Singing in the rain...in our apartment?

It's 9.30 on a Monday night...a semi-tropical -20C/2F outside...and we have just returned to our apartment after picking up our replacement car. We find lights flashing and people running all over the place...talking on phones and yelling to each other. As we enter our building we find out that a pipe had frozen and burst in the apartment above us, and in turn several apartments were in the process of flooding. Running up the stairs with images of two-feet of water sitting in our apartment, we were relieved to find that we had arrived home just in time to quickly shift a lot of our furniture into our bedroom before it became soaked.

We would spend the next six hours moving pots and buckets around to catch the water that was pouring through our ceiling, while various workman moved in and out attempting to stop the water seeping through the walls and to keep the carpets relatively dry. After passing out for a few hours we woke to our alarm at 3am so we could empty and replace the buckets to ensure our apartment wouldn't float away while we slept.

The next morning we basically attempted to ignore the state of our apartment, gratefully acknowledging the fact that we had been able to move our valuables out of harms way, and set off early to school and work in a general state of denial and exhaustion. At 9.30 that night we returned to find three industrial sized fans in our apartment - attempting to dry our walls. Of course - in a small apartment these sounded more like jet engines that were threatening to launch our living room into the air and thus once again, in a state of exhausted denial, we retreated to our bedroom and passed out.

The next two days would be spent arguing with the complex management as to how livable our apartment was, and consequently spending more and more time at school and work. While home, we would weave our way through the obstacle course of fans, and should we want to relax and watch television, we must sit on the couch which is all of 9 inches from the TV - and attempt to unwind while subconsciously waiting for our mothers to scold us for sitting so close to the screen. Finally, we were handed a key to a furnished apartment in the complex...and thus have been living in slightly inconvenient comfort for a couple of days now while our apartment is fixed.

While the inconvenience and exhaustion has taken its toll on us...it has admittedly also exposed just how much of an anal-retentive clean-freak I am. With the apartment in complete disarray, I can barely spend 30 minutes there without becoming noticeably stressed and consciously having to fight the need to clean something. Disturbing, and I think quite amusing for Jen...but never-the-less, I am looking forward to being able to put our place back together. On the positive side, this experience has served to make us appreciate having a peaceful place to retreat to at the end of the day together...something that we had been taking too much for granted I think.

Pictured: The water begins to collect in our ceiling before beginning to pour through onto the floor and furniture.