Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Last night I thought I was going to watch our entire house fill with water. It was horrible! A valve on our garden tub in our master bathroom broke, spewing water up to the ceiling. The force was so hard that my husband could not get it turned off. Imagine a geyser in your house!

Water quickly filled the bathroom (upstairs, of course!). My husband was screaming at me to get a wrench. I got that, but he still couldn't get it turned off. He's screaming, I'm screaming, and the dogs are hiding under the bed in fear. I stumble outside in the dark, looking for a way to turn off the main water line near the street. It's pitch dark and I'm trying to find a knob on the thing---and don't see anything to turn! It was the most helpless feeling, especially when I went back inside and heard a WATERFALL inside my house.

I ran across the street and next door to my neighbors, beating on their door, screaming for them to come help. When I came home, water was pouring out of the two recessed lights downstairs in our family room (in front of the fireplace.)----on to our beautiful wood floors. I grabbed two buckets to put under them, pulled back my wool rug, and pushed my leather furniture into the kitchen.

One of my neighbors finally got the water turned off. Later, he tells us we have to have a special wrench to turn it off! NO ONE EVER TOLD US THAT!!!!!!!!!

The upstairs bathroom and the family room downstairs were filled with water. The 3 men used a wet vac to get it all up. They had to calm me down. I was trembling and about to throw up!

I was afraid to go upstairs, but miraculously, it was not as bad up there as I thought. Not a drop of water got on the carpet. Yesterday, I had bought 2 thick rugs at Wal-Mart and had put them on the bathroom floor to try out. Thank goodness, because they soaked up a ton of water and kept it from the carpet.

The leather furniture downstairs was saved by the dogs' crates. Positioned in front of the fireplace, the pillows in the crate had soaked up a lot of water that could've ended up on the furniture. Two upholstered ottomans in front of the fireplace suffered the most damage, but they were the least inexpensive thing downstairs.

In the meantime, I called a plumber to come fix the valve so we could turn the water back on. As soon as I did, my back doorbell rang. Standing there in the dark was a handyman who had come by Tuesday to give me an estimate on tiling my bathroom. He was dropping by some photos of his work! He looked like an angel to me! I wanted to hug and kiss him!!! I asked him if he could stay and he said yes, so we put him to work fixing the valve.

You may think that was a coincidence, but I think the fact that my both of my neighbors were home (one who owned the special wrench!) and that the handyman showed up unexpectedly in our time of crisis was an answer to prayer!!! I have no doubt if they'd not been around last night that our house would have been completely filled with water.

We're drying out today (washing every towel in our house), but we're thankful for these 3 God-sent angels.

Now, I've got to go wash more towels.

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