So as if I was not under enough stress from having surgery, something else had to happen to upset me. I spent a week away from home to recover from my surgery and then came back home. I puttered about the house for a while in the afternoon trying to get things ready so I could go back to work and although I did not do too much, between the pain medication and straightening up I was exhausted by bedtime.

I was just getting into bed when I heard a loud sound coming from the second bathroom but thought that it was the neighbor’s shower. After about a minute the noise bothered me and I thought it sounded really strange so I decided to get up and look.

To my surprise the water hose connecting the toilet to the wall had broken and water was gushing everywhere. I quickly (well as quickly as I could given the pain I was in) tried to bend over to close the pipe but it would not turn. I then went back into the bedroom and got my phone and called the maintenance man for the apartment.

I was told that someone would be on the way and I went back into the bedroom to get things off the floor because the water was now ankle deep in the bathroom and I could see that it was spreading to the other rooms.

The maintenance man arrived in about twenty minutes and began to pump the water out but by this time the secondary bathroom was completely flooded with bath mats floating around. The water had also spread to the master bathroom, out into the hallway, into the front of the master bedroom and the second bedroom and into the living room as well.

Of course the rooms are covered with carpet and the water was seeping under it and was not easily visible but I could tell it was spreading quickly when I took off my shoes and walked about.

After a few minutes of pumping and running a vacuum the maintenance man said that he could not do any more and he put up a large blower fan to draw out the rest of the moisture.

He then went to check on the tenant downstairs as the man had come up complaining that the water had now run down through his ceiling and was flooding his rooms below me.

The maintenance man came back upstairs one more time to check on the positioning of the blower fan and told me that it needed to run for at least 24 hours to dry out the carpet so I tried to go back to bed.

The following morning I checked the areas where the fan had been blowing by digging my toes into the carpet and found that the carpet really was dry so I guess I just have to deal with the noise and the resulting electric bill to get my carpet dry.

I am concerned about mold growing in the damp spots so if I notice any discoloration or bad smell after this ordeal is over I will have the apartment company come in and check out the floor beneath the carpet.

This just makes me glad about a few things:
-I have renters insurance
-I live upstairs so I don’t have to deal with what the guy downstairs had to deal with
-It happened while I was home and not when I was away for days

I really hope that the carpet and flooring dry out well and I do not have to deal with any more problems but if I do then at least the apartment complex will cover it. I would not mind getting new carpet although the current carpet was brand new when I moved in three and half years ago!!!