The Damage...

Wow, what a crazy week it has been. There was damage to our home...enough that we can't live here until a bathroom is functioning, our water is draining, and the sewage clean up is totally taken care of. Luckily, our shower only flooded once before Justin and I noticed and started using the shop vac to drain everything while our plumber was trying to figure out where the blockage was. I cannot describe how disgusting the shop vac process was, how bad it smelled, and what it was like for it to slosh on us while we were dumping it. We have discovered that a clay pipe was used to tie our sewage line into the city sewage line, and so roots had grown into the pipe (clay was typical for a home built in 1960). However, there is an additional blockage somewhere at the end of the pipe (hopefully not in the street) that we will be able to take care of once our plumber digs out our front yard to replace the clay pipe. What a headache. Belfore came and handled the mitigation process, and began tearing up all of our new stuff and carting it out in trash bags (including our vanities, lots of carpet, our bathroom floors, etc.). They are drying out our crawl spaces, but have already scoured the sub floor, and cut two feet flood cuts around our walls (standard procedure).


Our insurance adjuster came Friday to assess the damage. Any damage inside the home will be covered once we meet our deductible, but nothing outside (replacing the pipe). If we had been in this home ten years I might be slightly happy about the new carpet, but since we JUST PUT IT IN, I'm not thrilled about having it cut out in patches.

Something good that will come through this, I suppose, is nice bathrooms! We will replace the tile around the toilet and bath tub area (the tub may even need to be replaced from our guest bathroom), and the master bathroom will be rearranged like Justin had wanted from the beginning.

Though it has been easy to be totally discouraged by this situation, I have to remind myself that people deal with a lot worse. My kids and husband are safe, healthy, and happy (well sort of), so I feel blessed in the ways that really matter!