Aftermath of the Great Flood of 2014

Fortunately for us the pipe break and flooding incident happened before we owned the house so it was the previous owner's insurance that had to take care of things. For the mold remediation the carpet, kitchen flooring, and a significant amount of drywall had to come out. In that remediation process the floor tiles tested positive for asbestos and a different remediation company had to be called in to remove those.  

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Here is all the demo stuff removed from the house.

 Yep, that's about where the leak was.

At one point we had a dozen fans and two large dehumidifiers going to dry things out. Now that is the original kitchen flooring.



All of the drywall in the entry and some in the living room had to go. 

 

So some of the demo we planned on doing is done along with a bunch we didn't plan on doing. We did receive an insurance settlement so I guess things are all bad. The next step is to finalize plans with the contractor, then start the construction loan process moving. The current house closing is May 2nd and the new house won't be livable for at least 6 months. In the meantime we are moving into an apartment. The saying that two moves is like a fire is true. I have a feeling we won't have near as much stuff when we end up in the house.



Our Next House: Part 2 Water, Water, Everywhere

Gather round kids and let me tell you a story. So three days before we were set to close we got a call from the realtor with "news." One of the neighbors reported water running out the front door. Not just the bottom of the front door, but the top and the garage too. They couldn't get in touch with the selling realtor and ended calling the fire department to shut off the water. Sounds fun already, right? In the last cold snap we had a pipe freeze in the ceiling and it ran for 3-4 days before someone saw it.

We headed over that night to investigate. The front door was wet and so swollen it took some doing to get it open. Since this picture all of the paint has come off so we are looking pretty classy.

 

The pipe burst over the front entry closet and water filled up the house. The carpet in the picture is completely soaked and that's on the other end of the house from the break.

It ran right through the ceiling and even down the mail slot. 

 

Some trim popped off and floated away from the entry. You can see the high water mark.

Needless to say we ended up postponing the closing. The insurance company paid to have everything dried out for mold remediation which included pulling floors, drywall, and some ceilings. So the house that needed a bunch of work now needs even more.