Floodgates

Mom's water heater went ker-splash today. Well, more like, ker-glug-glug-glug. Better than ker-boom, I suppose. We discovered that the basement slopes to the northeast, which is a spare bedroom that is currently storing tons and tons of cardboard boxes...many of which were sitting directly on the now-soaked carpet. We sort of suspect it had been leaking since Saturday, when I went over and smelled something that, at the time, reminded me of rotten peas; I think it was just a touch of the damp, mildewy smell that was horribly obvious tonight.

So she's got a new water heater now, and I helped her carry some loose rugs outside to dry (or freeze; whichever happens first). On the plus side, that one bedroom was the only one that was strongly effected. More than likely, she'll need to replace that carpet, but it was a recycled one anyway. When Grandma first moved into that house, that carpet was in either the downstairs or upstairs living room, and got swapped into that bedroom when she replaced stuff. Pretty blah, imo, but it was better than the patchwork mosaic that was peeling off of the floor when she moved in.