Water, Water, Water Everywhere!

Moving into a new home is exciting, thrilling, fun and makes you want to jump for joy!

YEE this place is all mine!

I can’t wait to paint, decorate, organize and put my own touch on this new house we want to make a home.

No one ever thinks about what home ownership really involves.

Constant projects!

AND unexpected projects… Like water leaks….

Yes- you read that right. There was a “s” on that word leak, to mean plural, not just one,  multiple, more than you would want, number of leaks.

Lets start from the beginning and answer your question before you have it. We DID have a home inspection done on the house before I signed on the dotted line. However, no one was living in the house. Six months of vacancy, doesn’t really show you how a house is working when a full blown family is occupying it.

Fast forward to Friday night of our move. My mom, step-dad, little brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, The Boy, me and one dog, are spending our first night in the house. We were all packed in there using the house to the fullest extent. All the faucets were flowing, all appliances were in use, all toilets occupied, and to beat the heat the air conditioner was running overtime.

Then it all started to tumble-down hill until I was ready to pull my hair out.

I went to wash the shower in our upstairs bathroom, and realized I had no hot water. The Boy and my stepdad went down to light the pilot light on the water heater for me.  At the same time, my sister kicked me out of the bathroom so she can use it. Somethings never change.

Next thing I hear, 2 guys yelling from my basement.  I could imagine one would be startled by water showering down on you while trying to light a pilot light.

Leak #1: Upstairs Toilet

Off to bed everyone went, with strict instructions to use the basement bathroom until we had time to figure things out upstairs.

Morning arrives with my sister informing me she heard a drip all night, and they think my sink  in the basement bathroom is leaking. Yup, that is water in the cabinet below the sink.

Leak #2: Basement Sink Pipes

Not wanting to focus on another leak, I threw a towel under the sink, and went back to preparing for people to arrive to move the rest of our things. Not more than 10 minutes later, my mom tells me she could still hear the dripping, and it was not the sink making the sound. The little “drip, drip” sound my brother-in-law heard was the sound of the condensation from my A/C unit dripping all over the floor because the pump went out.

Leak #3: Broken A/C Pump

At that point you just stick a bucket under it and keep moving. We had stuff to move into this leaky house!

Post our record-breaking fast move, I was in the basement again and saw a pool of water on my bar. My ceiling was leaking now too! Who knew one house could have so many water connections.

Upon investigation, the water hose on my refrigerator was leaking underneath, through the floor, then through the ceiling, onto the basement bar.

Leak #4: Refrigerator

With the water turned off to the refrigerator, and a list in my hand, I was headed for Home Depot. I was sent to find parts to repair all these leaks in my house, and to decompress.  My sister and I may have taken an extra 15 minute walk through the Target clothing floorpad to help me take a deep breath. I really needed that break, and a Venti coffee to take my mind off all the water.

Shopping therapy might be the best therapy.

With all my supplies divided out from Home Depot, things just started happening around the house.  My brother-in-law replaced the locks on our front and back door.  My stepdad and The Boy’s dad went to fixing many of the leaks and other things that came up in the house. Oh, yes there was more than just the leaks. The toilet required 2 wax rings stacked atop each other to seal the toilet.  The hose on the refrigerator needed some modifications to stop the leak, but not before they pulled down the tiles from my ceiling to check the water line.

That’s my scary looking laundry room in the back. Many improvements will need to be made in there in the future.

The light in our laundry room needed to be re-wired, but now we have light! Laundry in the dark didn’t sound like a fun game I wanted to play every day.

Some tightening fixed the basement sink issue.

As for the A/C, we put a LARGE bucket under the water drain pipe, and have just been emptying it each day. Not ideal but we will need a professional to stick their head in there to fix that one.

Feeling better about water not pouring out of every pipe in my house, everyone left for the weekend. With one last appliance not tested out in the house, The Boy and I hesitantly ran our dishwasher at 9pm Sunday night. What would you know…. it leaked too….

Leak #5: Dishwasher

Good thing we were proactive and placed towels under it BEFORE we started it. Although it leaked on load 1 and 2, by load 3 all the seals were re-hydrated and keeping water in just fine. Thank gosh, I really didn’t want to have to figure out how to fix another leak.

Moral of the story….

Water leaks suck.

Oh… And this home ownership thing is going to be work.

But, if I get to spend every night out here at the end of the day because of it, I will take it 🙂

Do you have any stories of new home issues?