Does it smell musty in here to you?

That's how it all started. I thought it smelled ... musty... in the guest room/playroom. About three weeks ago, I found a corner of the carpet was wet-- not squishy wet--just maybe someone spilled a cup wet. I turned the fan on and it dried out in a short time. But it got me thinking about that musty smell.

Sunday Bryan moved a wicker basket of toys to vacuum and discovered the basket had black fuzzies growing underneath. He then turned the toy box on its side and discovered....

Whoa! Clearly there has been more than a cupful of water coming into this room, but from where? Naturally we think catastrophic - rain coming in the weep holes, cracks in the foundation, under the eaves, and of course it was something much simpler. My dad, the engineer who sees the obvious, asks casually, "Well, what's on the other side of the wall?" Uh-huh. A bathroom, with a shower.



It's the girls' bathroom, and instead of a tub, there is a step-down shower. To give the girls a bath for the last five years, we have always plugged up the shower floor and filled it with about 2-3 inches of water. We've never had any problems with water leaking before, though in the last six months or so, the girls have been filling it up with more water and splashing.

We pulled back the carpet along that wall, and the outside wall all the way to the other corner. Thankfully no mold on the pad. No mold on the slab. The only stain/discoloration is the mildew on the carpet, which hopefully can be cleaned. We ran a test by filling up the shower with water, as we normally would during a bath. Bryan filled it a little fuller than normal and voila! Water gushing in from the wall in one specific area. (Are we overflowing the pan? Or is there a hole?) After we cleaned up that water and the room dried, we ran just the shower. No water. Huge sigh of relief, the shower can still be used and we don't have to tear apart the bathroom.

Sadly, no more baths in the shower for little girls. Showers only. Meanwhile, the guest room now exists in a state of suspension - pulled up carpet waiting to be cleaned. I'll have to call someone out to replace the pad, and the sodden tack boards, and restretch the carpet. I hate leaving town with things so unfinished.

Did I mention that last night the dishwasher broke? No water leaking, and it's something relatively simple - the door latch is disconnected, meaning I can't get the door to open and we can't run the dishwasher (it's full of dirties that were to be washed last night.) Bryan unplugged it and took off the kick panel, the front door panel, and tried to get under the control panel, but couldn't. I'm sure there is an easy secret way that only repairmen know. I googled KitchenAid dishwasher like mad last night and never found anything about opening the locked door or getting into the control panel.

He was going to leave it unassembled last night, but I made him put it all back together. I can live with the guest room carpet pulled up, and a mildewed toy box in the hallway, and toys in the living room, but I refuse to have parts and pieces of a dishwasher stacked in the kitchen. Repairman says first available appt is Friday afternoon.