be careful of mold! our basement floods every time it rains and a friend recently warned us that certain molds can be poisonous.
Oh, man- I am so sorry. You always make even the saddest, baddest, and most pitiful things funny-thank you. I hope you love the new stuff so much it all feels right in the end.
My house? It smells like cheese. Don't ask.
Oh no! And your insurance doesn't cover any of it? What a nightmare.
In our old condo, we had an upstairs neighbor who, inexplicably, removed his garbage disposal and replaced it with...well, with nothing, basically. The result: ruined kitchen drywall, a shorted-out refrigerator and washer/dryer, and barely salvagable flooring. The blanket policy that the condo association held covered it.
Ugh, that is so awful. And how the heck is your insurance covering none of it??
Last winter, during that intense cold snap we had in MI, the pipes in my parents house froze while they were out of town (their house is 150 years old, and has all radiant, hot water heat - no forced air - and their boiler shorted out, allowing all their heating pipes to freeze)... long story short, while they were still gone, I went to their house to find 12" of water in their basement, furniture floating around the house, and a LITERAL waterfall that started in the master bedroom, cascaded through the kitchen, and into the basement. Water damage is the WORST. I'm really sorry that happened to you guys!
You sure have a good attitude about a shi**y situation. I would be all pissed off and bitter. I could learn from you!
i agree - i don't think my attitude would be so pleasant or even humorous.
I worry about just this thing (along with fire) every time we go out of town. You might want to get a de-humidifier to help with the drying out and to prevent mold.
OMG, that is one of my biggest fears....being gone and coming home to disaster.
I'm so sorry insurance won't pay for any of it. Why?
But hey, I like your attitude....seeing the positive above the negative is a great way to live. Can you pass that along to MY husband?
You are taking this a lot better than I would-especially with respect to the insurance.
I'm so sorry! That truly sucks that insurance doesn't cover it. Way to look on the bright side, though.
At my house, the first thing we do when we walk in the door is sniff. The times when we are greeted by the distinct aroma of cat pee, we know to immediately get the cleaning solution.
Sorry about what happened. But new floors and appliances are nice and sometimes you just need a disaster to make you go out and get something new. Try to dry out the place properly ASAP. Mold is bad. I have a horribly sensitive nose. It really sucks actually. I purchased an Eve Taylor neubulizer for aromatherapy and some essential oil blends that I DO like smelling. I put a few drops in the water and turn the bugger on and voila, the house smells like a spa. It doesn't smell like those lousy sprays/blocks designed to cover up gym sock smell with cheap bathroom freshner jello-y substance smell either. Also not toxic for the little ones...
Oh, that sucks. And the crib, too? How heartbreaking.
Echo the sentiment to watch for mold. That stuff can grow fast and make for serious upper respiratory problems for all.
Oh gawd, that sucks! But hoorah for the change in decor and appliances!
Were you able to salvage any of the crib?
Oh boy do I feel your pain. We just finished going through exactly the same thing. A pipe had sprung a leak in our master bath and had gone undetected for months until the smell of mold made it's way out of the walls. Our kitchen, which shared a wall with the bath, our dining room and the bathroom had to be gutted to the framing and built back up. At least you are handy with home installations. My husband is good at many things, handy work not one of them. Good luck and keep your sense of humor - it's critical.
Argh! Yes, please be careful of mold. And as wonderful as new appliances are, they do leave a hole in your wallet, don't they? Ugh.
That totally sucks. But it sounds like it might have been a blessing in disguise, new stuff is good.
Our house smells like woodsmoke. ahhh.
Crap, that totally sucks. But for people like me who love an excuse to spend money I don't have, acts of god or shortfalls of insurance are AWESOME.
kidding... sort of.
That sucks! I am curious why the insurance thinks they don't have to cover it as well.
I feel your pain though. We thought we had escaped damage to our house from a recent tornado, but after looking at my daughter's ceiling last night, we were wrong. Unfortunatly, we just put in a new kitchen.
WTF won't insurance cover this? Yikes. Great attitude, shitty time to have it happen. There are people you can bring in to fix water damage who have big fans to dry it all out, you might want to try that.
Enjoy the new appliances and floors. And your new much lighter wallet.
