not one of my better days, aka "water bad"

[rivendellrose]

I woke up this morning at 4:45 to a strange sound. It sounded like... running water. Rather a lot of it, actually. After determining that yes, I really was awake and I really did hear that obnoxious sound, my thought process went something like this:

Step 1: What the hell is someone doing taking a shower this early in the morning?
Step 2: Wait, the shower isn't that loud from my room. And there are only three of us (including me) home this weekend. Also, I'm the only one who has to be anywhere today, so why would anyone else be up?
Step 3: *Last, desperate attempt at not-having-to-get-up-to-investigate* Is it, perhaps, raining very hard? So hard, perhaps, that it's... somehow making loud noises inside the house?

Whereupon, with much grumbling and "no, no, please no, don't be anything bad" sorts of commentary, I pulled on my robe and went to investigate. And immediately outside my door landed my foot in a good inch of standing water.

"No, no, no... bad, bad, very very bad..."

I'll spare you the direct quotes from here out. Long story short, water heater go splut, basement go very very wet. I try to find a valve to turn off. No luck. Call Mom, see if she knows how to turn off a water heater. No luck. Call Dad. No answer. Call Mom again. Call Dad again because damn it, there's no other way to solve this... and then assure my stepmom that no, I'm not dying, we just have a problem with the house. Dad tries to walk me through finding the valve, but the valve that we find does not, in fact, do much to turn off the water. After scrambling back and forth a few times (barefoot, in my robe, through an inch of standing water) and trying various things, he gets off the phone to come up. While waiting, I a) panic, b) try again to find a valve to shut off, and c) call Mom again. Dad arrives, we ascertain that no, I'm not blind, there really is no other valve in the water tank room thing, and then go outside to find the meter and the attached valve. Eventually find meter, which is Old As Fuck... and no valve. Dig around in dirt, freeze our butts off. Water still coming all this time.

At this point we call the city utilities office, and I actually manage to prove that the city of Seattle has useful, polite, understanding and prompt civil servants - they are out in front of the house in probably about 15 minutes, and immediately pull out the tool to shut off the valve (which we have by that time discovered, but which cannot be shut off with normal wrenches and such. Real useful.). So... no more water. Yay. Commence with the shoving of water out into the our 'car-port' thing and out the door, and then with the shop-vac-ing of even more water. Continue for two several hours. And that pretty much brings you up to current with my life.

We have no running water. I've had about 4 hours of sleep. I have to leave for work in an hour. And at this point, my mental capacity has gotten about as far as "water bad." I can't even work up a good upset about the fact that I can't wash my face or flush a toilet. At this point, it's all worth it not to have running water everywhere.

For some weird reason, I don't have a "ohmigod this is a fucking disaster and I'm so pissed off and exhausted" icon. Note to self - make icon to that effect as soon as am not completely flat on my butt tired and avoiding another go with the shop-vac.

Comments

[beam-oflight.livejournal.com]

That really sucks, I hope you can get it all sorted out soon - overflowing water=never good.

[zhapper.livejournal.com]

That's one of those deals that your landlord has to have fixed within 24 hours. You'll probably have a new heater before you get home from work. :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, he's inaccessible on the weekends... but I've sent him an email, and plan to call first thing tomorrow morning. Bleh.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Water has mostly been stopped - there's still a little bit leaking out of the linoleum or something, but it's less and less every time we get it up, so... now remains just to get the landlord to send somebody out to fix the heater and then to get the water turned on again.

[pussreboots.livejournal.com]

Oh yikes!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a real joy. :P

[maho-kiwi.livejournal.com]

...
...and I bet your landlord is going to be super helpful with all of this, isn't he?

Man, I hope you get things fixed up soon! Did the public utilities people have any...good news, re water?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

He damn well better be. *Grits teeth*

Me too. The utilities guys were real nice, and at the time I was mostly just thrilled that they were able to turn off the water. Now I'm kinda going "uh... so how do we get it going again?" But that comes after the new water heater, so... no rush on that one yet.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

OMG this just sucks. At least the police were good. What a mess though. Sorry to hear about it.

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

Good GOD that is horrible. I hope the karma comes back around and something AMAZING happens to you soon. And that the water is working again in short order, of course.

On a slightly different note, I am way impressed with your problem solving skills. I think I would have just stood in the middle of the lake, yelling.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

It sucks when that happens! [HUGS] I hope they get a new hot water heater in tomorrow. When ours started gushing on a Saturday, we had to turn off the water and they had a plumber in and a new one by Monday.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Eee. That makes me feel a lot better - I sent an email to the landlord, and I'm going to call him tomorrow to check up on it, to make sure he received and all. So... *Crosses fingers* It'd be really nice if this was all sorted out by tomorrow night.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Crosses fingers on the karma thing* At this point, I'd settle for no more disasters for a while. This could've been a lot worse (like, if I hadn't woken up when I did) but it was still really scary.

Heh. My problem-solving skills consisted pretty much of "omigod I need to call my daddy!" I'm just lucky he knows what he's doing on stuff like this. ;)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was kinda scary... but the water's mostly up now, all except one little puddle that keeps coming back, so... progress!

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. That's really shitty. I'm sorry.

(This is my "ohmigod this is a fucking disaster and I'm so pissed off and exhausted" icon. :D)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It was definitely scary. *Crosses fingers for it to get put together quickly*

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Oh no, that's awful. Here's to hope it gets fixed super-soon.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks! *Crosses fingers*

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

You are remarkabley well composed. I offer showers and such if you need them, but I know we are in no way convenient to you, and we have visiting Parental Units, so we cannot come and get you.

*hugs*

Hopefully your landlord gives you a number you can actually reach him at non-business hours in case of any further disasters.

If there had been any electronics, this could have been worse--if not deadly. You and Kendra's rooms are elevated though, yes?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I looked a lot less composed in person - I was practically in tears at a few points, and there was much swearing at the water, and a lot of me sitting on the couch with my head in my hands before my dad arrived. And following him around like a pathetic lost puppy after. Ah well. I only have to be a responsible grown-up until someone who knows what they're doing shows up, right? ...Or something.

*Hugs* Thanks for the offer. We have really awesome neighbors, thank goodness, and they've offered shower and toilet privileges til things are fixed. They rock, and are totally getting flowers or something out of this.

Oh goes, yes, it could have been a whole hell of a lot worse. We're both kind of elevated - mine more than hers, but neither of us seem to have got hit too badly, thank goodness.

[wakwaha.livejournal.com]

I've not been on LJ for a while, so this is a late comment, but I wanted to say I'm sorry! That really sucks. I hope that everything gets fixed, and that there wasn't any permanent damage to anything. :(

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! Everything got worked out okay - the worst damage seems to have been to the carpet in one of my housemate's bedrooms, and the waterlogging of one library book. :/ Fortunately it was one she'd been thinking of buying anyway, eventually, so... hopefully we can just replace it if the damage turns out to be bad, and call it even.