Pipes Burst In Cieling :(

I came home Wednesday to water running out of our house on the porch. Well let's see, it hasn't rained lately, this water is flowing, this can't be good. I grabbed the water key and ran to the meter at the street and turned the water off. Water was 2-3" deep in the bedrooms and bathrooms and was starting a small fish pond in the formal living room. Great. I had fever and chills all week, stuffy head and working every day. All I wanted was a hot shower, pajamas and to curl up in bed. Not to be. DH came home, we got the shop vac and proceeded to clean up. Threw out mattresses and other soaked items. The ceiling caved in and drenched everything in 1 bedroom. We opened windows, turned on fans and griped a lot. OK, we griped a WHOLE lot. I stayed home from work the next day to clean up more mess and call insurance, plumber, etc. The insurance adjuster will come Mon or Tues, the plumber is coming Monday to replumb the entire house starting at the meter at the street to the last faucet outside with PEX plumbing. We have patched and patched on our 40 year old rusty galvanized pipes, this ain't happin' no more! Merry Christmas to me for the next 10 years. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In the meantime, we are experiencing the joys of no water. No shower. No flush toilet. No cooking (maybe that's not so bad). Subway coupon sandwiches (I want to cook now, please). We are hauling water to flush the toilet, bathe in a bowl with a wash cloth, water the dogs, cat, chickens....... I have enough oil in my hair to fry fish. Going to my Mom's today for a real shower, after all, it IS Saturday! I finally washed dishes, using those 5 gallon jugs of purchased drinking water. What were we thinking? Still using real dishes? I came to my senses and got paper plates and cups but not before making a mountain of dirty dishes in both sinks. I heated water on the stove and washed and rinsed. Not to be wasteful, I dipped out the soapy water and poured in the toilet to give it a clean flush. Now it is full of Palmolive suds.

I have a plastic garbage can under the roof valley in case it rains, none in the forecast though. I used up the rainwater I had in the toilet. My DH looked in the bucket I set in the bathroom and said, that water is DIRTY! DUH! And what is in the toilet is clean??? The unwritten rule of the house is to make as many "donations" as possible at work.
As I write this, I am enjoying a tasty breakfast/lunch of dry crackers and bottled water. Yum yum. I really need to get off my dead tired butt, get dressed and drive to our 16 acres and feed my horses and go to Mom's for that wonderful shower. At this point, if it rained, I would be standing under the roof line with a bar of soap. We should have an empty bank account and running water by Wednesday. Insurance only covers damage done by water, not replacing pipes. Well, gotta go. Ya'll go flush your toilets for me, ya' heah?

Oh my gosh! What a nightmare, especially before Christmas! I hope everything works out for yall. I wish you the best!

Oh you poor thing! And right before christmas!

Baymule - I've worked in many homes that were damaged by fire and/or water. I know the nightmare you are experiencing! So sorry for all you are going thru! You do want to get the house as dry as you can possibly get it with dehumidifiers, fans, whatever, because mold could be the next thing you battle and that is the ultimate horror. You don't want to have to rip out all kinds of drywall and have your life in an uproar for a year or more. So tackle everything you can now and throw out anything that is unimportant and get it out of the way. Redoing the plumbing shouldn't take as long as you think. The new flexible piping is great and easy for plumbers to work with. Just get someone who has done it before so they already know how to do it and won't be learning on the job. Sure wish I could give you more advice. Hang in there and let me know how you are doing!

I am so sorry. And so glad that insurance will at least cover some of it.

I second the comments about mold. Any chance you insurance will cover professional cleaning (finishing it, that is) to ensure no mold?

No more advice but absolutely my best wishes and warmest thoughts.

Thanks, Scoop, we do have windows open and fans going. I have dragged stuff out of the house and thrown it out in the yard. I've cleaned out closets, still have 2 to go, and done my best to get it all dried out. We will have to replace some drywall as we now have a skylight that is a little ragged looking. haha No carpet in the 2 bedrooms and will pull up the laminate wood flooring in the hallway as it was standing in water too. I had to go back to work on Friday and today I was just exhausted so didn't do much. I did drag myself and 6 loads of laundry to the landraumat and washed. Brought 'em home to dry, I can't stand the chemical smells of the soaps. I stood outside upwind of the place. I've had a shower now and feel almost human again. Yahoo. Tomorrow after church and after meeting the farrier to get the horses trimmed, I'll pile back into it. I guess that's one way to get rid of a bunch of junk nobody needs anymore. I only cried when I found the doll I made for my daughter when she was 4 years old. I sat up at night sewing it and used embroidery thread to make the eyes, nose and lips. I made it with brown yarn hair and as tall as she was then. Now she is all grown up with a 3 year old daughter of her own. Everything else is just stuff.

holy crappy..... really sorry thats happend to you. glad you are okay.

"I heated water on the stove and washed and rinsed. Not to be wasteful, I dipped out the soapy water and poured in the toilet to give it a clean flush. Now it is full of Palmolive suds.

I have a plastic garbage can under the roof valley in case it rains, none in the forecast though. I used up the rainwater I had in the toilet. My DH looked in the bucket I set in the bathroom and said, that water is DIRTY! DUH! And what is in the toilet is clean??? he The unwritten rule of the house is to make as many "donations" as possible at work."

Congratulations on being able to creatively save water, although I'm sure that's cold comfort. That's exactly what we did after Hurricane Hugo when we had no water: dipped water out of one bucket into a bowl in the sink to wash our hands, then poured the water from the bowl into another bucket to use to flush the toilet. It's amazing how many people don't know how to do this. Pat yourself on the back, and I hope you get your plumbing done real soon!

I feel for you....I've experienced two months of no running water in the farmhouse which it got struck by a lightening, blew out the furnance, smoldering the stuff around it. It was in July when it happened.....

With the horses and chickens I've had, Dad rigged up the electricity with new lines just for the rooms being occupied, like my parent's bedroom whose windows didn't get smashed out by the firemen, one line there just for light for lamp and a TV, nothing else in the house was electrified. Unable to take showers, so we had a wood deck out back, pulled up a kiddie pool, add water to it in the morning, let the sun get it warm (or a bucket) and take a bath or body sponge myself clean after ten o clock at night so anyone driving by our farm will not see me buck naked LOL! Another line of electricity was for the electric fence and the water pump. Worked out pretty well in primative living. Ate out at a restuaruant two times a day or have a cooler for sandwiches and drinks. Mom and Dad had to drive EVERY DAY for three weeks because they were at camping when it happened, so it was roughly a four hour drive, yep, EVERY DAY! They could not pull their camper out early because they will not get their refund back. Well gas was cheap then LOL. AFter that camping time was over, they stayed in the camper while I still living in the house. Nice as it was until the landlord decided in October to take the insurance money and run with it....we had hopes that we would repair or Dad would buy the farm but it was not to be. Oh the heart ache I had to give up my chickens, rabbits, the barn cats but leased out my miniature horse herd which that was a mistake later on.

We had a manual water pump over one of our wells and it worked pretty good for bathing or washing but not drinking.