Casa Catastrophe

Well, I have been avoiding the house blog, since it immediately depresses me. I get worked up all over again when I talk about it. But, I want you guys to see what reality we have been living in.

So while in AZ, the cherry on top of that whole traumatic trip was coming back to our home.

The story is...


a small flexible hose that comes from behind the upstairs toilet, busted and sprayed thousands of liters of water all over the bathroom.


This water then leaked into Teage's bedroom (soaking the entire carpet, stuffed animal basket, and warping the feet to his a bed a little). It also spread into the den area where it soaked that carpet as well and anything sitting on the floor. With that, it leaked into the upstairs landing, where apparently the water started to collect and gain weight. Once the makeshift pool had finished, it then started leaking through the floor and the surrounding walls. (Isn't this fun?). Once that happened, the water let gravity take over. It proceeded to rain about 8-10,000 liters of water on our downstairs fireplace room, laundry room, middle foyer area, and main bathroom. The fireplace room has a hole and a huge crack in the ceiling where we think either the water created itself or the firefighters poked through to allow the water to escape (again, that is the story...oh, and the joys of hearing firefighters busted in your house is always comforting).

(Why did I find out that between the floors, there is straw insulating our house?...is this the three little pigs house? WTF?)

That gave the water the opportunity to thrust a major portion of that water onto our beautiful, cozy, sage green, love seat. This, in turn, ruined the framed photos I had laying on the sill next to it (not yet hung up) and of course flooded the wood floors below it. This caused the floor to warp big time and decorate most of the seams of the wood with a nice black/brown seepage stain. The laundry room flooded and besides some molded blankets I had in my hamper and the leaking stains by the ceiling, the dryer (government dryer to boot) won't work anymore. The foyer is the worst (cosmetic wise). All the walls in these rooms downstairs got wet inside, so the wall covering (wall paper, stucco, whatever) started peeling from the walls.



The foyer peeled off completely. So all the painting we did downstairs is ruined as well.


My walls are exposed and still smell a little funky.


The main bathroom had a few of the recessed lights come down out of their sockets and the molding on the ceiling had to be removed.


Thankfully, the TV room, the kitchen and the office did not flood. That would have been an added terror to this already jacked up situation. The water did leak a bit into the wall of the office causing it to stain through the paint. But that was it.


I guess they are right...when it rains, it pours. The big kicker and punch in stomach came when our landlord tried to sell us out and blame us for the pipe busting before we even got back home. This coming from a govt housing agency as well. It is unclear why the pipe busted...but it is speculated that the winter weather along with the heat being off while we were gone played a part. The landlord told George to shut off the heat/oil before we left, but is now denying it. Tit for tat at this point (even though he is straight up lying through his teeth), but it is dishonest on his part. He lied to us over the phone while we were gone and when we got back, refused to talk to us in English about his backstabbing conversations he had with housing (and he understands/speaks English just fine). The point is, he's shady. So now we must split the repair costs for all the damage, UGH. Meanwhile, we are looking for a new house and moving out of here as soon as we have the estimate (which was supposed to be yesterday...but alas, no estimate nor has anyone come to asses the damage yet). We refuse to live in a house for the next 3 years with a landlord who has no moral compass, nor are we willing to spot renovate his house for the next three years as things fall apart in his 70 year old house because he says "You did it".

Anyway, we will have to move ourselves if we want to stay on the economy. If we want to move into the base housing, the government will pay for it. Not sure which one it will be. I really want to stay off base, since the experience is so refreshing and the kids like it....but I'm kinda scared after this nightmare. Next week we are going to look at a few houses off base on the referral list and see how it pans out. Meanwhile we are on the list for a Senior 4 BR home on base. Nothing hurt in seeing what they have to offer, too. Hopefully by Monday we can have some kind of estimate on the damage so we can pay this guy and terminate our contract with him.

That's the lowdown. Sucky, but we will survive and as always...pull through life's obstacles.

OK, no more $hitty, sad posts...just sayin'!!!