After our trip to Oregon, Adam and I were both very excited to take showers at home, where the water is grit-free, and soft (which means the soap lathers up ever-so nicely!). Adam woke up first in the morning (as usual... I hate waking up), so he took a shower first.
I eventually got up while he was in the shower, and started to unpack and put things away. I started bringing some stuff from the second floor, where our bedroom is, down to the kitchen on the main floor. At the bottom of the stairs, I turned the corner and stepped in soppy-wet carpet. I squinted up at the ceiling (no contacts = no vision) and could somewhat see a funny spot on the pristine white ceiling. Realizing what it was, I ran up stairs yelling, "ADAM, SHUT OFF THE SHOWER." Amazingly enough he heard me the at the first shout. I ran back downstairs and found a kettle to put under the dripping ceiling, then called daddy (who luckily enough is a plumbing salesman).
Dad was changing the oil in the Honda, but said he would be over as soon as he finished. When he finally got there, he and Adam pulled off the access panel on the soaking tub, but found that they couldn't see much of anything. Dad called one of his plumber buddies, explained what was going on, and asked his opinion. Wayne, his buddy, said that whoever installed the shower probably used plumber's putty around the floor drain. When the shower isn't used for a while (say about 2 weeks, when you're on vacation), it dries up and cracks. So he told dad what he would need to do.
Step one, dad runs home to get his tools and a ladder. Step two, run the hardware store, and buy a vent (instead of an access panel, cause then it doesn't look like you had a problem) and silicone (to seal the drain). Step three, cut a hole in the ceiling just smaller than the vent size (yeah, I wasn't so happy about that) so that you can access the screws that are holding the drain down, and pop it up into the shower. Step four, use the silicone to seal the drain, push it back down and screw it back in. Step five, wait 24 hours to shower (good thing we have a soaking tub that doesn't leak). Step six, put kettle back under hole in ceiling, have husband take a shower, and watch the hole (if it leaks, call daddy again). Step seven, if it doesn't leak, take a shower yourself. Step eight, ask mom to help fix the ceiling. Step nine, put access panel back in tub. Step ten, access panel fell out, use ALOT more silicone and shims to wedge it in there nice and good. Step eleven, ask husband to clean the bathroom (note: start this task at about step five to ensure that it gets done by step eleven). Step tweleve, find white ceiling paint and paint the ceiling where the water spots show. And finally step thirteen, reinstall smoke dector, where most of the water leaked through. (NOTE: do not use these as actual directions! Remember before step one to call dad! He'll take care of most of it...)
Just over a week later, it was time to run the dishwasher (yeah, I bet you know where this is going already). Adam went to bed, I started the dishwasher, and went downstairs to write my lessons. I could hear the dishwasher running, as it is above my head when I am sitting at my desk. Soon I began to hear a "drip........ drip.... drip, drip, drip, drip" right behind me on the chair mat. So I began the process of running upstairs to shut off the source of the problem, and call dad. This time he actually referred me to mom (I guess she has more experience in the kitchen plumbing department). Mom said hers has leaked before, and its usually the seal on the door. I pulled off the bottom panel on the dishwasher and sure enough, no water under the dishwasher, just right infront under the door. I dried up what I could on the wood floors in the kitchen, and put a fan blowing on the area in hopes that I won't have to replace the boards from the kitchen floor. Now it was getting late, and there wasn't much else I could do, so I went to bed.
This morning I woke up to thunderstroms. Did I mention Adam likes to sleep with the windows open? I had closed our bedroom window luckily enough, because we actually smelt skunk, but left the guest bedroom window open to help keep Adam happy, and since I still had clothes air-drying in there. For the third (and final) time, I cleaned up the water on the carpet, on the window ledge, and on every slat of the window blind. When Adam got home from work in the morning, I told him of our new house rule "windows close at night!"
Now, back to the dishwasher. Mom came over and looked at it, and said to take out the seal and let it soak in soapy water overnight. So I did, and the next morning I scrubbed it a little to get the last of the crud off, and stuck it back in. I grabbed a towel and put it on the floor underneath, then grabbed a chair and put it in front of the dishwasher, and pushed start. I starred at it for about 15 minutes to make sure it wasn't going to start leaking all over my floor again (and into the basement). Fortunatly it was uneventful, and the dishwasher works well again!
Now the whole house is clean, except for the three rooms that have been giving me problems... I guess that will be tomorrow's task!
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