Wet Bar

Friday late afternoon I discovered a wet spot on the carpet, just outside of our bar area. Like any mom, I immediately interrogated the four year old, who seemed believably innocent. As I was trying to soak some of it up, it became obvious that the visibly wet section was just the tip of the iceberg. It was obvious because my knees were soaked. The ice maker was the culprit, I thought, since the wet area was in a straight line out from it. I turned it off, and after a bit turned off the water to it. At Aaron's request, I shoveled all of the ice out of it into the sink.


In this photo, the ice maker is to the left of the fridge. It has been a thorn in Aaron's side since we moved in, since it appears to be constantly running. Aaron says it probably uses more water than our sprinkler system.

After dinner, I got out the shop vac and started trying to suck up the water. The water in the tub was about 4 inches, so we dumped it into the bar's sink. And then watched it come right back out at our feet. Which meant that all that ice we put into the sink was ALSO coming out tAt which point I nearly had an emotional breakdown.

And rescue came in the form of friend Stacie dropping off my order from her Usborne book show. I briefly explained the situation, and she reminded me that her husband used to work for a water removal & restoration company. So he was waved in, along with their two kids, M (Leah's best frenemy) and baby P, whom Ben adores.

Chris quickly assessed the situation, and said we'd have to move the bar's counter, because it was sitting ON the carpet, which was wet underneath. If we left it, the carpet would get moldy and the counter's wood would start to rot. Fun.

The guys worked to separate and move the countertop and then the cabinets. They used the same engineering as the Egyptians did when building the pyramids...they rolled it.

Here's a good photo of the extent of the water damage.

And here's proof that I helped!

We assumed that the garbage disposal was to blame, since we found pieces of lettuce and other vegetation coming up from the drain.

Once everything was moved to the other side of the room, the carpet was pulled up and the soaking pad cut out and thrown away. Then we propped the carpet up on paint cans and set up our only box fan to blow towards the open windows. And then Stacie, Chris and their (amazing well behaved for being so tired) kids got to go home...at 11:30pm. Thanks so, so, much you guys.

And outside? It was pouring rain. Sooo helpful.

I'll have more photos (and the rest of the story) tomorrow.