Wellllllll....we want be wallpapering today, our house is full of water (Part l - The flooded house)

Afternoon Sweet Friends

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Well, I finally have all the pics loaded

and am ready to go!!

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It was on a Saturday morning, July 28, 2001,

to be exact. We had not planned on being home.

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Our daughter, then a teenager, was out of town

at a beach house, with a friend and her family.

We thought it a great opportunity to go to Gainesville

to see some of our dearest friends and our son, who

was then living there, and attending Univ. of

Florida. Our friends wound up not being home,

and our son wound up having to work all

weekend, so we resigned ourselves to staying

home and wallpapering the kitchen

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We were up till around 3 a.m. preparing the

kitchen; clearing off the countertops, packing

stuff in boxes, moving the microwave to a

different spot, that would be out of the way,

yet still useable, and wiping down the walls

and baseboards. We finally retired for the

evening being a bit more excited about

doing the wallpapering the next day.

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I awoke about 8 a.m. to go to the bathroom,

and came back and sat on the edge of the bed

and sleepily looked out into the house, (our

bed thankfully was not positioned where it

is now) I remember looking at the floor

and thinking Wow, the sun is sure coming

in funny this morning and the floor looks so shiny,

then the thought hit....why would the floor

be so shiny??? My next thought was "Water",

so I quickly made my way to the bedroom

door and quickly found out that it indeed,

was water. the carpet was already nice

and squishy, as you can see below.

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I stood there momentarily, still half asleep, while hubby

was still sleeping, and said Babe, Wake up!!

He woke up and I said......We aren't going to be doing

any wallpapering today our house is full of water.

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He said What!!! And jumped out of bed, we both

headed out towards the kitchen, Jimmy thinking it

might have been some plumbing he had fixed a

week or so before, headed to the sink in the kitchen,

but by the time we got to the end of the counter

I could hear sounds of water coming from the other

side of the house.

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To our amazement the water was running
thru out house just like a little creek with
current and everything. It was ankle deep
as we made our way over to the bathroom.

We walked across the house......(right across

from where you see the couch, was the area I

was looking as I was sitting on our bed but

there was also a cabinet sitting there on that

wall, so I couldn't see all that water at the time.

This picture was actually taken after we found

the source of the water and turned it off.

That is why there is no ripples in the water.

When we reached the bathroom it was dark so naturally

Jim went to turn on the light but I grabbed his arm,

he was still half asleep, and I was afraid we might be

electrocuted. We could now hear the water rushing.

He thought it was okay to turn on the light so guess

he was right cause we are still hear to tell about it!!

This is what we discovered.

A crack in the toilet tank!!

Hopefully, you can click on it and make it larger,
but the toilet tank had actually cracked and the
water was just running and running, because
it would refill and then refill the tank again and
again. Jim then turned off the water as quickly
as possible, and our creek current immediately
stopped, so we moved on to see what else
had happened.




As we looked into our living room it looked just like
a kiddie wadding pool. The carpeting was actually
floating. My darling hubby said, guess I'd better
get the "Shop Vac" to which I replied "are you kidding,
this is not a job for a shop vac, we need
a professional service that knows what to do".

Amazingly God had prepared me for this event,
3 years before it happened!!
We had friends years ago, that had this happen to
them, and I never thought at the time, to ask them
what they did or who they called, but about 3 yrs.
prior to this event, someone had told me you could
have rugs dyed. I had a large area rug and wanted
to find out if it was possible to dye it and what it
would cost, so I had gone thru the yellow pages,
and in doing so saw this company called "Servpro",
and their ad said they did emergency water cleanup.
I remember thinking oh, they have professional
services that do that..........that's is what Sue & Gary
must have done.


So upon seeing this mess, the name Servpro sprung
to my mind, so I got the phone book out and looked
up there number, then decided I better call our
Homeowners Ins. first, so I did, and told them who
I wanted to call and they said fine, they work with
them all the time. So I called, meanwhile, Jim and
I ran around moving as much stuff as we could, trying
to get it out of the water or prevent the water
from getting to it, mostly it was too late, it had
seeped under the walls into the closets and into
the bedrooms, it even went under the kitchen
cabinets and into our bedroom closet.

It also ran like a river thru the whole house and

into the kitchen and out the kitchen door and
into the garage and down our driveway.
A Sight to Behold!!
Then Servpro arrived promptly at 9:15 a.m. and

honestly, They were like "Angels of Mercy", Really!!
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We had no idea where to start, they just
come in and take over.
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Once they got here, I was standing and
watching them from the dining room as
they started in my daughters bedroom.
They were just cutting up the carpeting
and padding and stuffing it into huge garbage
bags, then they would take it outside and
come do another one. As I stood watching
all this, a strange peace came over me.
and I had a knowing it was the answer
to a prayer from just one week earlier.
My hubby didn't even know about it !!
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We had been in our house over 

20 years, and

our carpeting was getting pretty worn, it actually

had held up pretty well for a long time mainly

because we had all of the hard flooring thru

the main walkway areas, but........

We really needed new carpeting, so I

prayed and asked the Lord to please help

us, because I knew there was no way we

could afford to do it, with one kid in college

and another one about to go.

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As I stood there........... I knew.....

 this was God's answer,

but I could never have fathomed all He

would do!!

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It was so good that we had cleared all the counters

off, because we had to empty all the dishes out of

our china hutches so they could move them, and

guess where we put them all!

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As they went room from room cutting 

out the carpeting

I knew that those rooms where going to get new

carpeting, and I was overjoyed at what our Lord

was doing for us. Poor Jimmy was having a very

hard time with our home being turned upside down,

it was not at all like the day we had planned,

and he still didn't know about my prayer yet!

So he was having a hard time understanding

why I seemed to be so okay with it.

It is funny how at first you walk into the room

 and think oh, this room is fine, but as soon

 as you put a foot on the carpeting you realize 

itis saturated.

You can see the footprints here on the rug.

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That rug that I was gonna have dyed got

 big burgundy stains on it from the furniture

 legs bleeding onto it, so it had to go too!

You can see where I am standing,

 that is our garage door and where

 the water was draining out to the

driveway.

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Servpro cleaned up everything and put big fans

in here to dry it out. They sounded like B-52

bombers, you couldn't even hear yourself talk.

They also hook up these humidifiers to all

your sinks to help pull the water out of the air.

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The only carpeting they didn't remove was

in our bedroom and closet.

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We wound up having to go to a hotel,

fortunately, La Quinta Inn take pets.

We had a lil Schnauzer then, named Zippy.

So we packed a few things and we went to the hotel,

as we pondered & wondered how and what was gonna
happen next..................
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Stay tuned tomorrow to find out...........
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Blessings and Hugs,
Nellie




Click here for Part 2