Without actually knowing, I am willing to bet the reason their health insurance doesn't cover it is because they didn't pay a premium for flood insurance.
I would suggest that you see if you can rent an industrial grade de-humidifier. I've been involved in several mold remediation cases and they are apparently very important in actually getting the moisture out of the air/house so that you get have mold issues later.
Too late now, but we always turn off the water when we leave the house unoccupied. I worked for an insurance company and saw way too many claims similar to yours.
Count me among those who are curious why your insurance isn't covering it.
Hopefully the financial hit isn't ruinous and nothing of sentimental value got destroyed (crib?).
ohhhhhh no. I'm sorry, that sucks. yes, new stuff that works is good... but that still sucks. sorry.
I also meant to add that the same thing happened to our neighbors 2 years ago. They were gone for 6 days and came back, their upstairs toilet had been overflowing for who knows how long. The ceiling on the first floor had collapsed, much of the drywall had crumbled. The whole house had to be stripped down to the studs and interior completely rebuilt. Thank goodness they had a drain in their basement there would have been standing water there too.
It took 7 months to get it all fixed so they could move back in.
Well, shit. Glad you're getting a new floor out of it, though.
OMG you Two, I swear to you this JUST happened to us. Late February - our renters (who live in a house we moved out of February 07') were gone for two weeks and the water wasn't shut off. Furnace busted out; pipes froze; water everywhere...see my blog. I have been venting about it for a month now, but the work is done and the house is super cute and, well, I wish we could move back into it, LOL. I am so, so sorry this happened to you both - and with a newborn. Why won't insurance cover it?
Why is it that shit always happens when you're on vacation? The hot water heater flooded my house one vacation, then one year lightening blew a tree over and damaged the roof where it was leaking profusely. So it seems like every couple of years I'm installing new floors and ceilings!
Beware of mold!!!
Harbor no tolerance for something so dangerous for young children to be exposed to.
ugh, yuck! the condo across the hall from me had a pipe from the sprinkler system freeze, which managed to flood and completely destroy not only that unit but the one beneath it and the one beneath that. luckily, we were spared anything other than the annoyance of no water for a while and a really messy walkway for months, but it was really stressful for everyone else in the building, so i feel for ya!
When I was a child, we went to the beach for a week. On the day we got home, we unlocked the door to the sound of cascading water- not dripping!- cascading. The faucet in the upstairs bathroom had cracked and for most of the week it has been spewing water all over our house. This house was entirely floored in antique heart pine planks that my father had lovingly and painstakingly put in and they were a wreck. Warped, bowed, and all manner of bad things that can happen to wood. The water had poured down our stairs- also hardwood- turning them into a funhouse. The second that we walked in, my mother burst into tears and didn't stop crying for two days.
We eventually had to replace all of the sheetrock on the walls and most of the cabinets in the bathroom and a great deal of furniture in the bottom floor. Miraculously, the wood dried out and settled back into it's previous configuration. There was always one board that never was quite right, but the rest of it looked fine. And now my mother buys the most riduculously expensive faucets you can imagine.
Oh man. I am so sorry! What a pain in the rear. (and pocketbook)
But two thumbs up on turning lemons into lemonade. My kind of thinking. 
I had that happen a few years ago. Why is water dripping out of my apartment? Why is it hot and humid in here? Turns out the refrigerator was spewing water for days... New floors all around! Hope we get to see what you pick out for them.
that sucks donkeys...sorry
i would have rather had the crackhead.
sucks dude. sorry. wait, you've already installed a dishwasher? didn't you just get home? damn you're quick.
holy mother of god- i agree, i don't know if i'd be showing the best side of this so soon...although i do appreciate the bright side of things- on return from our last xmas vacation we found that our cats has decided to gift us with using our bed as their litter box! so we got a new mattress and it.is.divine. so there's that. but still, no one enjoys coming home to any type of disaster.
i know exactly what you mean about houses having smells and being ultra-paranoid about what ours smells like. i nearly gag when i'm in a family members house that smells like dog- and i love dogs. but eww, eww, eww, they have stinky dogs. also i am not a big fan of old-people/never open the window smell. which is why even though it's only 61 degrees out i've already started opening windows here.
good luck, guys, and hang in there!
