And the rains came a-tumblin' down...

The odd thing was, as it was happening very late Sunday night, we were on the front porch enjoying the storm, marveling at the amazing quantity of water coursing down the street into the storm drain, and smugly feeling grateful for our cozy, dry home on its little man-made hill. After our guests left and the rain stopped, we made our way to bed. All was quiet, then we heard Son Two whisper at our door: "Mom, Dad? Code Red."

Well, that's not a normal "I have a question" or a teenage "I need to talk" or even "I need a drink of water" (that hasn't happened in years, or at least since anyone was tall enough to reach the sink--and Son Two is 6'2"). So we quickly grabbed robes and went to investigate.

Oops. Uh-oh. Apparently a window-well on the west wall of the basement had a casement with a crack in its caulking. The rain came down so fast that it filled up that window well and rose up to the window and in through that crack. Son Two's bedroom was flooded.

The Shop-Vac quickly swallowed up more than 7 gallons of water. In hopes of drying out the rest (it is Colorado, after all), we brought in a couple of fans, and Son Two slept on the couch. The next morning, there seemed to have been some success in drying.

But by afternoon, we realized that the apparent drying was only skin-deep, and the real problem began to reveal itself to our noses. Have you ever forgotten a load of laundry in the washer for a day, and then come back to it? Doesn't smell so good, does it? But that's easily fixed by dropping in fresh soap and softener and re-starting the machine. It's not so easy to do this with carpeting. Wet carpet smells BAD. And wall-to-wall carpet is not easily dropped in the washer and dryer.

This carpet smelled REALLY BAD. And really bad was quickly moving to Well-past ripe and on to DISGUSTING. By Monday night, it was evident that there was no choice but to rip the carpet up and out. Tuesday morning, the odiferousness was affecting the entire house.

We began preparing to move the furniture out, as we discovered that the dresser (made of particle-board) had soaked up the water and was ruined. So that left only the Loft Bed--which we had planned to move up to Daughter's room in a couple of weeks anyway--to take apart and soak the lower legs in bleach-water. Then we discovered that Son Two had invited some brave friends over to help, and together we got the carpet and pad up and out of there (phew!), on to the back of the truck, and out to the dump. A liberal splash and sweep of bleach-water all around the floor, and things began to smell much better in our home. Yay for tall teenage men!