Contagious construction

I think I'm going to spend the remainder of the pregnancy in my dining room. There is no major construction going on, it's not being used as a storage facility, and there is easy access to my ice cream. I'll see you all in 10 weeks.

"Why?" you ask. Well, the bedroom used to be the place we could get away from the living room construction. I think home renovation must be contagious, because it spread last night.

Yesterday morning, I heard a distinct "drip, drip, drip" coming from somewhere around the shower, but could find no water dripping when I looked. I went around to the bedroom side of the shower, and there heard the dripping again, and louder... but still, no water. It was inside the wall. I was confounded. How does one find a leak INSIDE the wall? As Jacob had already left for work, and I was running late, and as I saw no gushing water, I headed to work myself.

Yesterday evening, I greeted Jacob with a smile and then a "come see what I found" kind of expression. Jacob, while not thrilled with the discovery, was less confounded than I (thank goodness!). We cleaned out the cupboard that backs up to the shower in our bedroom, and he took a mallet to the shelves. Somehow, he had the good sense to know that the leak was likely coming from the piping to the shower handles, and was not near the floor, which of course, is where the dripping was loudest (and where I would have looked first).

Out came the drywall saw, and subsequently out came a section of drywall. My dad has advised me never to get Jacob a saws-all for Christmas. ;) Jacob quickly discovered the leak in the cold water pipe to our shower. Fortunately, it was located after a shut off valve. So he shut off the main water to the house to relieve pressure, shut off the cold water pipe valve, and turned the water to the house back on. Thank goodness for still having running water in the bathrooms and kitchen!

Today, our front entry has been a revolving door of insurance assessors investigating damage. It doesn't look awful, and the actual cost of fixing the plumbing looks to be reasonable. But the drywall and floor below the leak are damp. We should hear tomorrow if the damage caused by the leak will be covered by our homeowners insurance. In the meantime, to prevent mold, the assessors came back this afternoon to leave a dehumidifier. Our bedroom is now impersonating the Sahara.

On top of this, our new bedroom furniture arrived today, which we ordered not long ago. While this is exciting, we kind of expected that it would take 4-6 weeks to arrive, as the website indicated. So, now the garage is housing the new bedroom (in boxes). Maybe we should just set up house in there. By the by, anyone need a dresser and a queen size bed?

So, yes, I think the dining room is safe for now. Please check there if you need me (or my ice cream) for anything urgent.