One of those “We’ll-Look-Back-On-This-Day-And-Laugh” Days (because we had Homeowners Insurance)

This is a sponsored post brought to you by State Farm. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Last Memorial Day weekend, one of the kids came upstairs to tell us that the carpet downstairs was “squishy.” My husband and I immediately went down to see what was going on. And what we found was not good. The carpet was squishy in a large portion of the living room and the squishy was quickly spreading to other areas.

Of course, I began to panic. WHERE was this water coming from and how do we get it to stop? I have heard of other people having flooded basements before, but never thought I would become one of the crowd.

My husband found the source of the water – it was coming up through a drain in the utility closet. Something was clogging up the pipes and causing a waste water backup. Yes, waste water. Gross. Several inches deep.

We quickly put a ban on all toilet usage and definitely all toilet flushing. I turned off the dishwasher and the washing machine – those were the immediate cause of the gallons of water coming back up through the drain in the utility room and soaking the carpets.

Once we got that under control, it was time to get rid of the standing water in the utility room. My husband and I formed our own Shop Vac bucket brigade and worked furiously for at least half an hour, running buckets of sucked up water and dumping them in the bathtub down the hall. We were getting tired – and it seemed like our efforts to get rid of the water were doing NOTHING. The water just kept coming up through the drain. We couldn’t figure out what was going on and were just barely keeping up.

As I was running the umpteenth bucket of water down the hall to dump it, my mind was frantically trying to figure out what we should do. It seemed like as soon as I dumped a bucket of water down into the tub, another bucket’s worth of water would start pouring up from the utility room drain…

INSERT LIKE A BILLION LIGHTBULBS GOING OFF IN MY HEAD AT THIS MOMENT.

That was it! I was a genius and a complete moron at the same time. Every time I dumped a bucket of water into the bathtub, it had nowhere to escape so of course it would have to come back up through the drain. My husband and I had been furiously working to dump out the same buckets of water for almost an hour. I felt smart for figuring this out, yet stupid for not realizing it in the first place. We had been playing out our very own real life comedy of errors.

I told my husband my little theory and we immediately began dumping the water directly outside. And whaddaya know, no more water came back up through the utility room drain.

The situation seemed to be under control for the moment. But we knew we had a MAJOR plumbing issue. We also knew whatever that issue was, there was no way we could figure it out by ourselves. We needed help. It was time to call an expert.

Of course this type of crisis would occur on a holiday. I was really afraid I would not be able to get ahold of a professional. And even if we did get someone to come out – how much were the repairs going to cost? Not to mention the damages to our home. Our carpets and baseboards were probably ruined in the flooded areas.

Times like these are why it is so important to have reliable Homeowner’s Insurance coverage.

We were very lucky and found a repairman on the way to save the day within a few minutes. I was so impressed that the guy showed up and knew exactly what needed to be done. He took a look at what was going on inside at the drain site, and realized there was a blockage in the plumbing going out from our house.

The repairman went outside and opened up some hole that I had no idea was even in our yard. He used his tools to go in and remove the blockages from the pipes. Our problem was resolved within the hour. It was so nice to let a pro handle everything. We were able to relax and get our holiday weekend back on track.

We still had to deal with the clean-up our mini disaster left behind. Several areas needed new carpet and carpet pads, and the wet baseboards had to be replaced. But nothing too major, thank goodness. It could have been worse.

Life can sometimes throw situations at us that we just aren’t able to handle all by ourselves. Isn’t it a relief to know that there are people out there who know exactly how to help us?

It has been almost a year since our son told us that the carpet was “squishy.” My main memory of that day was running and dumping those buckets into the bathtub like a madwoman, and then realizing that I was dumping the same bucket over and over. That is the part that really makes me laugh. I would never have believed it while I was in the moment, but that day has turned into one of those “We’ll-Look-Back-On-This-Day-And-Laugh” days.

As a homeowner, I can think of several other times when I have had to call out for help. It really helps to be able to have someone dependable to call on in times of need. State Farm agents are available 24/7 by phone and online. Even on holidays! I feel a lot more confident knowing there are experts on my side and willing to help me out of unexpected and tough situations.

What about you? Do you have Homeowners Insurance? Have you ever needed expert help?