Agree with the person who suggested renting an industrial dehumidifier. Sorry this happened.
I love the smell of our house too. We're just re-entering the season in which we bought the house last year, so all the same things are blooming in the garden. That, to me, equals New House Smell, and I hope it lingers for years and years.
hey folks- we were at medical appointments all day and I'm just getting home to read these comments. here are some answers to the questions that have been raised:
our insurance situation is atypical: our property is part of a co-op, and the co-op insures the value of the physical space: walls, windows, ceilings, etc. but floor coverings are not covered by the co-op, so our floors were not something we could use their insurance to cover. if our ceiling was not made of this intensely strong concrete/plaster, they would have fallen through and that would have been a co-op matter.
our other policy is just a renter's. we're going to get a better policy this week.
in the end, what I've spent on new floors is really less than the deductible would have been had our policy covered it. the new appliances weren't absolutely necessary (and new ones wouldn't have been covered because they technically still worked), but the old ones were ancient, wet, and they needed to be moved anyway in order to remove the old floors.
oh, and re: mold. we've been running four fans and keeping the windows open constantly for the last five days.
I am never leaving home again.....
Holy cow, I am nauseous just thinking about what you came home to. Nothing like being tired and ready to be home and then having to deal with something like that. Did you stay in the house that night? I would not even know where to start on taking care of a mess like that. Kudos to you for having a sense of humor about it!
When my husband was a kid they went to Colorado on vacation for 2 weeks and came home to find that the giant chest freezer that had just been filled with a side of beef had died while they were gone. In Texas, in the summer. He says it smelled like several people had died in the house. On top of that they had trouble finding anyone willing to come and haul it all away. That's a plesant smell to have in your home. Wonder why Airwick doesn't market a cadaver scented spray? Nice.
"A housewarming gift for the couple who has everything, now in a variety of scents including: Morgue Melon, Litter Box Lemon, Gym Sock Toffee, and our our newest scent Black Mold Biscotti".
We came home to a crackhead once. Trust me, you woulda smelled him from the driveway.
Mentioned above, but bears repeating. DE-HUMIDIFIER. When you start emptying out that bad-boy a couple times a day, you'll understand.
I was cringing while reading your post because it took me back to last summer when the water line that goes to our freezer broke and spewed water all over our kitchen and brand new finished basement for an entire day. We ended up replacing carpet, drywall and repainting everything we had literally painted three weeks previously. I'm so sorry. I'm glad you are able to have a good attitude about it...I just cried and drank beer while my husband did a lot of the work.
One time I went out of town for four days and came home to a burst washing machine hose. I had to gut half the house. The strange thing is that the insurance DID pay for it. I find it strange that yours will not. I did not have flood insurance. A burst pipe is not a flood. I have not read all the comments above, so maybe someone has good advice...but wait, you are a lawyer, you don't need my advice! but there might be some kind of state insurance commissioner that can advocate for you with your insurance company. Also, I had to be very persistent, and calm. Ask to speak to someone above who ever you get on the phone if they don't give you the answer you want.
My heart is breaking about the crib! The cradle my dad made for Charlotte is on the "must evacuate in case of fire" list, right after Charlotte.
Ugh, how awful. If it's any consolation, I thought your house smelled great.
OMG NIGHTMARE! Good on ya though for your attitude (how long did it take to come to this point?!? How many curse words and WTFs and ARE YOU SH*$$ING ME?!'s came first?) I'm with S/S Kate, though, good excuse to upgrade?! Heh?
Dehumidifier my friend. Home Depot. Water some plants with the water it will collect. You'll be amazed.
Damn! One of the few times you wish for a crackhead. It's funny what life can make you do.
seriously, your optimism is killing me here. glad you see the silver lining ... oh and as a cheap dutchman shouldn't you be buying appliances at the salvation army/ on craigslist? or do appliances fall into the category of home design?
no, no, use the dehumidifier water for your iron...oh, the assvice i could offer as well...
we had a friend who came home from school early one day to find a crackhead had been living in his basement for quite sometime- just during the day when no one was home...
right now our house has the distinct smell of fresh sheetrock wafting down the stairs- no sweeter smell in the world, my friends.
and bensmom made me laugh with her air freshener ideas.
