A Series of Unfortunate Events

While there has been lots of things happening in our lives since I last updated, this probably isn't the best thing to be updating you on first but here it goes.

December 7, we took a trip with friends to the Biltmore. Everything was great. We were on our way back and only a few minutes from home and  a rock came out of no where and hit the windshield. The next day when I came out from work, it was cracked and spidering down the whole thing. So, we had to get the windshield replaced.

January 2, Tyler needed a few copies so we ran to the FedEx store. We stood at the copier next to the window. We were in there all of 10 minutes. I come outside to find that someone had hit my car and kindly drove away with not even so much as a note.

Also, please note that no one was parked around me. This was also a HUGE aisle for people to travel. I really don't see how this was possible. We had to call the police to get a report. We also found out that Tennessee state law says that if you are part of a hit and run, no matter your insurance, you have to pay $200. To replace my tail light alone was $200.

January 7, We had been at dinner at the Wheeler's new house. We came home and notice a funny noise coming from inside our house. It didn't take long to realize that it was our smoke alarms - all 4 of them were going off - at one time. Immediate panic set in - our house was on fire. Obviously, in our clear thinking, we ran inside. (Hind sight - this probably was a dumb idea if there really had been a fire.) No smoke in sight. Tyler ran to the back of the house and I ran to the front. That's when it hit me - literally - water in my face and then I slipped in the huge puddle of water. A busted pipe thanks to the polar vortex that we were currently experiencing. Tyler ran outside to turn the water off at the street. I ran upstairs to try to find where the water was coming from.

In case you were wondering, we chose not to finish the upstairs of our house. It has the potential for a full bath and another bedroom/bonus room up there. Seeing as how we didn't need that much space, we left it as is. We knew that it was plumbed for the bathroom but there wasn't supposed to be water up there.  Our builder, who shall remain nameless, put in a tub but no faucet and didn't even insulate the pipes. (Please excuse how dirty the tub it - like I said - we don't really even go up there, nor did I know there was water!)

See - no faucet. 

When I got up there water was shooting out of the non-faucet both the front and the back. What was coming out the back was going straight through the sub-floors. Luckily, what was going out the front was collecting in the bathtub. Conveniently, whoever put in the tub, also put the stopper in the drain. Genius move obviously. When I got up there, the tub was half an inch from overflowing over the side. Read: potentially a bigger mess. Through very cold cold water I reached in and unstopped the tub. My next move was to save the hardwood floors.

The water was draining out of the light fixture and the smoke alarm. The water in the smoke alarm shorted it and they are all connected which made all them go off. Keep in mind - they yell "FIRE FIRE BEEP BEEP" over and over and over times 4. I grabbed two big bowls and start collecting the water while trying to mop up water that was everywhere!

We cut off electricity to the front of the house yet the smoke alarms wouldn't stop. They have been going off for an hour now. At this point, we are out of ideas and we call the fire department non-emergency number. Being such a new neighborhood, we aren't in the GPS systems yet. They can't find us. They are coming down the street shining a spot light on every house. I finally wave them down and they come in. One of them remarked to me "I'm not sure why we are here, I was trying to read a book, the alarm didn't even go off."

Ironically, one of the firemen worked with dry wall as a side job. He climbed up on the ladder and says to me in a thick southern accent "Ma'am, I'm gonna have to rip this out of the wall. You're going to have to replace this anyways because of the water damage." To which I replied "Umm, ok" (What do you really say to that?!?! No???)

Once it was out, all the beep stopped except one little beep. All three firemen, Tyler and I were walking around the house trying to find the last of the beeping. One of the fireman stopped and held up the alarm he ripped out still in his hand and said "Backup battery!" (Insert face palm)

The firemen made sure that nothing was going to catch fire with all the water outlets. They told us we needed to find somewhere else to stay for the night. I then offered the firemen some of the brownies I had made earlier. They ate a few and was on their way.

The good news to the story - it was the builder's fault therefore, he repaired completely!

Needless to say, we have had an eventful few months. Let's hope that this is it for 2014. I am not sure that I could take any more!