2005-12-06 - 8:28 a.m.

The washer and water softeners both collaborated to drain simultaneously and after negotiating with the drain, staged a back-up that flooded my basement/studio/laundry room and soaked the carpet, just barely missing the amps and guitars.

My mom purchased a wet vac to soak up the mess while I was at work (bless her heart). As she vacumned, the water wasnt the only thing being sucked up the tube. Pieces of carpet, and soon the entire floor itself began to come undone and race for the bowels of the wet-vac.

Come to find out that the previous owners had carpeted over a drain on the floor, and having not cleaned or unclogged it in (years?) the water had backed up over and over and over again, causing the matting underneath the carpet to mold and the iron on the drain to spread rust in a crop circle like pattern on the concrete slab underneath.

My intial response was disbelief, then panic, followed by despair and ending in a brief spurt of anger. I dropped the "F" Bomb for the first time in front of my mom...and much to my relief she missed it. As I contmeplated the return to an apartment and landlords who fix things, my mom became very silent. Suddenly, summoning Herculean strength, she grasped a hold of some carpet in the corner of the room. Before I could object, she ripped back the carpet, exposing the mold, the rust, the water damage, etc...

In the silence that followed, she grinned and simply said:

"Now you have to fix it."

And that was the catalyst that got the ball rolling on my first house project. She was right, sure the carpet would probably dry eventually, and I could pretend like it hadn't happened....until it happened again....which judging from the evidence, it was more then likely too...

A couple of sighs later...

We set off for the Mecca of home repair, the Depot of Homes. As the sliding doors hissed and slid open, I felt the transofrmation take place. I entered, a stranger in a strange land. My fingers instinctively reaching out and touching every item that we passed. We wandered through gigantic corridors of sheet metal and plywood. Navigated tricky alcoves filled with paint thinner and putty. Struck up conversation with orange aproned know-it-alls...

And as each item passed through my hands and into the shopping cart (brushes, adhesive remover, tiles, rollers) I could feel the weight of being a homeowner being bestowed upon me. And it was, much to my relief, a very warm feeling.

So for the next three days, inbetween working both jobs and doing the usual shopping and maintenance that goes into owning your first house, my mom and I managed to tear up the old floor, remove all the rust and old mess, and then, tile by tile, refinish the floor. It looks lovely. I'm proud of the work, and it inspired me to go on and clean the gutters and prep them for gutter guard installation, hang the Christmas lights, rake the yard and pull all the old bushes and flowers that had died...

The list is neverending, and for every item I cross off, 3 more spring forth to take its place. And I love it.

The furniture is delivered either today or tomorrow, and once it's in place, I can safely say that stage 1, the furnishing and readying of the house for occupation is complete.

I had a housewarming party Sunday night and surprisingly, of the 60 or so total people that floated in and out as the night wore on... no one spilled a drop on any of the carpets. And if that isn't a sign that this was a good decision, I don't know what is.

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