Floods and Pestilence

Sometimes, I think life gets too comfortable. If it's been a while since things have gotten interesting around your house, you'd better be on your guard. On the other hand, our family should be free from troubles for a while. We were just recently visited by floods and pestilence.

The 3rd definition of pestilence on Dictionary.com is: something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil. We had a wind storm blow through here on Tuesday. It was a pestilent wind storm! Here is a small sampling of what it did to our roof.

(I am short and could only get this much.) We have roofing shingles scattered around our yard and roof. Chad has hopes to get more shingles, tacks and tar before we get hit with a bunch of rain.

But that was not the end of the fun on Tuesday.

As I was going to the store room for Mac and Cheese for the kids' lunch that morning, I stepped in a wet spot at the bottom of the stairs. We get lots of wet spots with 5 kids! I was wondering who had spilled their water down there.

Side note: the downstairs was a DISASTER. The kids have no self control when it comes to the toy and TV rooms. I am at my wit's end and ready to get rid of all kid stuff. I have to tip-toe when I go downstairs because there isn't room for a whole foot!!!!

I didn't get downstairs the rest of the day. That was unfortunate. It was also unfortunate that there was a bunch of JUNK at the bottom of the stairs, including a sleeping bag and a lid to a toy bin. Otherwise, I might have noticed how big that spilled water spot really was.

As I was filling the dishwasher that night, I heard a dripping sound. It wasn't raining and the sound of a toilet flushing is different. I headed down the stairs to what I knew wouldn't be a good find. SPLASH! That spilled water was a huge puddle and it sprayed up on me! Around two corners, I found a huge mess.

To make a long, ugly story short...old houses + brittle pipes + lots of years of gunky build-up = a cascade of water every time you run water down the kitchen sink. And 5 1/2 hours of labor to cut out the old pipes and replace them with new ones = a lot of money.

This is what it looks like at the bottom of the stairs right now. The carpet pad is in the garage. I think it's just about dry. Boy, that sure didn't smell very good. (Especially when they cut into that old pipe.)

It's funny. I didn't think life was getting too terribly comfortable around here. And I sure didn't think we had too much money. I guess someone else saw it differently.