So here I am on day 3 of being a temporary SAHW...certainly doesn't have the same appeal as a SAHM, as far as the acronym goes. I've kept myself busy by doing what housewives do, I suppose, by taking care of the house. Edgar incidentally is getting his haircut, so I'm a bit lonely today (which is so stupid, I realize.)
First, I've been trying to organize the chaos that comes with water damage. You see, we had to replace our water heater. After a nice flood and an expired warranty from 2001, it was time to bring in the Power Miser 9 a la Sears. My first call into the Sears call center was with an ESL lady by the name of Daisy. She was very polite and sweet, but finally I just had to tell her it was my fault and to please connect me with someone else. Here I am, the supposedly culturally sensitive social worker, and I couldn't understand what she was saying. After being on hold for another 10 minutes I just called back and explained to the next call center representative what had happened. He then told me that he knew who I was talking about and I was the third caller that night with the same problem. Ok, so now I felt terrible! Daisy was very sweet and called me back because we were disconnected and wanted to make sure I got everything taken care of. Yup, I felt lower than slime at that point. But, we did get our new water heater installed the next day.
The water heater was just one problem in the line of many. Our master bathroom toilet has been leaking as well. Getting out my Home Depot, DIY 1-2-3 book, J and I diagnosed it as a wax seal issue. This is something I knew I couldn't handle with a bad back nor did my husband have the time to fix it, so we called in more plumbers. They also fixed some broken stems on our master bathroom sink. Can't wait to see this bill. But see, now we have flooded carpets in two rooms.
J and I ventured to Home Depot to see about getting either a wet/dry vac or a heavy duty blower thingy for the carpet, especially since we live in mold/mildew central. When we talked to the rental guy he advised us it would be cheaper if we just bought our own blower vs. renting it. This completely overwhelmed J so as we sat in the patio furniture display I could see by his blank stare that we were not moving forward with a solution anytime soon. I called Mom to see what her recommendations were: hire a carpet cleaner. We did this months earlier, who by the way did nothing noticeable and I felt we were ripped off.
The other morning J disappeared into the back bedroom where the water heater resided in the closet with surgical material. I just kind of blew it off and went back to doing my own thing. I did ask what he was doing and he said he was suturing the carpet. This actually didn't seem odd to me. J practices his suturing on Edgar's torn up stuffed animals. However, why we have left over cat gut suture, hemostats, alligator needles, and other hospital things in our house is beyond me. I typically put all of the random medical supplies that travel home in his pockets into a drawer. We have quite the impressive assortment of tongue depressors, alcohol pads and gloves, just in case anyone was wondering. 30 minutes later he came out and got Edgar's leash. As the dog bounced around thinking he was going on a walk, I became more baffled.
"I fixed the problem." J announced proudly. "Now we have more circulation under the carpet to dry it out."
Well, all I can say is I wouldn't have thought of this on my own or in my DIY 1,2,3 book. While he sutured the carpet edge, he then attached the dog leash to the suturing and the closet rod. The photos speak for themselves.
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