Rains from above ... indoors
Last night at approximately 3:32 am, I went into the bathroom to discover that it was raining inside it.
First it was that the floor in the hall seemed oddly damp, and then there was this strange sound that was definitely water hitting the tiles and yes, there was water pouring out of the light fixture in the bathroom. Now, I am not new to living in apartment buildings from the 40s, but my husband is, so when I woke him up to tell him it was raining in the bathroom he initially seemed more confused than anything.
“You need to call the super. Right now,” I said, and he started to wake up and then the fact that there was also the loud whirring of a shop-vac kicked in. He started to go for his phone … and then there was a LOUD CRASHING SOUND from the living room.
Where at least it wasn’t actually raining inside the entire room, but there was water coming down out of the light fixture in the foyer too, and the loud crashing sound was the fact that the bottom box in our pile of book boxes (we still need to put shelves up on the walls themselves, not having enough space for more than two bookcases) had become completely saturated with the water that was accumulating on the floor and fell apart, collapsing in and taking the two boxes on top of it with it.
At this point my adrenaline-brain is realizing that soon our entire apartment could be full of water, and my thought process went “oh HELL no,” specifically about,
1) my poor confused dog, who was in his crate in the living room, and,
2) the ball-jointed doll from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yhlee (the kindest gift anyone who hasn’t known me for at least a decade has ever given me), who was perched on a shelf above the dog crate and has already survived flooding so I had an immediate visceral not happening with allowing any water damage to come to her
So I run over there, open the dog crate, guide him into the bedroom, get the doll back into her box and into the kitchen where there is definitely no water coming from the ceiling — mind you there was none above the dog crate either, so neither dog nor doll were even remotely damp but were by far the most important things to my mind, forget that the dog could also have fended for himself if he had to — somehow manage to not fall in this process, make sure my husband is calling the super and then climb up onto the bed to try to hide next to the dog.
Thankfully, the leakage was contained to (almost entirely) the bathroom and (traces) the foyer, somehow entirely skipping over the month-old sofa that was a combined early birthdays gift to both of us from my mother which is on a direct path between the two. However the pipes are laid out, I currently appreciate their weird design a lot.
It continued to rain inside until the water was shut off around 4:30.
The shop-vac noise went all night, so that was no sleep for me … or for our upstairs neighbors (a woman and her dog and cat, though honestly in retrospect I bet the cat slept, because cat). Brady and Trip seemed able to sleep. The super came down to us at 8ish and explained that a hot water main in the upstairs apartment had EXPLODED and also taken some kind of spigot out with it.
Water got turned back on just as I was leaving for work, which I wish I had not had to do because I did some very tragic phoning it in in the work department today (I slept an hour, max, and had insomnia Wednesday night, so …). Getting ready for work with no water was a pain. Having to teach two patient health workshops on no sleep was a complete wash, I hope the patients learned anything but won't be surprised if I have to repeat the entire series with this group.
Our super is very, very good and has a humongous dehumidifier hanging out in the living room for a few days, so we don’t need to worry about mold deposits happening in the ceiling. This is important because Brady has mold-variant asthma and we’d have to move again if mold spores started to develop.
The bathroom still needs a good cleaning (this one is my job), and the light fixture is a goner. The interior electrical bits of the ceiling light are just hanging out drying for a few days and then we’ll be getting a new ceiling light (this one is the landlord’s). I have to put a post-it note over the switch that says “NO”, very Dad-style in one of his preferred daily life film homages so that I don’t try to turn it on repeatedly.
I am extremely satisfied with the emergency response of our new building, but would have appreciated not to have to endure it!
As for the book box, it died a hero’s death: the box was completely soaked through and ruined, but no books were destroyed and only two of the fifty suffered even minor damages. It was summarily recycled, but may get a memorial service at a later date.
