Watered Down

Something crazy keeps happening to me! This is the third year in a row that my life has been turned upside down by water. Two years ago, I had just started my massage practice in Portland. It had taken forever to go through the licensing process in that state, and it felt like I was crossing a huge finish line when I was ready to start seeing clients that October. Things got off to a pretty strong start, and then disaster stuck in December– we had a huge snow storm, and when it began to melt, the whole space (including the pilates studio I was in) was flooded. It took four months to take care of the problems and to be able to use the space again. In that time, I lost many clients and all of my momentum. It was a huge ordeal, but it wasn’t all negative. I used those four months off to take several courses and it was a crucial time for me, as I changed the direction of my work completely, and was able to devote the time to developing my vision for my practice, and to work on all that was required to move forward with a specialty in womens health. Who knows how things would have played out if I hadn’t been forced to take that time to think things through!

My studio space, once everything got fixed…

Although the studio flooded again the following year, it wasn’t a catastrophe– the leaks were more minor, and fixed without having to close my practice again. However, this time there was something else. I had been smelling mildew for a while in our kitchen, and couldn’t find the source. Eventually, it got very bad and was making me sick. We ended up tearing out our kitchen cabinets and sink, and gutting the wall. There was an old pipe that was perforated in several places, just spilling water right into the wall every time we used the sink, and it was very moldy! Of course, this was a serious headache to take care of. We were lucky to know people that needed work, were skilled, and did it all for a really reasonable price. And there was something good here too– instead of putting in more cabinets, I had the chance to do something I’d always thought about: putting our butcher block counter top on turned legs, making it look more like piece of furniture.

Yikes!

Better!

So, this year… I woke up the other day smelling something I described to Jeff as “wet rocks.”  I kept smelling it all day, as I was trying to write my final paper for the quarter. When I just couldn’t focus anymore, I went to take a quick nap. As I sat in my bed, I finally saw it:  huge water stains all along the wall of my room. We have had a ton of snow, and our first major melt was a few days ago. The leaks haven’t reached the floor yet, but it is also in the ceiling of the laundry room next to us, and it is a really big problem! It turns out that this is actually the fault of the neighboring building– when it was renovated last year, there were some changes that made it so that in a major snowfall the buildup would drain into our building. Needless to say, I am happy to be a renter in this case! Still, there are some really lame things about the situation. First of all, our bedroom is also our living room, and we spend most of our time there. It’s the main room in the apartment that we have worked hard to make a nice place to be. The second thing is that Jeff’s parents are coming out for a visit in 10 days. In the meantime, the repairmen will be drilling holes in our walls and running dryers all day and all night to dehumidify the stones and plaster. It is unlikely that the process will be finished before our visitors come.

There are huge water stains all over this wall now… I’ll treat you to some pictures next time!

On the bright side, we were already preparing our guest room, which we will need to sleep in. Our sofa bed arrives on Tuesday, probably the same day that we would need to vacate our room. So that’s providential. I am hoping that we can get back into our room when the in-laws come, but there is a good chance that we’ll need to put them up in a hotel instead (courtesy of the insurance company.) Secondly, we’ll get our bedroom repainted. I am not sure of the color I want yet, but it’s something to start thinking about. So… It’s always an adventure. We are thankful once again that this will not be something that puts us out financially, like the other leak problems in Portland. And we’re thankful that our apartment is big enough for us to move into other rooms temporarily, and for a very considerate, fast-acting landlord to worry about all of this stuff instead of us! I am learning that things like this are just part of life, and hope that we are able to continue to see the silver linings in inconveniences such as these.