I'm glad Mr. Pickles was able to post from work -- I've been anxious to assure everyone who's been watching the news that we're still alive! Slightly damp, but alive and well. It's a good thing no one is allergic to mold, though.
It's been a topsy-turvy week! To start off, we had lightning & thunderstorms galore -- a pretty amazing one the night we returned from vacation. Nobody got much sleep for several days because the girls couldn't fall asleep as long as there was thunder. Miriam has been getting better about her fear of thunder, but Katie seems to have picked up where Miriam left off: she's TERRIFIED of it now. She starts to flip out when the lights even flicker (reminds me of a certain canine...). I can't say I blame her -- I was pretty freaked out by some of the louder explosions, and I usually like thunderstorms!
Virginia is for Lovers... of Rain
And then it just rained and rained and rained for so many days that you felt like it would never stop. We were about ready to build ourselves an ark! The rain last Sunday night was just incredible. We got a month's worth of rain in a couple hours -- 7 inches overnight. But we would have been fine if part of our 25-year-old sump pump hadn't rusted in place. During yet another evening lightning storm (they typically waited until the girls' bedtime to start) I went downstairs to unplug the computer, only to find a river running through the basement. It was coming under our back door, flowing across the family room and into the even more flooded office/laundry room, where the pump well itself was overflowing. I just stood on the stairs for a minute, staring in horror. Where do you start? Fortunately after the initial shock, my cool maternal crisis-dealing instincts kicked in and I started unplugging things and dragging valuable things out of the water (like Mr. Pickles' laptop and my sewing machine pedal). I could see that the sump pump had failed, but I didn't know what to do about that so I called the aid of the resident domestic god. He had a similar reaction to mine (although his jaw dropped a couple feet lower), then ran outside and started bailing water away from the back door using the trash can cover, all the while getting soaked in the downpour. (We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't very funny at the time.) Eventually the brave, brave man stuck his hand down the murky well of the pump and lifted up the lever -- praise be, it started working again, so the water level was reduced as soon as the river stopped flowing in the door. He also borrowed a neighbor's shop vac and vacuumed up all the puddles. My man is my hero! He was up till about 4am vacuuming water. Meanwhile, after I had done all I could to help, I took the girls (who had been sitting on the stairs in wonder, watching their crazy parents running around like ants) upstairs to attempt to get them to sleep. I just brought them into bed with me and we all finally fell asleep sometime after midnight.
The next day after many tries we were finally able to get a hold of a company (I never appreciated the "fire and water restoration" section in the yellow pages, until now) who sent a couple guys over in the afternoon with a high-power vac to suction out the rest of the water. They also lifted up the carpet, removed the sponge-like underpadding, and vacuumed the concrete floor. We set up a dehumidifier (we had always talked about getting one for the basement -- but it took an actual flood for us to finally get one!) and several large fans to try to dry the carpet out. (The girls are having great fun playing with the boxes!) After a couple days we gave up the attempt when we realized parts of the carpet were still soaked and just never going to dry, especially since it kept raining and raining and raining and raining! It's hard to remove humidity from inside the house when it's 100% humidity outside! We had the A/C on of course, but that really only succeeded in spreading the mildewy smell all over the rest of the house. Yummy.
The Sun'll Come Out... Tomorrow... or Maybe the Day After That...
The sun FINALLY broke through on Thursday morning -- I opened the curtains and Miriam exclaimed, "MOMMY! LOOK at that BLUE SKY!!!" I was about ready to jump for joy myself. With the sun out, things were FINALLY able to start drying out. The carpet was beyond hope -- after 3 days of being soggy (even with all the standing water vacuumed out of it) you can imagine how nice it smelled. It's amazing how the quality of the air in the house improved after Mr. Pickles just chucked the carpet out in the yard. (We kept a sample of it to prove to the insurance officer that it did indeed need to be chucked.) After the break in the rain, God was gracious enough to grant us some extra-nice weather. I think it only rained once or twice more, and stayed cool enough to keep the windows open for several days -- we didn't have to turn the A/C on again until last night, when it got up to 84 in our bedroom! Today and tomorrow look to be like scorchers, but we've got a kiddy pool so who cares? :) (Well, poor Mr. Pickles will, when he has to play hockey tonight...) (UPDATE: his game was rained out!) We're also supposed to have scattered severe thunderstorms for the next couple days -- lots of wind and rain and hail. I only pray the pump doesn't malfunction again!
