Home Decorating/Reno Disasters!!

18 years ago

I am hoping today goes better for us than yesterday. You guys might remember that I am the ADHD mommy of three who always has more than one home project going - and I'm always starting something new before I finish the other thing. LOL. Maybe some of you can relate.

So dh and I are ripping all the vinyl/carpet out of the house - we all have allergies and the carpet is ick. We started in the laundry room and have been putting down ceramic tile. The rest of the house is getting the Novalis vinyl wood planking which I am sooooo excited to put down!

We had to take OUT the washer and dryer so we could tile the laundry room first. Evidently somehow the valves in the wall went bad and the water never shut off completely. I was giving my kids a bath last night and heard my dh yelling downstairs. I run down to find him in the laundry room with water shooting out of the wall into his face/chest. I am scrambling to get into our closet under the stairs to shut off the main water to the house, but couldn't do it without a wrench. Meanwhile, water is running out of the laundry room into the kitchen. I am slipping all over trying to get to the tool bench in the garage and dh is trying to get the hose back on the valve to stop the water from coming out. We finally got it.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the night shopvaccing the floors. :( I can laugh now, but sheesh! Something like that always happens! We're great DIYers, but we must be idiots. We've never had a catastrophy like that before. So now we're finally getting around to grouting today now that the tiles are finally stuck. At least that room will have a funny story behind it!!

Anyways, I just wanted to share. Anyone else have any awful or crazy mishaps during a reno??? Make me feel better please!!

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Comments (4)

johnmari
18 years ago
I think something like that is mandatory at least once. :-)

In my previous house the paperhanger decided to stand on the end of the newly installed clawfoot tub to get the paper up to the ceiling. The tub flipped up and detached the entire plumbing system - below the shutoff valves. Thankfully I had been smart enough to have the plumber put in shutoffs to that bathroom in the basement so I just had to climb over two shelving units to get to them, so the flood didn't make it out of the bathroom, but the water was about half an inch deep. I was terrified that it was going to destroy the electric floor-heating mats but they were unaffected. It took two trips out by the plumber to fix all the leaks - her insurance was supposed to pay for that but never coughed up, and by the end of the project we were too exhausted by the whole thing to go after her in small claims court.

Then there was the electrician's assistant who, when told to install the wall sconces at "eye level" (the electrician himself was about the same height as DH, which put "eye level" at about 68", so silly me had assumed that he would put them there, but he wasn't even there) installed them six feet, six inches off the floor - because he was 6'8". The ceiling was only 7'6"! We left them because we would have had to re-sheetrock the wall and rewire right back to the main bathroom circuit because the wiring wasn't loose enough to move them.

And people wonder why I micromanage contractors now!
brutuses
18 years ago
citymom, not funny, but funny. Sorry for your little disaster. I remember, years ago when we first moved into our current home, I had a similar catastrophy with the laundry room. I was outside in the yard and didn't even realize there was a problem. I came in to find the hose to the washer had come out of the drain pipe and the dirty wash water had flooded a few rooms. Thank goodness we had just moved in and had not yet put down any new flooring. What a mess that was!! Yes, I think everyone has at least one of these "floods" in their lifetime.
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citymomof3
Original Author
18 years ago
Oh, it was funny. It was like out of a movie or sitcom! My poor dh couldn't even see there was so much water coming out! And I was all, "shut it off!!" And he was all, "I can't!" He is almost finished grouting and it's looking really nice. I was originally going to change the paint color of the walls to a green, but it looks so nice with the yellow that's there I think I am going to leave them yellow! I will just bring in green and red accessories maybe.

Thanks for making me feel better! We should have known better to check and make sure no water was still coming out of the washer before disconnecting the hose, but hey. You live and you learn!
squirrelheaven
18 years ago
Well, I worry. About all that water and continuing on with the tiling so soon. ??? Sure everything is ok?