Nightmare

I spent the entire weekend deep-cleaning my house, and last night I was feeling that everything was in order and I was ready for a long week. That is a rare and satisfying feeling.

Sunday evening around 10:30 I decided to run myself a bath and then go to bed. I started the bath then forgot that I had let Lady out, and needed to run downstairs to let her back in. Jackson was asleep, so if I called to Ben, I'd have to go most of the way down the stairs anyway, so I just went downstairs really quick and let her in. While I was down there I thought I'd grab the laundry out of the dryer and bring it upstairs. When I was in the laundry room/pantry, Ben asked me to get him some peanut butter and crackers to snack on while he was watching TV. He had hurt his knee in a volleyball game on Saturday and was resting it/icing it in the recliner. The PB crackers sounded good, so I sat down and had a few with him while I folded the laundry and watched part of the show with him. 30-45 minutes went by and I completely forgot about the bath I had started running upstairs.

I finally went back upstairs (not remembering the bath still) and began putting some towels away when I heard the sound of water running. Horror-stricken, I ran into the bathroom to find it entirely flooded. I hate carpet in the bathrooms, but it was part of the package deal when we bought our house - all of it was soaking wet and the lineoleum surrounding the tub was under at least an inch of water.

I unplugged the drain, and ran downstairs to admit what I had done and seek Ben's help. We assessed the damage, which was great, but not as bad as it could be. We had to rip up all the carpet, and put a fan in the bathroom for the night. I'm not sure yet if we'll have mold or if I have done damage to the ceiling in the laundry room downstairs. The water fortunately began to drain out through the vent and light fixture in the ceiling where we had waiting trashcans underneath to catch it, so I don't think it soaked in much. There are no wet marks on the ceiling in the laundry room yet anyway.

I guess how much damage I did to our home remains to be assessed by a professional. Meanwhile, my nice clean home is now covered with wet towels and ripped up carpet, and the newly vacuumed carpet is dumped in my freshly scrubbed garden tub along with the carpet pad, exposing the ugly brown flooring beneath. This is right up there in the top 10 stupidest things I have ever done!

To make matters worse, Ben had one of his almost-doctor friends (who has a background in orthopedics in the military) look at his knee, and it doesn't look good. He may have torn his ACL and he may have to have an MRI. He has an appointment with a campus doctor tomorrow to find out how bad he has hurt it. It is very swollen and he is still limping. It hurts him constantly. It looks as though this weekend we may have cost ourselves some major mulah!

UPDATE: Ben's ACL is not torn, but it does look as though he has torn some cartilage. He is supposed to alternate heat/cold and try to take it easy for a week and then check back with the doctor. He'll probably have some problems about 10-15 years from now and have to have surgery, but for now he should be okay after the knee heals.

The bathroom is still in a state of choas and probably will be for a while because Ben has absolutely no time to deal with this with his boards coming up in June. I have to contact our insurance company tomorrow and a contractor to come and inspect the damge and find out if we will have mold issues. That is what scares me most with a new baby and another small child in the house.