As we headed to our place in Lewes, DE, I texted my sister that we were on the road again, heading to the beach house.
“Have fun!” she said.
Well, I knew there would be lots of work involved–at least for my hubby as he would be installing new flooring–but was sure we’d work in some fun as well.
We arrived late that afternoon, went for the necessary groceries, settled in, and had a good dinner. After dinner, Lee decided to remove a little of the old carpet in a hall closet that backs up to the laundry room.
That’s when the fun began.
I don’t recall his exact words, but it was something like, “Uh-oh!” Much of the floor under the carpet was black–not good. It was obvious there was water damage, and further investigation revealed water had been leaking, probably for years before we purchased the property, and this was not going to be an easy fix.
The next day was a nightmare that began with Lee having to rip out large sections of both the floor and walls in the closet, laundry room, and even a small area of the living room. The more he dug into the problem, the more he saw how much needed to be done to rectify it.
After a trip to Home Depot (which would be the first of many), he began work on fixing the leaks–replacing things like pipe, elbows, couplings, shut-off valves, etc. Step one – Shut off the water. Done!
And the water nightmare began!
With the water SHUT OFF, it continued to flow out of the pipes he was working on. How could that be you say? We were told later that we must have a faulty shut-off valve.
So meanwhile, Lee was faced with the dilemma of repairing, replacing, etc. while water continued to flow. There was much hurried switching and emptying buckets and bowls of water from down under the floor as my husband problem solved and somehow got it done. This was at least two to three hours of craziness.
But my superman husband got it done!
Friday was at least a twelve-hour work day, then finally sitting down to a late dinner and bed about an hour earlier than would be typical for us.
The next morning, I awoke to the sound of hammering at 6:20 a.m.
Lee had been up for hours, and work began early and continued for another twelve plus hour day. “Are we having fun yet?” I asked at one point. He said yes, and we both had to laugh. It amazes me the good humor my husband has kept through all this back breaking work. But thank goodness I am married to a Jack-of-all-trades (I swear, he can figure out how to fix anything), and things are looking up.
The floor and walls are almost all rebuilt, and the real work of laying the new luxury vinyl tile flooring will begin today. This will be so much nicer and easier to keep clean than carpet in the beach house. And who knows…
Maybe we’ll even get to the beach one day soon!
So, how’s your weekend going? I’d love to hear.
The Writings of G. K. Bostic 