Down the Drain

Our weekend started out so well. We knocked out a few errands. Managed a thorough cleaning downstairs. Went out with friends on Friday night to the Carolina Ale House. Had a couple more friends over for a cookout Saturday night. I experienced bratwurst for the first time. Not sure if I’ll eat it again, but I at least gave it a try.

Sunday morning, we went to church and listened to a wonderful sermon by the director of youth ministries as our Pastor is with a group of members on a mission trip. During the service, I was thinking about how blessed we were. Really grateful for that. There are so many trying times around us. A line of prayer included in the bulletin really caught me eye as well: Help us to be faithful disciples who recognize that everything we have in life is a gift from you (GBOD | Stewardship).

Being grateful and having patience was on my mind all afternoon. See, this was our master bathroom before Sunday. Starting to see where my title fits in?

After we returned home from church, I made the discovery of a possible water leak around the toilet. Trent stepped in the area. Soft. Uh oh. It was gray and cloudy looking. I tried cleaning the sheet vinyl flooring. Still gray and cloudy. Bigger uh oh.

Trent lined our tub with newspaper, dismantled the toilet and placed it there. (And, yes, we clearly have an obsession with Paul Mitchell Tea Tree products, but that’s for another day….)

Pulled back the sheet vinyl and, sure enough, there was a slow leak that had soaked the subfloor and started growing mold (the gray stuff I saw through the flooring). It’s hard to see clearly in this photo because of the sawdust. Trent began cutting out the damaged subfloor. Once we had removed about a 30×30 inch section, we were able to see to the ceiling below and, thankfully, the water had not seeped through.

Over the next few hours (including a trip to Lowes for supplies) we managed to install additional 2×4 supports between the floor trusses and cut new sections of flooring.

As frustrating as it is, I’m trying to find the positives. I can either laugh or cry. Trying to laugh instead…

– Had I not discovered this yesterday, we might have discovered it falling through the floor and into the kitchen below. Seriously. The subfloor around the toilet that was wet literally crumbled apart. There are no joists directly below it. Just open air to the kitchen ceiling.

– I’ve been wanting to paint the bathroom. It’s on “the list” of home improvement repairs I wanted to tackle this year. Now I get to.

– I’ve been thinking about replacing the current light fixture over the sink area. Trent & I talked about doing it when we paint. Now we can.

– I never really like the sheet vinyl flooring that was in the bathroom. I could live with it though. And have. But now I can pick out one I really like.

I still have a roof over my head. Another full bath (thank goodness because we were both covered in sawdust from head to toe). I still have food on my table. And neither of us went through the ceiling. That would have been a crying moment. Frustrated? Yes. Exhausted? Yes. But very grateful. Because in the overall scheme of things, my bathroom dilemma isn’t so bad.

So, how did you spend your weekend?