There are questions you do not want your child to ask you.  One of them is why is there water coming from the ceiling of the garage.

 

After Meagan asked us this question, we rushed to the garage to see water coming from the light fixture on the ceiling in the garage.   PANIC!

 

We rushed up stairs to the bathroom and the sound of running water.   MORE PANIC!

 

Both sink drains were plugged.  The water on full blast and draining onto the soaked carpet floor.   STILL MORE PANIC!

 

After the turning the water off the blame game began and we discovered Gavin (the destructor) was responsible. 

 

The water had made it out of the bathroom and into the hall and a little bit into Meagan's beautiful room.

 

It was time to get the mess under control.    The kids gathered every towel in the house as Debra and I dried up as much as we could.    I took out Kirby spot cleaner and soaked up as much as I could 2 pints at a time.   It was action time for the Gillars.

 

A similar thing happened to our neighbors the Marlows a couple of months before, so Debra called Tag over.     When it happened to him it was on a much broader scale with 2 inches of water and into several rooms.  Tag had called a professional.  He told me what they did, so we did the same thing.

 

We ripped the carpet up.  We had to cut it in order to get under it all the way.   We tore out the padding because it was soaked and threw it away.    We put three fans under the carpet to dry it and the floor below it.   The same things the professionals did, just in less time (with less powerful fans),  we hoped it would be enough.

 

I stayed up most of the night moving the fans around to get everything dry.  By morning, the carpet and the floor seemed pretty dry.    And the ceiling of the garage showed little signs of damage.    We felt the crisis may have been averted.

 

In the afternoon, Tag brought over a dehumidifier.  I set it up to dry out the room and let it go for several hours.    Not sure if it soaked up air for the carpet/floor or just general Houston humidity, but we had several pints of water.

 

Debra and I were both upset.  But we both  share the same sense that it is all just humorous.   Our house is never what you would call pristine, so a little cut/wet carpet does not bother us.  And we did not like the carpet in the bathroom anyway and this may incentivize us to tile it.    And we now have a humorous story to tell.

 

It all seems to be under control now.  Hopefully our quick action and Tag's advise and dehumidifier will spare us from most of the damage. We have not nailed the carpet back down, we are waiting till it is dehumidified before repadding.

 

We have chastized Gavin, not sure how much a three year old understand it.    Aren't kids fun?