First it was that the floor in the hall seemed oddly damp, and then there was this strange sound that was definitely water hitting the tiles and yes, there was water pouring out of the light fixture in the bathroom. Now, I am not new to living in apartment buildings from the 40s, but my husband is, so when I woke him up to tell him it was raining in the bathroom he initially seemed more confused than anything.
“You need to call the super. Right now,” I said, and he started to wake up and then the fact that there was also the loud whirring of a shop-vac kicked in. He started to go for his phone … and then there was a LOUD CRASHING SOUND from the living room.
Where at least it wasn’t actually raining inside the entire room, but there was water coming down out of the light fixture in the foyer too, and the loud crashing sound was the fact that the bottom box in our pile of book boxes (we still need to put shelves up on the walls themselves, not having enough space for more than two bookcases) had become completely saturated with the water that was accumulating on the floor and fell apart, collapsing in and taking the two boxes on top of it with it.
At this point my adrenaline-brain is realizing that soon our entire apartment could be full of water, and my thought process went “oh HELL no,” specifically about,
1) my poor confused dog, who was in his crate in the living room, and,
2) the ball-jointed doll from
yhlee (the kindest gift anyone who hasn’t known me for at least a decade has ever given me), who was perched on a shelf above the dog crate and has already survived flooding so I had an immediate visceral not happening with allowing any water damage to come to herSo I run over there, open the dog crate, guide him into the bedroom, get the doll back into her box and into the kitchen where there is definitely no water coming from the ceiling — mind you there was none above the dog crate either, so neither dog nor doll were even remotely damp but were by far the most important things to my mind, forget that the dog could also have fended for himself if he had to — somehow manage to not fall in this process, make sure my husband is calling the super and then climb up onto the bed to try to hide next to the dog.
Thankfully, the leakage was contained to (almost entirely) the bathroom and (traces) the foyer, somehow entirely skipping over the month-old sofa that was a combined early birthdays gift to both of us from my mother which is on a direct path between the two. However the pipes are laid out, I currently appreciate their weird design a lot.
It continued to rain inside until the water was shut off around 4:30.
The shop-vac noise went all night, so that was no sleep for me … or for our upstairs neighbors (a woman and her dog and cat, though honestly in retrospect I bet the cat slept, because cat). Brady and Trip seemed able to sleep. The super came down to us at 8ish and explained that a hot water main in the upstairs apartment had EXPLODED and also taken some kind of spigot out with it.
Water got turned back on just as I was leaving for work, which I wish I had not had to do because I did some very tragic phoning it in in the work department today (I slept an hour, max, and had insomnia Wednesday night, so …). Getting ready for work with no water was a pain. Having to teach two patient health workshops on no sleep was a complete wash, I hope the patients learned anything but won't be surprised if I have to repeat the entire series with this group.
Our super is very, very good and has a humongous dehumidifier hanging out in the living room for a few days, so we don’t need to worry about mold deposits happening in the ceiling. This is important because Brady has mold-variant asthma and we’d have to move again if mold spores started to develop.
The bathroom still needs a good cleaning (this one is my job), and the light fixture is a goner. The interior electrical bits of the ceiling light are just hanging out drying for a few days and then we’ll be getting a new ceiling light (this one is the landlord’s). I have to put a post-it note over the switch that says “NO”, very Dad-style in one of his preferred daily life film homages so that I don’t try to turn it on repeatedly.
I am extremely satisfied with the emergency response of our new building, but would have appreciated not to have to endure it!
As for the book box, it died a hero’s death: the box was completely soaked through and ruined, but no books were destroyed and only two of the fifty suffered even minor damages. It was summarily recycled, but may get a memorial service at a later date.
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leave some liquor out for your house-guardians they were on pointno subject
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I'm very glad you caught it quickly and have a useful super. <3
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I'm glad you're surrounded with competent people.
I hope the dehumidifier is 100% effective.
Sending virtual paper towels covered with XOXOX
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wow.
i can't believe the sofa didn't get hit. man. MAN.
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