Insurance rarely lives up to its billing anyway. The timing could have been better while you are adjusting to a new baby but then is there really any good time for your home to flood? Good luck and have fun buying new goodies!
I have nothing to say, having been on both ends of water damage. The contractor end, where our wonderful plumbing sub makes a tiny mistake or the century old plumbing breaks.
When the plumbing in our century old flat in the Richmond breaks, or the drain for the whole building gets plugged up with tampons and shit and the smells lingers for days, even after roter-rooter comes. Thank goodness our land lord is a plumber.
What I can say, is that every little boy I have ever looked after has gotten the nickname Mr. Wizard, as he was my hero. Who else could intrigue so many children by inflating a sheep's bladder into a balloon with HIS OWN LIPS?
So, in honor of 7 yo Colin, who now watches Mr. Wizard on Youtube, 1 yo Jules, and 4 month old Luke, thanks for your post reminding people how AWESOME Mr. Wizard was. And each of these boys, just like your new little one, are all little Mr. Wizard's on their own.
People's cars also have smells. They're like, an extension of their house smell. A satellite smell.
Can I call you Pollyanna?
I'm glad I'm not alone in pondering house smells, enjoying the novelty of ours after an absence, and wondering what it smells like to visitors.
curious what you chose for a new floor...I'm re-doing a mid-century home and am reeling from sticker shock on my floor choices.
k.
What a terrible welcome home! I'm so sorry, especially about the crib.
Speaking as an insurance professional, the key words with homeowner's insurance are "sudden and accidental". Meaning a leak over time that causes damage probably won't be covered. Burst pipes, which happen suddenly, are covered. You're right about the renter's policy, that covers contents only. Word to the wise: if you have unique furniture that's hard to replace (antiques, retro, custom), make sure your limits are high enough to cover a full replacement, and not just "actual cash value", which will get you nada for older furniture. The HO-6 is the "condo" policy you need, which will cover your floor coverings, wall coverings, etc. Crazy world. As a fellow hobby woodworker, I wish you and your crib the best.
Make sure to check your subflooring--it may be moldy. I'm glad you can find a silver lining--its hard to have change thrust upon one.
I'm so sorry this happened, and wish you the best. Fantastic attitude.
I agree with those who say a dehumidifier would be much better than just fans.
I hope all your chairs are intact!
During the first half of this post, I was smiling inside about how I understand exactly what you mean with each house has a different scent. Then I started thinking of how my grandmother's home smelt every day around noon after she had prepared a huge breakfast. And how our home has that distinct, cozy "old house" scent. HOWEVER, once I got to "But the sound was water." I became nauseous. For you. UGH. That optimism of yours is quite a blessing. Huge unplanned expenses send me into a tailspin. And a 6 w/o to boot. Oy. I think I'd have to be committed.
Good luck this weekend. Glad it's you and not me 
It's amazing to hear how many people have experienced this. ME TOO! While I was away on a 3 day trip. The filter for the ice maker burst and spewed. Floors, cabinets, and drywall had to be replaced. The insurance company ran huge and I mean huge fans forever. The insurance company was much more concerned about the mold than anything. You might want a specialist to come in and measure, whatever it is they measure to make sure it doesn't form. To add insult to injury, about 3 months later the stove which sat unplugged for 6 weeks while the kitchen was remodeled died. Something about all that happened with new wiring - the old stove just couldn't take. So, new cabinets had to be modified to take the new stove - at that point I wished that I had sprung for the new stove at the beginning.
The crazy thing, 13 month earlier my house sustained heavy fire damage when the garage caught on fire. If I had to pick between the two, water damage is not quite so heinous. Things dry out, if something is burned up it is gone forever.
Yikes! Water damage is, indeed, the most dreadful thing ever! Our house took a couple of hits when I was a little kid -and you don't even have the cold comfort of being able to blame your kids years after the fact for trying to make a Slip n' Slide work indoors! Dang!
After our mishaps, though, and to a lesser degree being a flooring manager at the Home Depot for a couple years, my dad offered me some suggestions for water damage that can be done on the cheap-and-quick.
