WARNING! THIS POST IS LENGTHY AND CONTAINS DISTURBING MATERIAL WHICH COULD LEAD TO ANGER, IRRITATION, or BORDUM.
It may look like we've lost our minds and decided to renovate our brand new master bath. However, we have unfortunately been blessed with another wonderful water damage repair. The saga began long ago when we managed apartments in Logan. We lived in the ghetto and it was falling apart (literally-- the whole building was made of concrete and it was crumbling). We also had to take care of a 100 year old house next to it that had never had anything fixed properly. The owner's motto was, "A penny saved is a penny earned." He was a firm believer in that and it definitely showed when it came to his apartments (the penny saved part). One day, a tenant came to us and complained that she had a leak in her apartment and could hear water rushing in the walls. When I got there, I was shocked because it sounded like there was a river inside her wall and it looked like it was raining in her living room. Shortly after, her ceiling collapsed and, thank heavens, I had frantically started moving her furniture and computer out of there because they would have been destroyed. Come to find out, the ceiling had already fallen through the apartment above hers because the one above that had a clogged shower (just a little tip... never leave your shower clogged).
So, after getting out of that hole, we decide to take a managing job at another apartment complex in Logan. Aside from the occasional mold removal from students' apartments, we really had had no problems until the spring before Bryant was born. We started to notice that every time it rained, the carpet in Hallie's room would get really wet under the window. The owner cut a nice little hole in the drywall to see if it was dripping from the window. We had to pull up the carpet and air it out every time it rained. And, finally, after months of stinky, moldy fun, and no solutions to our problem, we found a huge crack in the foundation, which was allowing water to seep in. It was a big, long, drawn out mess with many weeks of smelling a nasty, moldy aroma, ripping up carpet, and many nights of Hallie sleeping in the pack 'n' play in the living room.
Finally, we moved into our 1st home in Foxboro, thinking that all of the drama was behind us, when, low and behold, the vinyl flooring in both our bathrooms started coming up. Come to find out, our toilets were installed wrong and we had to have our floors ripped up and replaced in both of our bathrooms and the toilets reinstalled. It was so much fun being without toilets for a few hours in our brand new house the day they came to do the repairs.
When we moved into this new house, we couldn't image that anything like that could possibly happen to us again. So, when I noticed the floor bubbling up in front of the shower in our master bath, you can image how overjoyed I was to know that we could do it all again. Fortunately for us, new homes come with a warranty, so I called and my new friend, Tony (yes, we're on a first name basis because we've become such good buddies over the past few months), who came and ripped up the vinyl, had the subfloor replaced, and had some framing done under the tub and the leak from the shower door fixed. You can image the sheer joy I felt when a few weeks later, I had to call Tony again and tell him that my floor was coming up again and it was soaked underneath. I was so happy to know that I had black mold growing right beneath my feet. So, after many, many months of having the glass guys, marble guys, floor guys, carpet guys, drywall guys, painters and the plummer come every other day, how happy I am that my master bathroom still looks like this. They've ripped up my floor several times; cut holes in my walls and floor, and basically destroyed my bathroom well-being.
I was just thrilled when, yesterday, I discovered a leak in the kids' bathroom from a HUGE crack in the bottom of the tank of the toilet, which I never noticed, that had been there since we moved in. Fortunately, they replaced the tank today and I am crossing my fingers that we won't have to rip up the floor in there, too. Where would we shower? or pee? Anyway, I hope that none of you have had or will ever have to have so many blessed, wet, moldy opportunities in your life. We continue to hope that we will have a shower, a toilet and a floor to walk on someday.
Isn't it pretty?
Gotta love the look and smell of black mold!
The current state of our bathroom floor (missing in action)
Naughty Bryant
The dirt pile has become the neighborhood hot spot.
Cameron in bliss
Enjoying the last few days of the ghetto swing set
Cold, dirty & totally entertained-- I'd recommend it to anyone
