What A Drip...

Mom went home to California at the beginning of April 2009.  It was hard for both of us to say goodbye after 6 months of her living with me and the previous months having lived at home during recovery. But, life began to take on a feel of normal again with me going to work during the day and hanging with my friends or at home at night. I would talk to my family every couple of days so they knew everything was alright with me.

Opened ceiling with water damage.

I was home one weekend watching television in my recliner, when I began hearing a steady drip of water. Sometimes I could hear someone in the apartment above me taking a shower and it did sound like dripping water, so I didn't think too much of it. When the sound kept up for quite some time, I started to check out my apartment to see if it was in my place. I checked the kitchen to see if by some odd chance I left the faucet running slowly. No, that wasn't it. I checked the laundry closet to see if the washer was leaking. No, it wasn't that either. Then I went to my master bathroom thinking maybe the toilet was still running since I have had problems with that as of late. Bingo, that was the room where the water was running, but it wasn't the toilet or the sink. Above the bathtub the ceiling was not just leaking, but running water.

This place was a mess!

Water bubble under the paint on the wall.

The doctors had given me restrictions on how far I could bend over and how much movement I could have with my right leg since surgery. I was only able to move my leg forward and backward at a 50 degree ratio. From side to side, I could only go 30 degrees. So, with these limitations in place, it was difficult for me to bend over with towels to mop up the floor. I was totally impossible for me to get down on my hands and knees to do it either.

So, here I am with water rushing into my bathroom and there is nothing I can do to clean any of it up. I called my apartment managers emergency line for maintenance, I ended up having to leave a message. An hour later I received a call from the guy who was on-call for maintenance saying he would be over sometime later to take a look at it. I expressed the urgency of the situation to him in hopes he would come over much quicker. By the time he arrived, my floor was soaking wet and still dripping water from the ceiling. The water on the floor was spreading toward the door which leads to the closets of my bedroom. The best he could do at the time was poke a hole in my ceiling and put a bucket under the stream of water. That did a lot of good, NOT!

Paint bubble removed.

A couple of days later, he came back to my place and ripped a large hole in my ceiling and paint off my wall behind my toilet. He wanted to "air out the wood" in the ceiling before "patching" it up. He wasn't completely sure of the source yet, but he did know that it was coming from the third floor as the second floor was wet from their ceiling as well. The office was going to call in the construction company that had restored and remodeled the second and third floors from the fire in January. Who knew when they would come and take a look.

A few more days went by and I still had a gaping hole in my ceiling with wet wood. The dripping had stopped by now, but the majority of the damage had already taken place. My bathroom smelled old and musty now.

When the construction company finally came to my place, they took one look (10 seconds) and assessed that they needed to completely remove the water  by using an industrial strength dehumidifier. This thing took up about half the walking space in the bathroom and was so stinking loud that even with the doors closed I had to turn up the volume on my living room t.v.

For several days I lived with the dehumidifiers blasting day and night. I lost sleep over the noise. The apartment was so hot and dry from pulling out all of the moisture. I was just about as miserable as my poor bathroom looked. Finally, I called the office manager of the complex and talked with her about the noise and my lack of sleep. She called the construction company and they suggested leaving them off at night, but having them running all during the day. That would be great since I'm at work during the day. Wish they had told me that several days ago before I lost sleep!

Oh well, I can move passed this too.

After two weeks had passed from the ceiling beginning its dripping, the wood and drywall had finally dried out. It took the construction company another 3 weeks to patch up my wall and ceiling so it looked like it had before. It was nice to have my bathroom getting back in order.

It has seemed like there is nothing but a trial after another trial since I found out about the cancer in my hip. You ask the Lord when this roller coaster ride is going to slow down enough to jump off. Or, if it is going to stop at all and let you off. But, you don't really get an answer loud and clear. So, you just keep plugging away moment by moment waiting for any little sign that will signal that you are on the right track to make it back to the starting gate at the right time.

Next..."Airplanes, Weddings and Mother's Day."

Reflection:

"Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!" Psalm 27:14