The Great Poop Flood of 2010

**Beware, long post ahead, but very worth the read!**

One year ago today we woke up to our 1765 sq foot house flooded under 3-5 inches of city sewage.

Take a minute and read that again, because your eyes are not deceiving you...

We have since dubbed that day The Great Poop Flood of 2010. And now for the story that I know you are wanting, because how do drop a bomb like that and not give details right....

just know if you have a weak stomach this is not for you as it does involve poop.

In December of 2009 God answered our 10 year long prayer for a home to call our own. It was the most awesome house and we were so excited to pay Chase that mortgage, sure there were things we wanted to change as any home owner who buys an older home, but all in all we were really happy. It had new paint all throughout, new laminate in the living room and formal dining, new Corian counters in the kitchen with refinished cabinets and an updated master bathroom. Who can complain right???

We got in and got settled and were just starting to adjust to life as homeowners when on March 3rd 2010, I came home at 4:15 to find my toilet leaking water at the base where the toilet meets the floor.

Weird...but OK.

I cleaned it up no big deal and went about my business. Then about 45 minutes later I walked in the bathroom to find it happening again, but this time water was coming out pretty quickly, I grabbed all the towels in the house (all 15) and the shop vac and went to town cleaning it up. At this point the water was clear and had no smell so I was in it,

 I mean flip flops hand and knees.

I was swishing the water into the shop vac with my hand to avoid it getting onto the master bedroom carpet...

I was in the water!

After about 30 minutes of that it finally stopped. On the other side of our bathroom is our living room so I went to check the damage in there and sure enough the water had gotten under the baseboards and wall and had come out in the living room. I got that cleaned up because as I am sure you know wood whether it is real or fake does NOT like water. And then I called my husband FREAKING OUT! We wound up having to rip up the entire hall way and several boards in the living room that is how much "water" there was. By this time it's 7pm so we called our plumber friend to come out and also called the insurance company to file a claim and try to determine if this would be covered.

Our friend arrived around 8 or so and before he got there we had yet another mini flood. We had no towels left, so we were shop vacing it up as quickly as possible except every few minutes the vac would be full and we would have to stop, dump and start again. It was a disaster! They pulled up the toilet to get the "clog" out then, only they couldn't find the "clog", so our friend, my husband and I went to digging our yard up in various places trying to find the sewage pipe or clean out.

After an hour or so, 6 holes in my yard and a 7 foot long 3 foot deep trench dug, we went back in to find that the "water" was pouring out of the whole in the floor where the toilet used to sit. In horror and disgust we looked as toilet paper, food, detergents and POOP flooded out.

You have to know at this point we still assumed there was a clog in our line somewhere and this was

OUR backup....

So as I shop vaced and dump the mess, the guys snaked the line and then boom it was done, the water level went back to normal just like that. We got the "clog"! Hip Hip Hooray!!

Our house was in disarray and smelled really bad, our yard looked like an giant ADD mole invaded and we were out of towels. But it was done!

What a night! At 11pm our friend left with a good luck I'll be back in the morning and exhausted we went to bed, or tried at least.

Something told me a little while later to get up, as I rounded the bathroom corner I saw it, "water" pouring out of that stupid hole again. But now it wasn't just "water", it was very clear this was sewage. It was horrific, thats all I can say. After it stopped yet again (every time it stopped we thought we were done no more, how much could there possibly be in OUR line???...) It was to the point the majority of our house was ruined there was so much sewage we couldn't get it all cleaned up and since the insurance company was sending someone one out that next morning, we did our best to stay locked in the bedroom and avoid the smell and not cry. Finally in the wee hours of the morning we fell asleep.

When my mother in law brought the boys back (we pawned them off on here early on because we didn't want them there dealing with that) at 6:30am before school, I hopped out of bed to open the door and

squish squish was the sound I heard when my feet hit the carpet. I grabbed my boots that THANK GOODNESS I left right by my bed and walked into the hall.....my stomach dropped, it was THE WORST thing ever! Sewage was pouring out of the hole so fast there were waves in my bathroom, my puppy was chasing poop through the living room and not a square inch of my house was dry. The sewage was ankle deep. We immediately called the city and then the insurance company. It took the city 3 hours to get the clog out. Some how there was a clog in the city main line right in front of our line and because our house sits downhill (you know the ole saying, poop rolls down hill, really it does). EVERYONE's mess in our neighborhood who is behind us on the sewer line was coming into our house. All the shower water, dishwasher water, laundry water and toilet water was in our house.

The insurance company came out right away and got the ball going, they hired a restoration company to come and rip EVERYTHING out and I mean EVERYTHING! The only thing left downstairs was the master bath tub. 4 ft of wall, baseboard, window trim, doors, cabinets, counters, even 3 stairs on the stair case, all gone. All our furniture trashed, panel curtains trashed, all gone. 

It took 3 months for us to get it all fixed. We lived in a hotel for 6 weeks and a town house the rest of the time all paid for by the insurance. After many tears, lots of hard work on our part and time it got done. We took the opportunity to make some of the changes we wanted to make, did a lot of the work ourselves to same some money so we could stretch the dollar and get more (easy to do when your hubs is in construction and knows lots of people). We turned a 30 year old house into one that looks like it was just built. We got new laminate (better laminate that can withstand water for 24 hours, I test it), new tile, new carpet, new walls with new texture, custom cabinets built, granite counters, awsome exterior doors and interior doors, all upscale really nice stuff. We even put a rock fireplace in with a cedar mantle and a cedar beam on the celing to add some dimension. It is AWSOME now! A long road but what a payout!

I say this all to say, as I went to bed last night I was so glad it is behind us, and I was even more glad to wake up this morning to it in the same condiditon it was when I went to sleep. I am so grateful that God did this for us. He not only answered our prayer for a house, but he gave us a house that we would not be able to afford otherwise. We are so truly blessed and amazed at how God works!

I hope you enjoyed a good laugh, I know I was giggling all the way through. You can do that a year later ya know!

Jen