Welcome Home!

So just a few days after returning home from our vacation, we were welcomed back by our hot water tank bursting.  And when I say burst, I mean it was spewing all over the place at an alarming rate.  I came home one evening after work to find Mojo acting a little strange.  I figured maybe he really had to go to the bathroom or something so I hurried downstairs to the storage room to let the girls out of their pen.  And after a few steps down I smelled something funny (I have a strange nose) and then a few steps later I heard what sounded like a powerful waterfall.  And my heart jumped into my throat and I raced down those stairs faster than humanly possible.  What I saw in the storage room terrified and devastated me.  My sweet fur babies were being violently showered with water from the hot water tank.  I immediately released them and checked that they were OK.  Thankfully the tank had not been spewing for too long and it was ricocheting off the wall before it was hitting the girls so it wasn't too hot on their fuzzy little skin.  Oh I felt awful.  Then, after taking care of my babies I went into complete freak out mode and scrambled around trying to find the water shut off valve.  Despite having used this water shut off valve before, I could not for the life of me find it.  Yep, I'm cool, calm, and collected like that.  So I left a frenzied voicemail for Ryan (he got a chuckle out of that) and then sprinted over to the neighbor's house, with no shoes and no coat in December, and requested immediate assistance.  We got the water turned off and the dogs were fine so I was very thankful.  This is what the storage room looked like.  The pictures are kind of bad but basically there was some standing water on the floors.  I didn't have the heart to get a picture of China and Peanut because I felt SO awful.

This was Ryan when he got home:

And this is the crew we had at our house off and on for the next month because we had damage to the walls and carpet.  Ryan dealt with them more than I did but my impression was they were prompt, responsive, and nice to deal with.  Which is a relief when you're dealing with something like this.  Everyone we talked to said it is so rare for a hot water tank to burst like that.  I'm just glad it didn't happen while we were out of town and also that it hadn't been leaking too long before I caught it.

Mojo seemed impressed with the resulting "breezeway" between the guest closet and storage room.

China and Peanut were happy about the new living arrangements.  (Note dent in blanket and back of chair).

And Ryan and I are ecstatic about the new hot water situation.  I didn't realize how bad our heater truly was so I didn't know what I was missing out on.  But now I feel as though I've emerged from the dark ages and can wash dishes and laundry at the same time!  (gasp!)  And Ryan and I can shower one after the other without having to allow adequate time in between for the water to heat up!  (gasp!)  Life is grand.