A River Runs Through It (our apartment that is)

Yesterday I came home from my German lesson to find our apartment flooded. I walked through the front door into about an inch of water. My first thought was that the dishwasher was leaking. The kitchen had a few inches of water on it but I could hear something else leaking so I went to investigate the other rooms.

The hallway was flooded and when I got to the back room (guest room), it wasn't hard to figure out this was where it started. The water came up over the top of my boots and some of the boxes in the room were actually floating.

The water was leaking out of the radiator. I put a large bowl under the radiator to catch the water which filled up about every 7 minutes.

I frantically called Jim. After collectively calling about 6 plumbers, the landlord and our relocation specialist, we finally reached someone who came to our rescue about 30 minutes later.

I attempted to mop up some of the water in the kitchen with towels. However, I quickly had the feeling of being in a very small boat with a very large hole. I decided my nerves would best be served by waiting outside for the plumber to arrive. Additionally, our names are not yet on the buzzer outside so I didn't want to risk him buzzing the empty apartment below us.

Luckily, the floors of our apartment are incredibly uneven so the living room and bedroom stayed almost completely dry while the kitchen hallway and spare room were covered in 2-3 inches of water.

Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of our little flood until after the plumber had been using the shop vac for an hour. At one point, I think he called in reinforcements because his shop vac was a little one.

Only a few things were damaged. My new iron being one of those which I will happily take as a sign that I shouldn't iron.


This morning I looked at the apartment below us to assess the damage. I initially thought that they put cardboard on the floor to soak up the water. Then I realized that it was actually part of the ceiling which was now on the floor.