Saturday morning, Jace measured and figured out what he needed, called the local lumber yards and found the best price and went out to purchase 50 dollars worth of base shoe molding.
Jace had installed nearly all the molding and all was going smoothly until he pulled out the washer and dryer to install some behind there. Another thing on the list was to clean behind all the large appliances, and I asked Jace to vacuum back there and mop (I offered too, but he said he would since he was back there already, such a good husband). I handed him a bowl of warm, soapy water and a towel and he handed me a black hose. The hose looked like a shop vac hose and all he said was, "Can you hold this?" "Sure." I didn't ask any questions and I probably should have...
So Jace is cleaning behind the washer and dryer, I am standing with the black hose in my hand and Linc is wandering the house. Ella is sleeping and Jack is in the basement watching a movie. I hear Linc head up the stairs and I hook the hose to the top of the washer and walk away.
I returned very quickly - maybe I'd been gone 5 minutes and in that time Jace had gone out to cut a piece of trim and returned to a squish in the laundry room rug. Yes, the black hose was the washer hose which happened to be full of water. And of course, the hose had come unhooked from where I had stuck it when I went to get Linc and the water was pouring all over the floor.
Of course, when things like this happen, I take a moment to respond because I just cannot believe it is happening. And really can only say, "Oh, my word!" When I did respond, my first thought was to grab towels and Jace said that wasn't going to cut it. (Which of course it wasn't) I told him to go and get the shop vac and he told me to hold the hose again. :)
So he ran to the garage and he started to vacuum up the water and then had to run to the garage again for the right attachment. I continued to try to dry up water with towels and the rugs in the half bath and laundry room while holding the hose.
Then Jack yells from the basement, "There's water on the white couch!" "Okay, Jack, we're kind of busy." Both Jace and I thought there would probably be some water dripping to the basement, but we had no idea...
Yes, it was pouring down unto the couch and the new laminate flooring (which cannot get wet). And again, I thought, "oh, my word! this cannot be happening."
Let me just say here, that I am not the best in stressful situations. I get really crabby. Really. And this time there was enough blame to go around - I left the hose, Jace never told me what it was, I never asked, he never mentioned it was full of water, etc, etc.
Anyway, I am pleased to report, that I was surprisingly not crabby. I really just wanted to laugh and shout, "oh, my word!" The irony was too much. Here we had been trying to get the house ready to sell by working on the to do list and it seemed we had just created a ton more work, maybe even an insurance claim. We had spent only 50 dollars on trim and we were looking at repairing drywall, replacing a couch and of course the floor.
Well, here we are several days later and it seems that all our shop vacing, towel drying, fan blowing, and door opening have paid off. The floor seems to be fine and so does the couch. Phew.
In the midst of cleaning it up, I was reminded that our stuff is not the most important thing (of course) and even if it had all ended up completely ruined, we would have figured it out. Don't get me wrong, I'm really thankful all of the Saturday cleaning paid off. But it is always good to get a moment to remember what really matters and it is not the new flooring. :)
Oh, my word, am I glad that it was only a small load in the washing machine....
The hole in the ceiling to let the water finish dripping out as Jace shop vaced it up. :)
