Stage 0 - The Great Flood of 2011

The Culprit

The Great Flood

On June 1, 2011 we experienced a kitchen disaster of epic proportion.  I had left the house to run errands and as any good husband, I started a load of laundry before heading out.  It was nice to use the new washer and dryer we had recently purchased at a great price from one of the "big box" stores.  We had paid to have them install the washer and dryer and to haul away the old worn out machines. When I returned home, I was shocked with what I found. The kitchen and breakfast nook area floors completely under water.  There was a trail of water flowing from the laundry room through the kitchen meandering through the breakfast room and disappearing into the floor register on the far side of the room.  Come to find out it is a pretty important part of the appliance installation to zip tie the wash machine drain hose to the faucets so that the drain hose doesn't come out of the drain.  Who'da thunk that there would be enough water pressure in the drain to pop it out of the drain.  Too bad the "big box" store installers didn't follow the installation recommendations of the manufacturer!

I did my best to clean up the water, but it was an enormous amount and everywhere you stepped there was more water.  I cleaned up and went to bed.  In the morning I woke to an enormous surprise. The floor had buckled everywhere.  It was a disaster!  My heart sunk as I could see that my expensive floors were ruined, and replacing them was going to be a costly undertaking.  I didn't even imagine that the cabinet bases would also be ruined.  I got out my cell phone and began taking pictures. I am not sure why, but I was in so much shock I didn't want to forget the feeling or the mess that was made.  In a flash of lucid thought I picked up the computer and logged into my insurance website, where I opened a claim.  My agent called me right away and she recommended I call a water abatement company right away.

The remainder of the blog updates will take you through the journey we have gone through and what we continue to go through on the journey to getting back our kitchen. It will be broken up into the various stages of this disaster recovery process. At the point of this first blog, we have been without a kitchen for the past 2 and 1/2 months.  We still do not have a kitchen and we can only hope that what we end up with is what we envision as an acceptable solution and remedy to the flood.  

To be continued... BC