Disaster!

You know, I swear that awful stuff happens to us! I know that awful stuff happens to a lot of people, but I think we have more unusual, bad situations than most! 

So, we’re having our house painted. Our regular painter that we used for 20 years retired. That meant we had to find a new one. Butch found a company that was highly rated by the Better Business Bureau and Home Advisor. They came out, gave us a bid that while expensive, seemed fair for all the work they needed to do. We have some rotted wood that needs replacing and some ceiling repair on both of our porches. Everything needed power washing. That’s when he trouble began.

Now, we are aware that our 10 sets of French doors are not airtight. When we would clean the front porch every year, the water would come in the house—in the living and dining rooms. We were prepared for that. Or, I should say, we should have been prepared for that. We grabbed every beach towel and bath towel in the house and got to work. What we didn’t expect was that in the course of power washing, the tops of the doors are not air tight either! We had water everywhere—on top of the furniture near the doors and  on the pillows and throw. We cleaned up. About the time we were finished, I looked at Butch and said, “I guess we better go upstairs and check.”

OMGosh! What a huge mess! The carpets were soaked. There was even water on top of the dresser and nightstands in Mindy’s room. We mopped it all up—using ALL the towels upstairs too. There are waterspots on the furniture. I haven’t done anything yet to see if I can get those off. This all happened as I was trying to get out the door to go to the theater and didn’t really have time to deal with it. The main goal was to sop up as much water as we could. 

We had no idea what was to come. The next day, I went out to get my flu shot. When I got home, as I walked in to the kitchen, I noticed the water all over the counter. Apparently, our windows are not airtight either! 

Besides the water mess, dirt and debris from my window box came in too! It even landed on the side of the cabinets! I had just gotten that mess cleaned up when Butch got home. He had put towels in front of the French doors in the kitchen and family room in preparation for that mess. That worked except the towels were a saturated, drippy mess that I had to traipse through the house to the laundry room. That’s when I noticed the wet towels from the previous day on the floor. I told Butch, “you know, wet towels on the hardwood floors in the laundry room is just as bad as wet towels on the floor in the living room and dining room!” Actually, the floors in the back hallway and laundry room are already ruined due to wet beach towels and drippy people traipsing in all summer for 22 years!

Anyway, after cleaning up the mess in the family room, we went in to the sun room. I HAD NO IDEA THAT THOSE WINDOWS WERE NOT AIRTIGHT EITHER! That room is ALL windows. I was about ready to start crying. We had to move all the furniture to wipe down ALL the windows, sills and floor. Once again, the water sopped in to the carpet in some areas. I feel like the whole house is in disarray.

Here’s the scary part. Once again, I was leaving for the theater. The next morning (Friday), we were up at 4:30 a.m. to head to Baltimore. You’ve probably guessed at what I’m going to say. We did NOT go upstairs to see what mess we have there! The rooms we did not check are: the rec room, Butch’s office, the guest bedroom and bath and my scrapbook room. Frankly, we just didn’t have the time. Those rooms are all carpeted, so it’s not like we have water sitting on hardwood floors. Yikes, I hope it’s not bad!

Well, now we know why our utility bills are so high. Our windows and doors are just one step away from pioneer log cabins!

To add insult to injury---with the pressure washing---all kinds of crap sprayed on to the cars in the driveway. I feel sorry for Butch because he takes such pride in his cars and keeps them meticulous! 

The only bright side I see about all of this is that everything on the outside is clean--even though everything on the inside is a MESS!