One of the most beautiful things to me is a well worn book. Perhaps the pages are stiffened and harder to turn or stuck together, or maybe, the edges of them are torn slightly, or someone's written in the margins. Those are all signs of a book who has been read and read and read by an eager page turner. The book these qualities make more beautiful than any other is the Bible. I love seeing someone else's bible. Leafing through their pages, working to get through the stiffened pages, reading notes taken on a particular passage, feeling the cracked edges of the cover and the fraying end of the bookmark. I love wondering why they underlined a passage or a verse. What were they going through that made this speak to them? This is partially the reason I love to scribble, underline, highlight, mark, and closely study my bible, so that someday someone will pick it up just to browse through it and see that it was a well worn book.
I don't have a great segway into this story, but here goes nothing.
A little while ago, Ryan and I noticed three long, thin bubbles shooting out from the vent in the hallway leading back to our bedroom. This vent leads out from the closet where the air conditioner blower lives in the living room. At first, we thought there might be a problem and checked the closet to make sure there was no leak, but we found nothing. So, we assumed it was just air trapped under the laminate flooring. A week or so later, the bubbles began to spread a little bit, and they continued to spread, until they reached down the hallway and into the living room, a considerable amount of space. Once during this time, standing on the carpet on his side of the bed, Ryan asked if the floor felt wet. After feeling it for myself I assessed that it was not wet, simply cold. Can you tell where this is going?
Two nights ago, Ryan asked me the same question, but this time he had leaned over to pick up something off the floor and dug his finger deeper into the carpet. So, I went over again and felt the floor, digging my finger in, as well. This time it did feel a little damp. Not wet, but just slightly damp. Upon further inspection of the corner that butts right up to that closet with the A/C blower, we concluded there was most definitely a leak, as the carpet was wet.
Normally, we go to sleep around 10:30pm, however, at this point in the night under examination we began moving his things out of the corner. He called his parents to figure out what we needed to do, and by the time we got to bed it was at least 11 (we know, we know: we're old.) I hardly slept at all that night, worrying more for the carpet than the laminate flooring. I'll be honest with you, reader. Secretly, or not-so-secretly, I really wanted the laminate flooring to be so bad it had to be replaced with something else, but the carpet had been installed right before we bought the house a year ago. My feet can attest that it was still in great condition, so I really didn't want to have to replace it. The other concern I had about replacing the carpet was how are we going to get the bed out of the room without taking it apart again? The entrance to our room is just small enough and has just the right amount of angles that I could tell it would be nearly impossible to move out the hulking piece of furniture without disassembling it. (Let me clarify that statement: Our bed is not that huge. Our room is just not the biggest master bedroom you've ever seen before.) These were the thoughts that kept me awake that night. I know. I agree, my mind tends pick out the strangest places to park for the night.
We had decided the night before that it would be a good idea if Ryan stayed home from work to help take care of this situation, as I have no earthly idea what to do. His alarm went off at the same time as usual at 6:15am, and as soon as he heard it Oreo moved to the edge of the bed signaling he was ready to go out to the bathroom. We stumbled out of the dark room dodging out-of-place items with our feet. At that time of morning, typically, no one is open for business just yet, so we had some time to kill, which is a great excuse to make biscuits. Ryan started calling plumbers and the earliest they could get to our house was after lunch, and the contractor the insurance company sends out to assess the damage would have to call us later in the day, they said.
Ryan had been complaining about the length of his hair for a couple of weeks but hadn't had the time to go get it trimmed, and I had a hair appointment scheduled for that morning, coincidentally. I didn't realize how long his hair had gotten until they started buzzing it off. Once Ryan's hair was short enough to get him into the Marine Corps we drove back to the house where I turned right around and went to my hair appointment. About fifteen minutes after I returned, the plumbers came and fixed the leak, checking our attic to make sure nothing was wrong there either before they left. Soon after they left, the contractors came by the house to inspect the damage. One man, Paul, sketched a quick layout of the damaged areas, estimating the square feet, and told us the laminate flooring could not be repaired. He helped Ryan move the 'hulking' bed down the wall to pull the carpet up to see how far the water had seeped into it. Paul, thankfully, said the carpet would be fine. We would have to get a box fan that sits on the floor to blow on it for a couple of days to dry it out, but it would not have to be replaced. Cue a giant sigh of relief.
Now what's keeping me awake at night is wondering where we're going to be able to move the furniture in the main areas of the house while they replace the laminate flooring. Paul also said they would not be able to take out only the parts of the floor that had been damaged, as they might for carpet. They replace carpet by the room because of the room divisions, but with laminate there is no way to do that. Our laminate wood flooring runs from the back door all the way through to the other end of the house, passing through the kitchen and living room. That's about 70% of the house.
This was a very unexpected event and expense we didn't really see coming, but as God is continually reminding in this season of life: we are not the ones in control and we don't always get to know why something happens. Ryan and I keep reminding each other that this could have been a lot worse than it is, and if we trust that God takes care of His people, as that well worn book says, we'll be fine.
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