An Unwelcome Homecoming Surprise, But Still Tinged With Relief

[valis2]

My sister and I went up north to visit the parental units over the weekend, and we returned quite merry, having stuffed ourselves at Ya-Ya's in Flint on the way.

We pulled out all of the gear and went to walk into the stairwell that leads to my apartment. I live at the ground level. Well, it's half below ground level, six steps down (to be exact), and there are two floors of tenants above me. I've always been scared to death of flooding, honestly. My sister has had two floods occur at different points in her life, and though they weren't horrible-floating-furniture floods, they were still awful to clean up.

So I hear the unmistakable sound of a wet-dry vac, and at the bottom of the stairs I see a giant waterstain in between the two apartment doors (one is mine, the other is my neighbor's).

Also, there is a giant rubbermaid container with rugs sitting next to it.

That's when I think, my apartment has been flooded for two days and I wasn't home, and I nearly had a heart attack.

My apartment is dry. Turns out my neighbor had left the house after starting the clothes washer, and came back four hours later to find her entire apartment soaked. Her neighbor had water damage under the wall into her apartment as well, but I have somehow miraculously escaped it, which makes me want to cry in relief, as my piano and antique bookshelf are on the wall I share with the waterlogged neighbor.

I feel awful for her. Thankfully she has friends over, and family, and the apartment people, and some sort of professional (and very loud) fan, and she has a great attitude. She shrugged and said, "They're just things." I, on the other hand, would have been foaming at the mouth, hysterical, and railing about an uncaring universe.

(I will try to stifle the impulse to mention that my father is completely paranoid about washers and dryers, and has always told me to never leave a domicile while either is running, because I have done it, every so often, and this could just as easily be my horror story.)

Comments

[rickfan37.livejournal.com]

Whew, I'm very glad it wasn't your horror story! However, since you are below ground level, and in the light of this accident, I'd be thinking about rearranging my furniture right now.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I'm so glad your apartment wasn't soaked. I had never thought of that about washers, but now I'll probably keep your father's advice in my head forever.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, would have been foaming at the mouth, hysterical, and railing about an uncaring universe.

I totally would be the same way. Glad your apartment was okay.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've moved the bookcase for the night, and I'm just praying that it doesn't spread and ruin the piano...I can't move that, it's just not a good idea, and I'm not paying professional movers to come out on New Year's Day at night to move it a few feet. :(

I'm just crossing my fingers that the giant noisy thing they were using dried everything out.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I really almost had a heart attack. Seriously.

My father actually had a dryer catch on fire before, once. Of course, this was years ago, and I'm certain they're much more safe now, but still, had he not been home, I shudder to think what would have happened.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the dishwasher. They're even worse. I do leave the house with mine running on occassion and always think, "I really shouldn't be leaving this." But really, I'd probably be completely useless if a hose blew mid-rinse cycle anyway. Oh yeah, now I know where the main water shut-off is....

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm paranoid about that, as well.

My neighbor said the washer got stuck on the rinse cycle, and just kept pouring in the water, apparently. How awful is that? *cringes*

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I am just not good with that sort of thing. Thank goodness the neighbor has relatively few belongings, and only moved in a few months ago. I've been here almost four years, and I have more furniture in each room than some people have in their entire apartment.

In this room, for example, I have three desks, two sets of paper cubicles, a TV/VCR cart, a stack of huge pillows, three chairs for the desks, two coffee tables, and a couch (that folds out into a bed). And a big metal rack for my crafting supplies.

[julian-black.livejournal.com]

Wow! You lucked out!

Since they caught it in time and got most of the water up, I'd say your piano's safe. But if something happened and you couldn't move it to safety, you could always use a car jack to raise each end of it and maybe put milk crates or cinder blocks or something else sturdy underneath it. That would at least keep it high and dry until any flooding receded.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was considering propping it up with some sort of plastic containers underneath, but I just felt the flooring again, and it's quite dry, so I'm going to go to bed. They've stopped working on the apartment, so it must be at least partially dry.

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your neighbor's plight, but I have to tell you,



overshadowed the rest of this post. BWHAHAAHAHAHAH!!!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Ya-Ya's chicken is soaked in crack. That is the only explanation I can offer for its absolutely terrifying deliciosity.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. That's alot of stuff in one room. It's either a pretty large room, or really packed. Sounds like my house. (and note: I've managed to that to a whole house.)

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! I would have reacted like you, wailing about the ruined stuff, especially about the things you cannot re-buy, like antique furniture or my journals. Not to mention the time wasted on cleaning and things like that. Thank god your apartment was spared.

When I was at uni, the roof of the student house I was living in was removed in spring to build a new floor on top, and then the rain started and they did a very poor job in covering the building. So by the end of the summer all our rooms were soaked, and we still had to live in them. I was lucky, because my room was the last one to give in, shortly after the end of the term, so I could still study more or less unperturbed. But I had a neighbour who showed me the sparks which danced along her ceiling when she switched on the light. It was scary! But we survived. :-D

Some years later, I lived in a house and in the floor above me, someone left the washing machine alone and the apartment was soaked, as well as the one directly beneath. I was lucky to be spared again.

My grandmother used to live in a house which was sitting at the end of a road. She was always afraid of rain, and once I was at my grandparents in a storm, and then I knew, why. The water was streaming down the road like a little river and after ten minutes of hard rain, it was more than ankle deep on the road, gently hitting the wall of the house. It was a fascinating sight to me, but I could also relate to my grandmother's fear of rain.

My dad nurses the same level of paranoia about washers, and leaving the oven burning and stuff like that. I was brought up to never let them run on their own. Lol. Is your dad a technical person as well? Because my dad is one, and I know another girl from work whose father has the same issues, and he is also into computers and engineering.

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm glad your apartment wasn't hurt. I've never had a flood happen (luckily), but springheel)jack once had the water heater in his apartment break while he was out of town. It ruined the carpet along with some books, I think. I'm going to think twice about leaving the washer on after this!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes, my dad is an engineer! How funny is that! Engineers are always like that.

Wow, sparks on the ceiling? I'd be completely freaking out!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've been totally freaking about the water heater for some time, and have talked to Elementary School Crush about it, and he's going to flush it out, thank goodness. ;)

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yay! Always nice to have a reason to see him again. ;)

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

Engineers - maybe it's their need to understand how the world is working. They concentrate so hard on function and reason, don't they?

The sparks on the ceiling were scary. I don't know how, but we were able to laugh about it. The girl fled to live with a friend for the rest of the term, and thankfully, nobody got killed by uncontrolled current.