Our dishwasher constantly backs up. We've had two folks look at it and the only way to fix it would be to move it or something or other. The pipe has to go too far and make too many turns before it drains. SO....when it backs up we have to shop vac the water out of the washer, take the pipes apart and vac them, and put it all back together. The older boys have gotten good at this. It appears they've also gotten tired of it. One of them taught Nolan (8) to do this and proceeded to instruct him to take care of it when it backed up last Thursday. Thursday afternoon I noticed unexplained water on the kitchen floor. I couldn't figure out where it came from. I mopped it up. Thursday night I noticed lots of water in the boys' closet. Neither would confess to having brought water in to the closet, the closet shares no plumbing walls...we couldn't figure it out. I wasn't about to accuse either of them of lying so I simply had them help me clean it up. We took the opportunity to reorganize the toys and really clean their room.
I meant to mention it to Mike but he got home LATE Thursday night and I left EARLY Friday a.m. Right before co-op on Friday Nolan told me there was water in his closet again. Hmm....far too busy to stop right then, but would have to remember to mention this to Mike. Friday afternoon, Nolan came in to tell Mike and I that there was water shooting out of the pipes in the pan cupboard and there was water all over the kitchen. Oh yeah - I meant to mention that water thing. ::snort:: Mike went to investigate. When Nolan had fixed the dishwasher he evidently didn't get the pipes quite tight enough. When we ran the dishwasher it would flood. AND on further investigating, Mike discovered the water ran under the oven, under the floorboard and into the boys' closet. (SEE THE PARAGRAPHS ARE CONNECTED!)
I mentioned the ongoing smell again and mentioned that I wanted to shampoo it all. While taking out the carpet Mike got a good whiff and recognized the smell...cat urine. It appears that the former owners must have had cats and they used the large closet for, well...gross. We took the carpet outside. Washed it over and over with soap and Odoban. We hung it to dry. Then the storms began - it's had several great fresh water rinses.
Meanwhile, I've been mopping and scrubbing the concrete several times a day with bleach water..... Their room is a MESS as all the toys and such are in the middle of their room...but soon it will all smell nice and be put back together.....Of course I'd like to paint the whole room and replace the carpet in their room too. I'd REALLY like to take ALL our carpet out and put in wood or tile...but we have to resell the house in a couple of years. 
Mike also fixed a belt and muffler on the Honda this weekend...and a few other things. This led to a comment such as, "It's hard to believe you guys survived 6 months with me gone!" ::snort:: Um....I thought about this....things ALWAYS are breaking around here....when he's here we let HIM fix them....when he's gone I blog about it. ::snort::
5 comments:
I remember seeing you blog about fixing many things while he was gone!
Glad you figured out where the mystery smell was coming from.
Ugh, cat urine...the worst. I like cats, but not inside. Our kitty lives outdoors!
Hope you get the smell out.
Glad Mike is home to fix all these pesky breakdowns.
Sis:
Wow! Does this cat business ever bring back memories of cleaning up after Uncle Bill's cats and dog. What a stinky mess it all was. Think I used everything in Mom's house that had smell to it (good or bad) and eventually it smelled ok. Often I think about these two red carpets of Uncle Bill's that i have at this house..... how many times they have been washed and they really do smell fine now.
YUK! What a job to clean up after animal smells.
l/p
Glad you found out where the odor and the water were coming from. If the super duper products (and rainstorm rinses!) don't help you could try plain old white vinegar. Then of course you have a vinegar smell though! I sometimes clean the cat litter boxes with vinegar.
When we were looking to buy a trailer three years ago we looked at one where they had literally must have locked a bunch of cats in one room & let them have at it. Ugh! While we liked the layout of the trailer, the thought of having to rip up ALL the floorboards to fix the mess was a bit too daunting. Needless to say we didn't buy it (we went with the one that hadn't been lived in for eight years instead. LOL).
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