Bathroom apocalypse!
So, for some while now there has periodically been a bit of water leaking through my bathroom ceiling, usually when the upstairs neighbours are taking a bath or shower. It was one of those things I kept meaning to tell the landlord about, but not quite getting around to, between work, out of town guests, getting sick, etc. But recently I noticed that a big puddle of water had started to collect in the plastic cover of the fluorescent light fixture (it has one of those big rectangular fluorescent panels on the ceiling like you see in offices). This struck me as a Bad Thing, so I did tell the landlord, on Friday, and he said he would get someone to have a look at it.
However, just over the course of the weekend, it was clearly getting worse, with the plastic cover beginning to warp and bow down in the middle, and an ever-growing puddle of nasty-looking water collecting. More than once I contemplated trying to see if I could tip the water out somehow, but I couldn't think of a way to do it that wouldn't be likely to result in scummy water splashing all over me and the entire bathroom. I also contemplated removing everything from the bathroom that I wouldn't want splattered with scummy water, in case it came down by itself, but it seemed like a lot of work, and I was still low on energy from being sick, so instead I hoped that it would hold up until someone came to fix it.
Judging from the title of this post, you can guess whether that hope was justified.
Tonight while I was showing the Lynxcub dinosaur pictures on the computer, there was a big CRASH and a SPLASH from the bathroom. I jumped up, settled him on my desk chair and told him to stay right where he was, and ran to look -- massive mess! Water everywhere, along with pieces of the plastic cover, which had apparently broken when it hit the floor, and chunks of unidentifiable stuff that may have been pieces of ceiling tile or something.
I will spare you the details of the cleanup effort, except to say that the Cub was awesome. Not only did he not get in the way, or get into any other sort of trouble while I was cleaning up, he brought me things like newspapers when I asked for them, and once I'd mopped the part of the kitchen floor it had spilled out onto, he insisted that he wanted to sweep. I figured there was no harm in it, so I let him, and he busied himself sweeping, while quietly saying something over and over that I didn't initially catch, but on closer inspection proved to be "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" Yes, I moderate my language when the kiddo's around. But I'm pretty sure what slipped out of my mouth when I first heard the crash was a lot stronger than "Oh dear." :-)
A little later, when I'd cleaned up as much as I could and put newspapers down everywhere, we were in the bedroom playing with blocks, and he was asking me to make various things: a fire truck, a tunnel, an airport, etc. Then he asked me to make a smoke detector. I was a little stumped at first, but then picked up a flat square block, and said "Smoke detectors are usually round, but this is a square one. I'm going to put it right up here (putting it on the bed, behind where he was sitting on the floor), and it will tell us if the bed is on fire." Then I added, more to myself than to him "Although what we could really use around here is a water detector..."
A few minutes later, after playing a bit more, he reached around, picked up the block I'd left on the bed, and held it up to me with a very serious expression. "Dis is... a water detector!" he said.
"Really? Will it tell us when water is about to come crashing down through the bathroom ceiling?" I asked.
"Yes!" he assured me, again with that Very Serious look, and handed me the block before going back to what he was doing.
Now if only I'd had that thing installed a little earlier...
However, just over the course of the weekend, it was clearly getting worse, with the plastic cover beginning to warp and bow down in the middle, and an ever-growing puddle of nasty-looking water collecting. More than once I contemplated trying to see if I could tip the water out somehow, but I couldn't think of a way to do it that wouldn't be likely to result in scummy water splashing all over me and the entire bathroom. I also contemplated removing everything from the bathroom that I wouldn't want splattered with scummy water, in case it came down by itself, but it seemed like a lot of work, and I was still low on energy from being sick, so instead I hoped that it would hold up until someone came to fix it.
Judging from the title of this post, you can guess whether that hope was justified.
Tonight while I was showing the Lynxcub dinosaur pictures on the computer, there was a big CRASH and a SPLASH from the bathroom. I jumped up, settled him on my desk chair and told him to stay right where he was, and ran to look -- massive mess! Water everywhere, along with pieces of the plastic cover, which had apparently broken when it hit the floor, and chunks of unidentifiable stuff that may have been pieces of ceiling tile or something.
I will spare you the details of the cleanup effort, except to say that the Cub was awesome. Not only did he not get in the way, or get into any other sort of trouble while I was cleaning up, he brought me things like newspapers when I asked for them, and once I'd mopped the part of the kitchen floor it had spilled out onto, he insisted that he wanted to sweep. I figured there was no harm in it, so I let him, and he busied himself sweeping, while quietly saying something over and over that I didn't initially catch, but on closer inspection proved to be "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" Yes, I moderate my language when the kiddo's around. But I'm pretty sure what slipped out of my mouth when I first heard the crash was a lot stronger than "Oh dear." :-)
A little later, when I'd cleaned up as much as I could and put newspapers down everywhere, we were in the bedroom playing with blocks, and he was asking me to make various things: a fire truck, a tunnel, an airport, etc. Then he asked me to make a smoke detector. I was a little stumped at first, but then picked up a flat square block, and said "Smoke detectors are usually round, but this is a square one. I'm going to put it right up here (putting it on the bed, behind where he was sitting on the floor), and it will tell us if the bed is on fire." Then I added, more to myself than to him "Although what we could really use around here is a water detector..."
A few minutes later, after playing a bit more, he reached around, picked up the block I'd left on the bed, and held it up to me with a very serious expression. "Dis is... a water detector!" he said.
"Really? Will it tell us when water is about to come crashing down through the bathroom ceiling?" I asked.
"Yes!" he assured me, again with that Very Serious look, and handed me the block before going back to what he was doing.
Now if only I'd had that thing installed a little earlier...