The January issue arrived late on 1/15, MLK day, when most businesses were closed. The weather was turning cold, school was canceled the next day, the children had been in school a mere four days in almost five weeks. 

I made a few magazine drops on the way home, eager to at least get the new issue on stands at our most popular locations. The next day, I was going stir crazy, so I dressed in my best warm clothes, which were serving up a Pigeon Lady look from Home Alone, to go make a few drops for businesses that were open during the freeze. 

me out delivering magazines during the freeze 

I stopped by The Press, opened the front door, and heard the shower running in the downstairs bathroom. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t the shower running. 

 ceiling leak

It was the ceiling running. Water was pouring out of the ceiling directly into the downstairs bathtub. I ran upstairs to the bathroom, and the sink (left dripping overnight) had overflowed, flooding the bathroom and leaking through the ceiling downstairs. 

I called our insurance agent Kyle Watson with Ozark Insurance, who told me to call Servpro. Jason with Servpro said they were on their way. Mike (my work husband and husband IRL) arrived with towels to clean up the mess. I felt like things were moderately under control, so I went to make a nice little cup of coffee and wait for Servpro. 

 

We opened garbage bags and started dumping them in. Thankfully, many of the boxes were sealed well enough so that only the bottom layer of balloons was affected and had to be thrown out. The rest are in garbage bags on the porch, sad little Disney characters on mylar balloons, rotting away. I’ll deal with it later :/ 

It's been 10 days now, and the bathroom is nearly put back together. On the plus side, we had the clawfoot tub removed from downstairs bath during the restoration, and I'll be posting it for sale soon. Here's a pic, let me know if you're interested.

full size vintage cast iron clawfoot tub, $1000