Denial is not a river in Egypt. It’s a trickle in our bathroom. Seriously, I confess. Denial is my first go to strategy for dealing with problems. It’s a mostly unconscious character flaw. It’s results are usually disastrous. They certainly are in this situation. This is a tale of three leaks.
The first was several years ago. The leak was a clog in the drain of the air conditioning unit beyond the wall of the guest bathroom. By the time I got over my denial the damage was so great most of the floor in the room had to be replaced. The saving Grace this time was our home insurance paid for much of it as they miraculously call it a flood!
The second event was several months ago. A soft spot in front of the sink told the tale I could no longer ignore. This time the drip was under the sink in a bad pvc connection. A call to the plumber and a couple of $100 later that was fixed. I decided to leave the soft spot alone. My denial leaked in again.
Fast forward a couple of weeks. I notice in this same place that a thin strip of the flooring has come loose. I ignore it for two more weeks. Then just as our quite home is interrupted by the air conditioning tech come for our annual check up. Plus the grandchildren and their parents rushing in the door at the same time. Our 16 year old grand who lives with us and uses said bathroom announces “We have a problem.”
Thus the dam on my denial was broken. When all the “company” left we tore up the tile in the bathroom and decided the source of the link was the toilet. I called David, who had replace the floor. He said the only plumbers he trusted were from Bobby L. Green. They sent someone that very afternoon.
Nick was very helpful. Diagnosed the problem, a broken flange and loose screw! He didn’t have parts needed with him and decided to return in the morning. He kindly “left the ticket open.” That meant we wouldn’t have to pay a second $174 for him just to show up.
When he left Brenda and I decided to explore how much of the floor was affected. Long story short; it is the whole one side of our manufactured house! Hours later we had ripped up most of what needs to be replaced and the house looks like it has been ransacked by a hoard of vandals!
Nick returned the next morning. He fixed the flange and replaced the toilet. We did what we could manage in a day interrupted by a trip for Brenda’s business. However, the third day we left town to travel to our place in Arkansas as we had previously planned. Our German Shepherd had been at “camp” training for 2 weeks and we needed to get him.
I am writing this on the front porch here In Arkansas as we brace ourselves for the return trip. We plan on replacing the floor ourselves to save money. I am honestly wondering how to avoid denial in the future while trying to find a silver lining around the cloud of this disaster!