The GREAT Flood

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook, then by now you have already heard the news.....

we've had a flood.....

Thanks to two little boys named Matthew & Jacob, although, honestly, I don't blame them. It's really my husband's fault ;-)

We've been in our house now for almost 4 years, and about 3 months ago we started having issues with several of the toilets. Apparently, the flushing mechanisms get worn and don't work very well after a few years (even though we moved into this house when it was brand-new and you'd think they would last at least 10 yrs!). Anyway, some of the toilets (we have 5) have been running non-stop after we flush them, requiring a jiggle of the handle to get them to stop.

Try telling that to the 3 & 5 year-olds :D

They SHOULD have been replaced.

In fact, ONE of them WAS replaced.

Still unclear as to why hubby didn't do them all at the same time.....

But what's done is done.

So yesterday, Matthew used the toilet and, well..... he "plugged" it.

Then, a few minutes later, Jacob went in and used the toilet.

I was upstairs when I heard Jacob hollering for me to come see the toilet. I went into the Jack & Jill bath that is shared by 4 of the boys to see the toilet full of nasty water that was threatening to spill over the sides at any second.

Normally, I would just leave a toilet in this condition and wait for the water to drain slightly before attempting to plunge it.

And that's EXACTLY what I did.

Told the boys to leave it alone and shut the door on my way out. Then I went to put some laundry away and change a poopy diaper.

I was in the middle of changing Caleb when I heard the sound of water splattering on the floor. The next thing I heard was Josh screaming that water was splattering on the floor.

I hollered for the girls to help, and they hurried to work bringing in buckets from the garage. I ran into the bathroom where there was now a good inch of water on the floor from one end to the other, and jiggled the handle. That stopped the immediate problem, but then I knew I had to get it OFF the floor to keep it from draining to the levels below.

I guess you can't let a toilet run when it's plugged..... never occurred to me. Gee, maybe it's MY fault!

I started grabbing arm loads of towels and throwing them on the floor, trying to avoid the poop floating around me. The water had made it's way into the boys closet.....

....was running out of the light sockets and ceiling speakers in the formal living room, and somehow even managed to make it through to the very bottom level of the house.....

Eventually, the water stopped pouring, and hubby arrived home. I thought I had done a pretty good job containing the water, but then these guys showed up.....

And not just in ONE truck, but in THREE!

And then they started tearing up my house.....

Ladders and equipment strewn everywhere.... plastic hanging from the walls.... furniture all moved to other rooms....

Sort of reminds me of when we added our new additions on exactly one year ago.....

except it's much, much worse :/

The picture above is the underneath section of the floating staircase that leads up to the third floor from our front foyer- this is now what we see when we take the staircase to go down to the basement. And the picture below shows more of the damage to the staircase leading to the basement. The walls have been completely torn away, and they're still going to rip out more.....

Can't get enough- here's more.......

And here's my formal dining room.....

I'm just so thankful this happened after Allie's graduation party!

Unfortunately, the equipment that's being used to dry out the house is big and loud....

and it's going to be here for 4-5 days.... UGH!!!

Then, the contractors will come in and get to work repairing all the damage.... it could take weeks. Right now, my house is covered in dust and I can't hear a thing over the loud machines. We stayed in a hotel last night, but it's so inconvenient for us to be away from home that we've decided to stick it out and stay here. The boys can't go in their rooms, but the girls' rooms in the basement are fine, and our master bedroom and Caleb's room remain undamaged.

The worst part is that all the brand-new carpet we put in last spring (we hated the builder-grade carpet that came in the house!), will have to be completely replaced on the 3rd floor because it has a pattern in it and it will be impossible to match the pattern and dye lot.

And some of the hardwood on the main level had to be cut out, as you can see in the picture above. Oh yeah, and they even cut the bottom half of the boys' bedroom wall around the bathroom, so I'm thinking the bedroom will have to be completely repainted.

Today we are so thankful for insurance.