Cat litter, for example, will fix a lot of this. Get the brand-name antibacterial kind, possibly with the little crystals in it for extra flood-restoration chic, and simply rake it out onto the floor where the water's been. Wait two hours, then slurp it up with a shop-vac and pour down some new. Repeat process until the room smells nice, and you're golden.
The antibacterial component in the good stuff even helps with the prevention of yucky mold. It can be used on hard floors, carpets, car interiors -you name it, and the worst you might have is a little gray dust to Swiffer up later. You can then put the used litter onto old cookie sheets and either dry it in the sun or use a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes -and it's good for another go. (Note: do not try the oven method if you're reusing litter that has been used by actual cats. It results in a horror too vile to comprehend.) About three passes should do it, depending on how much water came down in there.
Another substance that works great as a pour-absorb-slurp-up-sweep-away is silica gel. Just tear open a disposable diaper, sprinkle the contents on the floor, and sweep it up later. (Do that one with the kids in bed, though; while silica's not especially toxic, it's a nightmare from hell if one eats the stuff.)
Finally, if you find yourself pulling up any linoleum, tile or boards, Dad suggests putting down a fine dusting of Cascade dishwashing powder, scent of your choice, and allowing it to dry and be vacuumed up before replacing the floor proper. It's apparently the best thing for it, and what's more, its' powdery nature makes for easy application with a child's pail, tiny shovel and the exhortation to sprinkle the fairy dust and don't eat it or you'll get gnome pox. Many was the time I found myself in the role of Burst Pipe Fairy during the late eighties.
Hope things work out for you...and have fun redecorating! 'Catastrophe' is just how they spell 'craft project' on Scrabble Dyslexics' Night.
Congratulations on the Harper's thing. It looks fantastic.
gee. like taylor's story.
I have some reclaimed maple that my Dad and I salvaged from an old lady's house. It needs refinishing but I thought it might suit you?
Oh, MAN. That's exactly the type of thing I worry about when we're on vacation. Kudos to you for keeping a positive attitude about it, though.
I love what you wrote about the smell of people's houses. It's so true - my friend's college apartment? Nag Champa incense. My parents' house? Cinnamon candles. My in-laws' house? Virginia Slims.
OMG I'm just so sorry that happened. I'm heartbroken about the crib.
A friend's elderly mom who is a snow bird had this happen to her a couple of years ago. She had gone to FL for the OH winter and a valve in her upstairs bath failed at some point and flooded inside the walls so the person checking on the house once a week didn't notice it at first. By week two the entire house was flooded. She had to do an ENTIRE gut and renovation since the water, and then mold, was everywhere - even down to the basement. Her insurance did pay for it and her son is an architect so they updated the layout of her 1911 house for today's lifestyle but the whole process took close to a year. The water bill for the two weeks that there was a leak was over $2500 - that's a ton of freaking water!
And that totally sucks about the crib. Harsh.
what kind of sling is your son in? it looks so papoose like and cozy...
Oh no! That's just horrible! I'm so sorry - and I can't believe how well you're taking it in print... Great post, btw. Loved the description of the curry becoming one with the paint. I had no idea what was coming. And, WOW! about the Harper's. I can't wait to see the post.
Just wanted to say...congratulations on the Harpers thing! Wow! Those pictures were so amazing though.
You sure know how to make the best of a bad situation!
Oh, man that sucks. But I will say this -- you will indeed get used to the smell. And it will only be when you return from vacation that you'll wrinkle your nose at the musty, damp drywall smell and wonder again if you're breathing in toxic mold and think "Is *this* what our house smells like?"
(A tip: don't pay a "friend of a friend" to replace your roof in the middle of the summer when freak, violent rainstorms are not uncommon. Or, if you do, make sure they securely fasten the tarps. Unless you like water pouring out of the electrical sockets.)
(That Anon was me. Whoops.)
thankfully, we don't have drywall. our walls and ceilings are concrete and plaster. the only risk of mold is in the wood floor underlayment, which has been removed.
ok, so I am not crazy...that WAS a pheasant that cut in front of our car as we were snaking through back streets after leaving the Market
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