On Sunday morning Graham headed over to his mum’s house where he’s been doing some renovations for her. I happily got to work around the house. I started some laundry, hauled out the vacuum and started to organized the pile of pots and pans in the kitchen that needed to be cleaned. I was planning to make some pumpkin bread to bring to the Thanksgiving dinners that we were going to be attending Sunday and Monday.
Being a real domestic goddess (snort), I don’t like to make a new mess until my old mess is cleaned up, so I started to fill the kitchen sink. Then I did something so stupid, so horribly thoughtless, I can’t believe it was me who did it. I left the room.
I left the water filling the kitchen sink and popped down to the basement to print the recipe for the pumpkin bread. The problem was, the website where I got the recipe from was loading very slowly. I waited. I refreshed. I finally printed. I heard water dripping. I was in trouble.
I looked into our basement laundry room and water was pouring through the ceiling.
I ran up the basement stairs, knowing exactly what I was about to discover and yet not believing that it was true. That I had caused it.
The kitchen floor was covered in water. Soap suds floated by whimsically, mocking me. Rudy ran through the growing puddle and skidded out into the front hallway. Water was pouring over the edge of the kitchen sink.
“NO! No nononono! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!” I guess I’m not much of a lady when it comes to destroying our new hardwood floors.
I turned off the water, pulled the plug and raced upstairs to grab all the towels I could find. Fortunately, I’d just finished putting away a freshly laundered load of clean-smelling, fluffy towels.
Somewhere along the way I grabbed the phone and called Graham at his mum’s, told him that I’d left the water running, and that I needed him to come home and help me. I was shaking.
By the time he got home, I had almost all of the water cleaned up off of the surface of the floor, but it had already run through the joints in the hardwood and caused it to heave. Water had run into the basement walls and ceiling at the bottom of the stairs. It was pouring through the light fixture in the ceiling of the laundry room.
I couldn’t believe how little time it took for such destruction to take place. Finally we were able to take a breather from our clean-up effort, and standing there in the laundry room, I looked at Graham and said the only words I could summon. “I’m so sorry.” Then I burst into tears.
You know how you have those moments in a marriage that will either push you apart or bring you together? Well, this was a moment that brought Graham and I closer together. We’d weather this silly and pointless storm. “Don’t cry,” he said and pulled me into a big hug. “You might as well laugh about it.” I wasn’t laughing. The last thing I wanted to do was create more work for my husband, who has spent every spare minute this year working on making a nice home for us.
Today we’ll be making a call to our insurance provider, just to check and see if this kind of thing is covered. I’m pretty sure they don’t cover “acts of pregnancy.”
Anything might happen a long the way even if you are pregnant or not. You will just have to be prepared if anything goes wrong. Maybe we don't call it multi-tasking, we call it awareness and well equiped. Be always prepared.
OH, babe…so sorry
It's crazy how forgetful we become, isn't it? **HUGS**
Insurance companies should cover acts of pregnancy, like leaving your phone in full view in your car and it getting pinched, cos that one's gonna happen to me any day now. I just keep being thankful that the neighbours so far have been honest.
OH my heart hurts reading this! I hope they will at least cover SOME of the damage. Rest assured you are NOT the first person this has happened to. That's why they call it preggo brain!
I'm SO sorry! I'm a klutz 99% of the time- this week along I've broken 2 wine glasses and my crockpot.
When I was pregnant I broke ever glass in the house and who knows what else!
I hope insurance can help. Your honey sounds like a good guy
Oh, man! I agree that insurance companies should cover acts of pregnancy (or at least offer coverage for them). xoxo
I saw your tweet when you did it and felt so bad for you! If it makes you feel any better it saved me from doing the same thing! I turned the sink on and then went to throw a load of laundry in and had a flash back to your tweet and ran back in the kitch before it was too late!! At this point in our pregnancies we should be eating bon bons with our feet up and not much else. Damn, I wish I could do that!
Oh no! I'm crying *for* you!
Yes, yes it is. I don't mind forgetting little things but OMG how did I forget THIS?!
Or how about leaving a candle burning? That'll be the next thing I forget.
Thanks, I guess we'll wait and see. I just hate being such a cliche!
Ouch, two wine glasses AND your crockpot. Double whammie. So have you switched to plastic cups?
That would be great, if you could pay for extra coverage during those nine months, wouldn't it?
Aw, thanks. At least my stupidity saved someone else's floors!
Oh, I cried. Good and hard. Twice. But I'm all better now. At least we can laugh about it!
Oh noooooo! Is there anything you can put on them to draw the excess moisture out?
Acts of pregnancy! That's great!
I have to admit, I did that in the bathroom once and flooded into the basement. And I've never been pregnant. . .
It's too late for that, sadly. The buckling of the wood has decreased quite a lot since the weekend, fortunately. It's AMAZING how quickly water can spread and cause damage!
Thanks for admitting that, Allie! I feel better now.
OH no Amy!!! That sucks so much! Was it covered?