain field and exterior piping. The home warranties in MI do not cover outside issues. AVERY EXPENSIVE SURPRISE! Most people don’t realize that, I did not either. I’m curious why you moved…did your husband take a now job? Or are you buying forclosures and flipping them?

    • adrianne lentine says

      Yikes- you have had your experience with it. Heres to hoping its all over…for both of us. We moved because we found a house that was more suited for our family to grow in to, esp. with my parents living with us now. We do also adore fixing up houses as we go:)

  5. Nutbird says

    Reframe this right away. Look at it this way. Renovation is always rife with problems. You’ve seen Property Brothers and Love it or List it, right? This could have happened a year from now. If you open everything up and fix it, you might find other problems, a good thing. The kitchen cabinets are not a big deal. Just take them down, dry out the back and hang them again. This is also a good reason to take a tour of your home every day or so. I think I’ll go check out the basement. Ann

  6. Jeanie says

    Wow…sorry. Yes, be glad you caught it before you were further down the road; and lucky you have the ability to deal with it. Possibly best of all… Boomer doesn’t have a problem. 🙂 Hang in there.

  8. Beth says

    My husband and I used to clean model homes. A couple of years ago, we were getting ready to clean a 2 story one (price tag of a million and a half) and as I walked into the kitchen, water was running down the pendant light and splashing onto the huge island below. I stood there for a few seconds trying to make sense of what I was seeing, and then I yelled for my husband and then took off running to the sales office to tell the sales agent. The island was covered in water, and eventually would have covered the floor. The timing was amazing. Also the fact that no potential buyers had walked in and saw what was happening. Later we joked about what would have happened if it had gone on for a couple of days and when the front door was opened, a wave of water would have greeted us.