Welcome Home

Wednesday, May 8, 2013.    It has been a couple of days, and I finally have the time and energy to update you on what we have been dealing with.   We got home Monday, after our great week, and found the small line to the ice maker in our refrigerator had sprung a leak sometime in the previous 7 days.  The water went under the walls to soak about ¼ of the sewing room, 1/3 of the family room, a small corner of Dad’s office and the walls in the pantry closet.  Right… just what we need to deal with after a 5 hour drive back home.  It also shorted out our telephone land line. 

Of course it was easy to shut off the water at the wall.  (I had turned off the ice maker before we left).  We immediately started sucking water out of the carpets with our very excellent rug shampooer.  We pulled the carpet loose from the tack strips and cut out the wet pad.  We pulled the carpet up over various supports to let air under it and placed fans all around.  I turned the AC down to 71 degrees to dehumidify.   The worst part of course, was moving the heavy bookcases, big TV, DVR, DVD, and amplifier cases, wires, etc.. off the rug.  Thanks to Tim for his timely response and help.   I then had some very fine bourbon.  We moved the HighDef DVR to the bedroom TV and hit the sack to the sound of the AC and 7 fans.  (our own plus Lowes) 

On Tues morning we called ServePro to come out to use their equipment to see how bad the walls were wet.  Turns out.. not too much… They did knock out the kick plate under the book cabinet in the family room which is just on the other side of the wall from the fridge.  It was wet.. as were the baseboards.. but since the interior walls are not insulated, the water hadn’t done much damage.   They thought we had done fine with the quick response.  Charge was $133.   He estimated about $1300 for their service of fans and dehumidifiers for 3 days or so..  etc.. but he suggested we could do it ourselves.  So… it is now just a matter of letting things dry out.. Then replace the pad and re-stretch the carpet.  They will come out to estimate that tomorrow. 

Today Sears came out to repair the fridge… he had seen it many times… the same problem.  The hard plastic line is fastened to the back of the fridge with a metal clamp.  That point gets flexed any time the fridge is moved. It had just split a bit.  (Only 4 years old).   The guy said it was just a very bad design.  He cut out the split part and repaired with a coupling… Total charge $129.  He also refastened the line in a better way.  

So as Carrie used to say… "this isn’t a problem… a problem is when you can’t walk."  We are thankful.  It could be much worse and Carol may get new flooring in the sewing room out of the deal instead of her carpet.

By the way… I had another session with the audiologist.. she continues to find ways to improve my implant. Things will never be “normal”but I am encouraged with the slow improvement.