Yesterday was blissfully uneventful which was perfect for my sanity after the chaotic events of Monday and Tuesday.
Monday morning, I woke up to find my living room carpet soaked through along the wall that connects to my neighbor’s apartment. I called my landlady at 9am to let her know there was a water leak somewhere, most likely from the neighbor’s water heater (since that’s really the only way water could come under the wall). She arrived at NOON to investigate the damage.
Now, I know she has a life of her own and may not have been able to get here until then. I also knew Monday was a holiday. But when a tenant calls and says you have a water leak in your apartment building, wouldn’t your next call be to every plumber in a 10 mile radius to find someone to find and fix the problem immediately?
So, first she looked under my sink and behind my refrigerator to see if the leak was coming from my apartment. Since my LIVING ROOM was wet and not my KITCHEN, I was pretty sure my apartment wasn’t the problem. She then went next door. She came back to say there was no leak over there. I said “It’s got to be over there for it to be leaking under my carpet. The only pipes in that wall are their water heater pipes.” She went back over and looked in their closet with the water heater, and what do you know, there was the leak. What she didn’t see was that the bottom of the water heater had rusted out. She thought it was leaking from the fittings.
A plumber was supposed to come Monday to check it out. No plumber on Monday.
No plumber on Tuesday.
I have my daughter on Tuesday nights. She thought it hilarious that the floor was wet. She wanted to squish in it and get her feet wet. Mean Mom came out and wouldn’t let her play.
I took Morgan back to her father and headed back home, planning to stop at my mom’s house on my way home to pick up the carpet cleaner that we share. I called my mom to make sure she had it and didn’t need it. She had it, wasn’t using it and then also freaked me out about the possibility of mold growing up the walls and under the pad from all the water. Thanks , Mom.
As soon as I hung up the phone, my front tire went flat.
It’s 9:15 at night. I’m 25 miles from home. And now I can’t get the carpet cleaner to clean up the water. I kinda freaked out.
I have Verizon and I pay for Roadside Assistance, so I called them only to be told I only get 10 miles of towing for free and I’ll have to pay to get the car the other 15 miles home. The guy on the line asks me “Are you sure you wanna do that?” I just about smacked him through the phone. I’ve always been told it’s not safe to drive more than about 5 miles on the spare tire and was pretty sure it would be safer to be towed. He asked me didn’t I just want it towed to the closest garage? To which I replied, “I’m 25 miles from home. That doesn’t help me, does it?” I tried not to let Crazy Bitch come out but this guy was just not getting it.
The tow truck showed up at 10:30. We dropped the car off at the garage closest to my apartment since it’s less than a mile away and I can walk back and forth. The tow truck driver was nice enough to drive me home so I didn’t have to walk home in the dark even though it’s an extremely safe neighborhood and I wasn’t scared at all.
I had called my mom to let her know I wouldn’t be by to pick up the carpet cleaner so she said she would bring it up to me when she got off work. The worst part of that is she works nights. So she woke me up at 4:30 in the morning after she got off and drove up to my apartment. I knew it was necessary because I really needed to get the carpet dry but it was still a pain in the ass to get up.
Wednesday morning, I walked down to the garage to drop off the car key so they could fix my tire.
Back to the wet floor in my apartment. Still no plumber until 11:00am Wednesday morning.
The water heater had not been turned off all this time. They had continued to use the water heater and my floor got more and more soaked. When the plumber showed up I asked if the leak was stopped. He said yes he had turned off the water and was replacing the whole water heater. I said “Great, thanks, because it would be useless to start cleaning up all this water if it’s still leaking under the wall.”
I spent about 4 hours Wednesday sucking water up from the carpet. It is still damp in a few places and smells like damp and mildew already. I’ve sprayed Lysol and Febreeze, and sprinkled baking powder all over it. I have a feeling I’m going to need something more powerful.
I’m just glad yesterday and today have been uneventful. I don’t think I could have handled anything else.