It Could Always Be Worse
That's something we learned through all this -- we were barely hit compared to what some poor folks had to suffer. The men who vacuumed our carpets told us they were at a house earlier that morning that had thigh-high water in their basement. And we've heard about some people in Old Town (right by the Potomac) who were stuck in their houses because the main floor flooded and they couldn't get out. Others evacuated when the floodwater had risen so high that it had filled their basement and was rising up to the first floor. Incredible. When Mr. Pickles called around to another water restoration company and told them our situation, they explained that they'd have to put us on the waiting list for several days (we still haven't heard from them) -- they were dealing with people who had 7-10 feet of water in their homes, while we only had one inch, plus our electricity was on, so we should be grateful. That really helped to put things in perspective for us! And really, now that the carpet's gone, I don't mind too much about the rest of the disorder. As long as I can function as a homemaker I'm content. Monday was pretty much crisis day, so by Tuesday I needed some normalcy back in the home. I took the girls over to a friend's house (thanks Theresa!) so we could have a fun sanity break, then came back and did about 100 loads of laundry -- all the vacation laundry plus linens plus anything that had gotten wet (couch blanket, bathroom rug, etc). I also made sure to keep the kitchen clean during all this. So even though the rest of my house was a disaster area, my kitchen sink was shined! :)
The things we did lose were kind of sad. A lot of Mr. Pickles' math textbooks were on the floor, so they're pretty much ruined. I don't know if the insurance will cover it, but I hope so -- that's at least $400 right there. The girls had also left about a dozen books on the floor that I didn't even look at twice before I chucked them in the trash -- they were completely soaked through. There was also a box of pictures that hadn't made it into albums yet.
So how could it have been worse?
1. We only had one inch of water, compared to one foot.
2. We discovered the flood really quickly. Imagine if we had gone to bed and didn't see it until the morning. No, I really DON'T want to imagine that!
3. It didn't happen while we were gone on vacation. (what a welcome home!)
4. Mr. Pickles, resident domestic god, was able to start the pump again.
5. Even though the computer was on the lowest shelf of our computer desk, it was raised high enough to be spared. (although we were half-hoping we'd have to get a new one...)
6. Even though some pictures were ruined, most of the envelopes in the box were fine.
7. All our important papers were filed in plastic boxes.
8. I had recently put a bunch of the girls' toys upstairs in storage -- things that would certainly have been ruined in the flood. The only toys left on the floor were a bunch of plastic blocks.
9. Because it was a sump pump failure and not simply flooding from so much rain, our insurance will cover it. (thanks heavens, since we don't have flood insurance!)
10. Even though it was a sump pump failure, the water was freshly fallen rainwater -- and not sewage!
What I find the most interesting about the whole situation is that not only were all the readings at Mass last Sunday about trusting in God, the Gospel was about Christ calming the storm at sea! I had also just the previous day been reading a Bible meditation about submitting one's whole life to God and trusting in Him. So the theme of trust was in my heart when I found a river in my basement! I have to say that at worst, the whole thing is just annoying. (Well, and expensive too, if you count the dehumidifier and fans and plastic storage boxes we purchased in the last couple days.) But as far as we can tell, no major damage was done (just pray our drywall is okay!). And for that we're grateful. Well, of course, Mr. Pickles lost a couple precious vacation days staying home to battle the water demons -- I think that and the math textbooks were the worst losses! :)
Where Are the Gypsies Now That We Need Them?
Through all of this, the girls behaved fairly well, considering. Well, at least during the day. Well, at least one of them. On second thought, it's a miracle they both survived the week. Granted, their lives have been turned completely upside down, what with coming down from vacation and jetlag and thunderstorms and lack of sleep and no basement and a crowded living room and distracted parents! We've tried to be understanding but we have our limits too. The other night we had to let Katie scream herself to sleep (and I SWORE I'd never Ferberize my children) because she would not stay asleep longer than 5 minutes no matter what we did. I have to say that it worked, after 30-40 minutes -- and she slept like a rock for the first time in days. And the next day she was as happy as her usual self. Amazing what a good night's sleep will do! Poor little Katie has been extra-clingy since we returned from vacation, which is very unusual for her. Usually she's so independent. Our guess is that after spending so much time with other relatives in strange surroundings, she needed to check back in with "home base" (meaning Mom). Mr. Pickles calls her my little barnacle. It's not so bad during the day -- she seems content simply being in the same room as me, although she insists on eating in my lap during mealtimes. But it's been the most difficult when it's time for her to sleep -- for a while she couldn't sleep unless she was in bed with us. If we put her in her crib she'd panic. The last couple days it's gotten better, thankfully -- she's content to hold our hand until she falls asleep (which thankfully only takes 5 minutes!). Miriam's had her moments too -- she's been jealously clingy, and picks fights with Katie (although they're reconciled very cutely with lots of hugs and kisses), and throws tantrums for the slightest reason. So other than extra-clinginess and extreme terror during thunderstorms and boredom from being stuck inside for days, it's pretty much life as usual! :) The only upside for the girls is that since I had to move all their toys out of the way I put everything in our storage room (Miriam's old bedroom), and pretty much let the girls have free rein. It's like they've discovered a treasure trove of all the forbidden toys I've been keeping from them!
Well, thankfully, home life is slowly beginning to return to normal. A couple days ago I moved the TV equipment upstairs to our room and rearranged the living room furniture, so we actually had a living room again. (although there are still books piled in the corners and boxes of movies and a sofa mattress lying around) We were also finally able to reconnect the computer today, hurrah! I felt so cut off from the outside world while I couldn't access the internet! :) I don't know when our basement will return to normal -- we still have to remove the office carpeting (it's glued to the floor so it'll be a project to remove it) and recarpet the whole downstairs. But if nothing else, this has given me the incentive to really get things organized, with a (waterproof) place for everything and everything in its (waterproof) place.
I'll post updates and pictures from our last THREE family trips as soon as I can! (I was actually in the process of uploading some pics last Sunday evening, until fate intervened)...
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