Carpet Cleaning

On Saturday we had planned to get a bunch of things done that have been on the "to do" list for a while and clean up the house, so we could enjoy Monday (Martin Luther King Jr Day, and a day home for Rick) doing something as a family.

However, we abandoned our plans and opted for cleaning the carpets. We didn't want to bother with one of those pesky rental cleaners, and thought it would be much more efficient to just drain the water heater into the basement instead. The carpet is only 8 months old, and quite frankly still pretty nice looking - so where's the challenge in cleaning that? To make it more interesting we had a plumber walk his muddy boots outside in the rain, and then all over the carpet too. Now there's something worth cleaning up! To make sure we burned as many calories as possible while working, we turned of the heat (water supply to the boiler) and made the house nice and cold. AHH - now we had a perfect way to spend a Saturday with 4 kids!

My only question is - why do all the catastrophe's in our basement happen in the middle of the night where they can keep progressing, instead of in the day when I could get immediate help? Actually, I kind of blame myself for some of this one. Jane is STILL sick (& now me too), and I had gone into the bathroom at 3am to run the shower & steam her up. After a while of running it, it was still cold. I thought that probably the pilot light had gone out, and that Jane would have to make do with the vaporizer in our bedroom, and went back to bed. I should have investigated further - I probably could have saved a few gallons from the floor. Oh well.

Today Rick has taken the other kids to church while I stay home with our sickie, and this afternoon we'll try and finish the mop-up. At least most of the water was clean, and I did put down towels for the plumber to walk on, so the grease and boot mess is mostly just where he was working. We used the wet-vac to suck out most of the water, and have been running the de-humidifier continually ...... At least now we have a nice new water heater.

It will all be OK, as long as we get it dry & clean enough to hang out down there by 8pm - because IT'S THE SEASON 6 PREMIER OF 24! Two nights, 4 hours. I can't wait, and there's not much that can ruin that for me.

Hope your weekend was better than ours!