November 17th - If it's not one thing it's another....

I arrive home tonight and notice some water on the kitchen floor....quite a bit, in fact. So I grab a couple of towels and wipe it up - open the sink cabinet doors to make sure everything looks ok and proceed to feed and water the cats - puzzling a bit about what would have caused the puddles.

Then I head downstairs to wash the wet towels and theres no longer any mystery  - Water is dripping from the joists down the wall, all over the washer and dryer and the stuffs probably half an inch deep over most of the floor.

So, the first thing I do is turn the water to the house off completely.

And right here folks - let me tell you that I don't care if you own your home, if you rent, if you are a woman with a houseful of competent men that do these things for you.....no matter who you are you need to know.

1.  How to shut off the water to your home.
2.  How to shut off the power to your home.

There's some other things you really should know as well - but these are the really important ones.  Water can do a LOT of damage in very little time...and electricity - that is not something you want to be messing with....if you've got an appliance or a light or anything else arcing or smoking  - turn off all the power until you figure out what's going on.

Same deal with water dripping/pouring out/whatever.  Turn off ALL the water to give you time to think.

In this case, I was just not up to dealing with another problem (I mean, I already have an oven that I can't use till at least next Tuesday IF the repair guy can fix it on the first visit)....so what I did was figure out that there were individual shutoff valves for the kitchen sink in the basement - I turned them off - and then turned the house water back on - and since nothing started leaking I knew the problem was associated with the sink.

Then I left the house for a bit to visit my dad and use some Kohls cash that I'd accumulated.  Shopping always relaxes me, and I came back home ready to do battle with the flood.

Thank heavens for my shop vac...If you don't have one you should....there's no floor drain in my basement and trying to sweep water out the back door is only moderately effective.

The bottom line is that there is a leak associated with the hot water line going to my faucet (or possibly a problem with the faucet itself - there's not much room under there to see what's going on - and I decided quickly that I want to pay the 60 dollar service charge and let the plumber come and fix it (that home warranty of mine comes in handy again).   All of the stuff under there is barely more than a year old but I've had a problem with the drainpipe connection coming loose at times - so maybe I can get that fixed as well.

Once again - there's a silver lining :).

Seriously though - make sure you know how to turn your water, electricity, and gas (if you have it) off at the source.