The worst Valentine's Day Ever!
Wednesday, Mar. 01, 2006 2:25 pm
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On valentine's day, I was on my way upstairs and I noticed that I could hear water running. I thought maybe the toilet lever might be stuck, or something like that, After looking it over (as well as the rest of the bathroom fixtures) I still couldn't find the problem. I told James about it and then went to figure out what to make for dinner. I could hear the noise in the pantry, it sounded like a faucet was on somewhere... So James went upstairs to have a look for himself. In the mean time, I went about preparing our meal... I even baked a cake. That is when I heard the most frightening sound of all... A waterfall... The sound of water cascading, lots of water...
And it was coming from the back unused section of our house, which is accessed through a door in our kitchen. The house is like a long rectangle, divided into three parts, the living room, dining room, back parlor and front hall are in the front three story section. Above those are the main bedrooms and bathroom, and above that is the attic. The back part of the house is the old carrige house, which had been turned into a rooming house about 75 years ago. It has two rooms and a bathroom, and above that is the loft.
The two old sections are connected by a narrow middle piece, which isn't part of either of the original structures. In there is the kitchen, and above that two small rooms, which I think were for servants.
Anyway, Mr. O, our landlord, began gutting the carrige house this past summer... He want to turn it into a garage... He took a sledge hammer to the walls and tore down all the walls, and insulation and everything, right down to the house's skeleton. You can see bits of outside THROUGH the wall now. He must have run out of money though, because that is as far as they got. It was supposed to be done by this past fall, but it wasn't.
Not that it matters to us, because we don't use that part of the house... So no big deal...
We had turned the radiators off back there, worriying about heat escaping, but after the frozen pipe fiasco in December, we turned them back on... Not that it mattered!!! Even when we had the heat cranking it would never warm up back there... No insulation anymore.
That noise I heard?
A radiator had burst!
So James called Mr. O's son, and he came to see what the damage was. He had a peak into the basement of the carrige house (seperate from the house basement).
It was bad.
Not only had the radiator burst, but a sewage pipe had as well! Pumping raw sewage into the basement under the carrige house!!!
So he had to shut off the water and the sewage.
He asked us if there was anyway we could move before the 1st because it was going to take a few weeks to fix everything and get it cleaned up...
James called our new landlord and he said it was fine for us to move in early. Bless him!
I booked a budget truck for Thursday the 16th, and Wednesday we busted our asses getting everything packed up... An entire 24 foot truck was filled!
By the way, I have come to the conclusion that we have WAY too much crap!!!
So we drove down to Rhode Island Thursday night and moved into our new place Friday morning.
Aaaahhh....
Its nice to be settled again! With running water and a toilet that works! It was HELL to be six months pregnant, needing to pee every 5 minutes and have no immediate access to a bathroom!!!
So we're all fine. I was cramping and having contractions on Saturday, which continued off and on through last Tuesday. The doctor said it was stress and too much activity, and put me on bedrest for a week. Which is up today. Woohoo!!!
I still have to take it easy for the rest of my pregnancy, but at least I don't have to be stuck on the couch anymore!
Anyway, so that's what has been going on since I last updated.

***For the person who asked why I had to move again, the answer is, we didn't HAVE to move (I guess it was in the cards anyway cause of the burst pipes! LOL) but we decided it would be a good idea after the drama with James and the inn. We only moved up to Maine for his job, and since they laid him off (read: a polite firing) and treated him so badly, we are kind of soured on the whole Maine experience.
I would like to be nearer to the support of my family and friends... You know what cinched it for me? James had to go in for his surgery on January 17th and I had NO ONE I could ask to babysit my kids for me!
It was one thing to not be able to go out to eat alone with my husband, or leave them with someone for an hour here and there... I got used to that, we adapted. And I enjoy the time we all spend together, so no big deal!
But when I had to drag my two kids around the hospital all day... Pregnant, chasing Bubba through every damn hallway in the building, trying to keep him quiet, trying to keep the witchling from dying of boredom, all while worrying about James... It really sucked. And it made me realize that I wanted to be home!

Artwork © Jessica Galbreth