Waterfalls and floods

So, January did not just bring cold weather, but it brought waterfalls and floods to our humble abode. Monday morning as we were sitting at the table doing school, I heard a strange sound.

It sounded like water dripping. Fast. I got up and went in search of the noise and found water escaping out of the fluorescent light in our kitchen. What? was my response. I grabbed the trash can and then the phone. Called my grandpa. What else is a girl to do? So what that he is ninety and lives 30 minutes away. He calmly agreed I needed to go to the street, turn off the water and then call him back. So I tried. Not enough muscle. Three unfound neighbors later, I was running back inside to call the city. They came ten minutes later, but by then water was covering my kitchen floor and coming out of the air duct that is over the refrigerator.

The water stopped within a few minutes, but then I noticed the flood in the hallway. Yes, the flood. With a call to our insurance agent, we sat wondering what would be next. By the time the sun was setting, degrees were falling again into the low twenties, a company who removes water showed up. He brought fans and dehumidifiers. They pulled up carpet in the hallway and living room...oh the dust. Things will get better. We are just dodging machines, and trying not to step on the nail strips from the carpet. I have caught it a number of times, and boy do they hurt.
Nice water line on the carpet. Rumor has it, we will be getting new flooring. Blessings in disguise.

And this is the kitchen. Holes drilled in the toe boards to get the air flow in to dry it all up. Vinyl is pulling up and we are still doing school. We are grateful for this whole insurance thing.

Today found our great handyman up in our attic hunting for the source of the water. He found it in the copper tubing that was not protected by any insulation, but rather left to the freezing elements thus causing it to expand to almost twice its normal width. And then it cracked. And water sprayed. Very interesting how a freezing water can cause metal to just burst.

So, with God's protective and merciful hand on our lives and family, we are looking at minimal damage and restoration to our home. Good thing I home school and was home at the time, or we would have come home to our ceiling on our kitchen floor and our house with about 3 inches of water in our house.