The last couple of days have been interesting for me.  We discovered the carpet was getting rather damp outside the closet in the spare bedroom.  Upon closer inspection, we found out the hot water heater had been leaking.  It’s at the back of a large walk-in closet where I store all the stuff I don’t use often.  I probably hadn’t been in there in a week so I’ve got no idea when this leak first started.  Most of the things on the floor were wet and after I began clearing it out I found fresh mold along one of the walls.  Ugh.

My husband is going to school full-time right now with classes during the day and evenings.  This left it up to me to pull everything out of the closet (throwing away anything damaged) and clear out half the spare bedroom where the water had infiltrated.  Our place isn’t very big.  I’ve now got stuff strewn across the living room and dining room or piled in the part of the spare bedroom that wasn’t affected.  At least the water had the decency to stop just before the treadmill I get around to using about a dozen times per year.

The maintenance guys came and tore all the carpet out of the closet and removed the padding underneath part of the bedroom carpet.  They also used a machine to suck up any remaining water.  We’ve now got a super fan that is extremely loud blowing across everything to dry it out.  They also bleached down the mold spot in the closet.  The cats are unhappy because the super fan is too loud for them and they don’t like the disruptions going on in their home.  They stayed with me last night in the master bedroom which is on the opposite end of our place from where the water damage occurred.  We were at least lucky this didn’t happen in the parts of our apartment where we spend a lot of time.

Below are some pics with the super fan being the first.  We had to lift the treadmill since the fan needed to be sitting in a dry place for it to blow onto the damp parts of the carpet.  One of my cats (his name is Spock) helped me take some of the other photos.  Last November, I found him crying his little head off underneath my car engine.  At the time he was only six weeks old and it took me the better part of three hours, lying on the pavement in the pouring rain to coerce him out of there.  He’s been rather attached to me ever since and follows me wherever I go.

Needless to say, it’s a little crazy in our home right now.  Not a good time for water leaks .  I’m probably going to surprise my aunt and uncle by going to work on Darkness Wanes at their place today.  It’s a little too chaotic and loud for me here and the maintenance guys won’t be back until next week to put new flooring down, plus a new hot water heater.

GIVEAWAY

Now, for the second giveaway I promised would happen this week (thanks to everyone who participated last week!).  I just received CD copies for the audio version of Stalked by Flames from my publisher.  I’ve also got new tote bags I ordered with the Stalked by Flames cover on the side.  The first three people who reply to this post will each get an audio CD set and a tote bag.  This is open to international folks.  If your comment doesn’t show up right away, not to worry, I will approve it as soon as I can and it will appear in the order it came in.  Please be sure to leave a valid email address in the appropriate field so I can contact you if you’re a winner.

There will be a third giveaway next week with something different!