staying afloat

crawling out from rock bottom, any sliver of sunray offers relief. however gradual the progression, at least the direction is up. so, a sudden deluge, sending us rocketing back to square one, is completely disheartening.

the road to recovery was in full swing, with electrical and plumbing aspects corrected by professionals. once the guts were functioning to code (or so we thought), the process of soundproofing and drywalling was underway, for the second time. as a break from the financial and emotional stress, a much-anticipated mini-vacation was planned. confident that house issues were safe from which to escape, we retrieved our overnight baggage and entered the corridor shared with our neighbour.

our excitement dried up instantly when we stepped ankle-deep into a channel. a collection of severed downspouts, overflowing rainbarrels, and cracked concrete was no match for a heavy downpour. postponing our departure, we became a two-person bucket brigade, relocating the water to the back lawn. for a quick fix, we unplugged the storm sewer cap. initially a success, it seemed our weekend of respite was back on. then, my name was called from below, in a tone that could only mean trouble.

we ran to find our drywalling duo wading through our basement. the image was a nightmare, a body of water obscuring the floor. the workers were trying to determine the source while we were wondering why we couldn't catch a break. apparently, the rock had a false bottom, and a river runs through it.

our road trip became a rain-soaked traffic-laden expedition to home depot to rent a pump. our evening activity emerged as removing laminate and monitoring plastic pails as they filled with unrelenting raindrops.

drained and dry, we watched the local news for weather updates. the lead story spoke of flooding throughout the city, basement-dwellers suffering worse fates than ours. discovering the issue was epidemic made our self-pity subside slightly. seeing footage of floating televisions and personal items made us realize that we ended up escaping a catastrophe after all.