Friday, August 18, 2017

We Bought a Farm: The Great Flood at the Bauernhof

Why can't something go wrong when people are here

For the past few weeks and especially the last few days, our house (which runs on city water) kept having the water go out. I had called the water company who said they had leaks in our area and were trying to isolate the issue. 

At some point yesterday, while the water is out, one of my children turned the faucet on full blast upstairs -- only to find it waterless. They therefore didn't even realize they had left the sink on. 

Our friends John and Becky headed out around 9am to return to their home near Washington D.C. John's parents headed out around the same time to pick up his sister Elizabeth and her boys in South Carolina so that they can spend a few weeks here on the farm. And John headed out to work. Only our intern, Jacob, was here with us. 

We did some schoolwork and animal chores and then loaded up the truck to run a few errands in town.

When I came home, Abigail ran into the house to go potty while the other kids started helping me unload groceries. Abigail ran back out in a panic.

"Mom, it is raining inside the house."

Let me tell you: those words do not feel nice on your ears.

I ran inside to find it was, literally, raining in the living room downstairs. I yelled out for the kids to try to find Mr. Jacob. They are not allowed in the WWOOFer apartment above the garage so they quickly started asking if they were even allowed to go up there to find him. I told them they were.

Thank the Lord Jacob was here. If I hadn't had another adult, I might have ended up in a corner somewhere sobbing. Jacob and I quickly assessed, called Dad and John to get their advice, and went to work to stop the bleeding. 

The kids, meanwhile, were all stars. Isaac lead the way and had them all put away the groceries and go into the camper for a movie and a drink while we were working. Our neighbors drove one hour round trip to a friend's house to get us a dehumidifier, and we pulled out every fan we had.

In the end, the damage is fairly extensive. Even worse is that we only have a three bedroom house. The girls room, as you can see form the video below, is gutted for a huge rennovation project. And now the boys room is out of commission. Not even sure what to do with six people and a one bedroom house. Not to mention all the other people who use this main house for home base (guests, in-laws, and WWOOFers.) 

Anyways, here is the video -- really shows what happened. John has a call in to the insurance company. "It is ... what it is." :) We are all healthy. We have a roof over our heads. Things could be much worse. 

But it is a pain in the butt!

4 comments:

Tracye said...

Ugh ugh. So sorry! What a headache!!!

Jennifer said...

Oh Wendi! So sorry about this!

TAV said...

Ugh. This is so sucky. I hate "house breaking" stuff.

Anonymous said...

Oh no!! So sorry that you have to deal with this!

shannon