Downstairs Life

The night of the leak

On Halloween night while we were eating dinner, water suddenly began pouring into our kitchen.  It turns out our upstairs neighbor was trying to unstick his garbage disposal after he filled it with a bowl of noodles, which cracked a pipe.  Since then we’ve been interacting with our HOA, the occupants of two other condo units and multiple contractors as our kitchen has been torn apart. Kitchen reconstruction projects are never easy, and not being mentally prepared for one that has multiple people and insurance companies involved has upped the stress levels for sure. 

                                                                                                           

A plumber unsuccessfully looks into the ceiling for the source of the leak.  

I (Shevawn) found it quite interesting that I had begun reading a book on practicing gratitude a couple of weeks before this all began and had recently listened to a podcast on grieving different kinds of losses in life.  I have been trying to hold on to the things I have been learning from these resources with all my might! Some of the things I/we are most grateful for include:

• That we were home when the water poured into our unit (we had returned from a 2 ½ week trip to Arizona to visit friends and ministry partners just three days previously.)   The damage would have been so much worse if no one was here to see it happening and the water had sat for days/weeks.
• Although John left for Nigeria eight days later for two weeks, he was here for the initial chaos so I didn’t need to deal with it all on my own.
• For good homeowners insurance and the very helpful agent we're working with.
• Also, as you can see, they were able to brace the Formica so we can continue to use our sink and all of our other appliances (except for the dishwasher) which are located on the other wall of our kitchen.  This is a HUGE thing we are grateful for as it's looking like our cabinets won't be replaced until January 2020 at the earliest.

After removal of the damaged cabinets and drywall, these machines aid the drying process. 

While we are grateful for much, I am also grieving the loss of a kitchen we designed and greatly enjoyed (shout out to you Sally Evans!)  There's also the stress of having to deal with all of this, which has at times felt very draining.  We very much appreciate your prayers as we seek to practice gratitude and for wisdom for all the decisions we are having to make.  Thanks!