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We Bought A House! Part 3 - Welcome To A Flood

I filled my car with as much as it could carry, my youngest little boy and drove the hour drive to Twin Falls to sign the papers and buy our new home! Our plan was to begin prepping and painting our home that very afternoon as soon as the keys became available but little did we know what that afternoon would bring.

My husband snuck away from work at the hospital so we could sign the papers that morning. It was thrilling and exciting to know we would finally, after years of waiting, own our first home! When everything finished with the title company and our fabulous realtor Jessica Anderson my husband headed back to work and I headed to get breakfast and wait with my little kiddo. We went to this great little restaurant called Abracadabra for a delicious breakfast. If you haven't been there before I'd highly recommend it!

A few hours later, I got the message that they had funded our purchase and I could go get the keys. We stopped by a few minutes later and got the keys! I drove right over to the house and that's when the adventure began.

 

I pulled into the driveway and there was a truck parked in front of our house and a man there from the city turning off the water. He was gracious and waited for me to create an account with the city so that they wouldn't have to come back and turn the water back on. We were after all, planning to spend the night for the next few days painting and prepping the house to move in that weekend.

While I was getting that sorted out my cousin who lives a few blocks away pulled into the driveway to say hi and see our new place. I brought her inside and it didn't take long to find out they had already turned off the power to the house. We went upstairs and downstairs and then downstairs into the basement and that's when we found a surprise I wasn't expecting.

WATER ON THE FLOOR! It was dark and so we pulled out our phone flash lights to see the landing at the bottom of the stairs, the laundry room and the closet with the water heater and other plumbing was all wet with an inch or so of water. I rushed out to the water guy from the city who was still in his truck out front on our house and brought him inside to help me find the source.

We couldn't tell at first if there was a surge in the water when he turned it back on that may have released a pressure valve or if it was from somewhere else. There was water on the walls and water on the ceiling as well. After some investigation we figured it out. The hose that connects into the refrigerator was leaking from the kitchen floor above. The sellers had removed their refrigerator the weekend before not realizing that the valve under the sink wouldn't turn off all the way. And so, for three days the water had poured into the basement ceiling and into the walls and floor. It was heaven sent to have people there to help me figure out the source.



The laminate floor in the basement was beginning to bubble and I knew we needed to act fast to clean up the water but...the power was off. My cousin rushed home and brought back some towels to mop up the water and I called the city to get the power turned back on. At first being as late in the afternoon as it was they weren't going to turn the power back on until the following day which just wasn't ideal. With the freezing temperatures, a flood in our basement and a baby in tow we needed the heat turned on and we needed fans going to help dry things out as soon as possible. After a bit on the phone they said they'd have someone at our house in the next hour to turn the power on for us. What a relief!

 

Once we got the fans on and the water mopped up, holes poked in the ceiling to let the water drain I let our realtor know about all the drama. She contacted the sellers realtor and they decided to be nice and give us $500 towards repairs. If this was an insurance claim and we were actually having the sheetrock replaced, the laminate flooring replaced and the laundry flooring replaced it would cost much more than that. It really was the least they could do. The flood happened while they were the owners so we could have pressured for more or a claim but we opted to move on. Most of the damage was in a mechanical closet and the base of the laundry room wall that would be covered by the washer and dryer. Unfortunately, the landing laminate that carries into the theater room is bulging at the seams but for now we'll just have to live with it!

There were a few other things from the sellers that we questioned as well. They gave us only one key with no garage door openers. We changed out our exterior door knobs and reprogramed new garage door openers right away. They also told us when asked if they had pets that they had one small dog but after talking with the neighbors they actually had three very mischievous large dogs that stayed in the sunroom during the cold. Not that it really mattered, but it just left us questioning what else they may have been dishonest about...That being said, we are so glad the house is now ours and we can make it our own!

We spent our first week with a leaking refrigerator hose dripping into a bucket that we emptied every few hours. At night we turned off the main water to the house so we wouldn't have to get up and dump it out. Finally, that Saturday we had our new refrigerator delivered and the hose connected once again. We were leak free, the water had dried out from heaters and fans so all was well!

 

We couldn't have anticipated such a crazy first day of home ownership but I'm grateful for people in the right place at the right time to help us when we needed it! It was such a blessing to have my cousin there when she came. If she didn't come when she did, I wouldn't have even ventured into the basement until it was too late in the day to begin resolving the problem. If I arrived after they had turned off the water we may not have discovered the damage or the source until later too. Thank goodness there are good people in this world that are willing to help! They definitely helped me stay calm in all the craziness.

What an experience this whole process has been! It was not at all what I expected. Some of that may be that people don't usually share their first home purchasing experiences and may also be that our experience was a little crazier than normal. Either way, I hope you learned something from ours!

Thank you so much for reading and I'm excited to share how we make this home our own over the coming months!


In case you missed it here are links to the rest of our first time home buying experience!


All the best,

Hillaree



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