Dammit! The dishwasher flooded the ktichen (and other gripes)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is enough to make me bitch and moan, but not enough to seriously piss me off…so, MPSIMS it is.

So…Thursday night was my Back to School night. It was a very, very long day (and evening) and I went to bed early. DeathLlama kindly offered to load up and start the dishwasher for me so I didn’t have to clean up after dinner.

Friday morning, I went downstairs to get my morning cereal and noticed the windows were all fogged up. Hmm. And I hear water running. Hmm. Well, DL is in the shower. Hey, that sounds like the dishwash-**SSSSSSSHHH*IIIIT!!! *** Yeah, the thing had run all night–and completely flooded the kitchen. We had standing water 3/4" deep in some spots, all throughout the kitchen, then into the utility room, then spreading through the carpet in the hallway (completely soaking it).

NOT the way to start a weekend.

Now the soaked carpet, which was pulled up and has a fan blowing on it 24/7, is starting to sour. YUUUCCCCCK. We leave the downstairs windows open, but it still reeks. I repeat, YUCK. (Anyone know any good techniques for getting soaked carpet, uh, not soaked, not sticky, and not mildewed?)

And here I must compliment the hell out of my husband. Seeing the kitchen carnage, I freaked. I didn’t know what to do–and after seeing me panic (all I could think was, do I call a sub? I’d have to do it right now…and I’d have to blah blah blah…), DL sent me upstairs to continue getting ready for work and he mopped up that mess. Needless to say, I made him lunch, am making him dinner tonight, and I’m open to all kinds of sexual favors from him. :slight_smile: I owe him big, and we both know it!

The good news is, nothing of any value is ruined. The carpet is crap anyway and we have plans on replacing it in about a year or so. The kitchen floor is vinyl, so it basically got a nice, thorough cleaning (and it will be replaced when the carpet is). As for the dishwasher, the house is still under warranty (thank God) and for $35, it’s being taken care of. (Apparently, the timing mechanism broke. The machine stayed stuck in the first part of the cycle, where water comes flooding in…and in…and in…) All I can say is the water bill isn’t going to be pretty.

On top of all this, in other related gripes, I’d like to say I HATE CREDIT CARDS. We finally got paid (a teachers, summers SUCK–no paychecks in July and August!) and I was doing bills this morning. We’d just paid off two cards this summer, but now it’s fall and we both have to take courses for our credentials–WHAMMO another $1000. Then DL’s car needs work, WHAMMO $400. (But see, his car is paid off. We’re used to paying the hundreds every month for my car payment. Oh, it will be so nice in a year when it’s paid off!)

Annnnnnnnnnd in other related gripes, we are being thoroughly welcomed into home ownership. We had plans on getting new carpet in a few months, whoop, no! We have rotted baseboard in the master bathroom! Well, that’s okay we could still…whoop, NO! Our patio cover needs replaced! Crap.

I know financially we’re fine, and though these are certainly inconveniences, they’re aren’t major problems. But DAMMIT! This sucks.

Thank you for listening. grrrr…

2

have you rented “money pit” yet?

ah the cruel side of home ownership. if the weather is good outdoors try taking the carpet out there. otherwise you will have to do a lot of carpet cleaning once the rug totally dries. how is the carpet padding?

3

Ah, the Money Pit. I have to say I love that movie–it’s a perfect “Lazy Saturday” flick. Hopefully, I’m not living it!

The carpet pad is very damp, but we pulled it up with the carpet. Things do seem to be drying now. I bought one of those cinnamon broom thingys to hang on the wall in the area, and it seems to help with the whole odor thing too.

4

Since you’ve already pulled up the carpet, it might be too late for this, but…

Go to the local grocery store and rent one of the do it yourself carpet cleaner machines. They work by spraying a soapy water solution onto the carpet, followed (sometimes) by a beater brush that scrubs the carpet, followed by a wet vacuum that sucks the moisture (and hopefully the dirt) out of the carpet. In your case, you might want to add some sort of disinfectant to the water instead of soap, to kill the mildew & such that’s probably growing there. You can go over it several times, and you’ll be amazed at how much water and dirt and goop you get out.

We try to do our carpets about twice a year this way. It’s cost us about $20 per session for the rental and supplies.