What To Do If Your Kitchen Floods While You Are Out of Town
PSA: EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD TROUBLE WITH YOUR REFRIGERATOR, you might want to check out this article from Houzz on a pretty common issue with plastic tubing that I wasn't aware of before mine broke!
Over the last few days I’ve been working on this “guide” for what to do when you come home to a watery disaster in your kitchen. In my case, somehow the hose behind the 'fridge split (exploded, might be a better word!) and there was water everywhere, and going everywhere. When I walked in my first thought was that a faucet must have been left on (that’s how loud the water was.)
Thankfully, my parents had come down for the afternoon to help me get settled, so I didn't have to figure out what to do on my own! But since there are a lot of us college/grad school/post grad young adults, and we're having to start learning how how to fix things on our own, I wanted to write post in case someone else is on their own and in a panic trying to figure out what to do in this kind of situation!
Same Pin-Able Picture, Minus the College Part :-)
What to Do:
1. Stop the Water! I feel like this one kind of goes without saying, but in the moment, it can get overwhelming. My refrigerator hose didn’t have a clamp, so I put a kink in the hose and held it together with a hair tie until I could get the hose replaced.
2. Call your local water repair company ASAP. I went with Servpro, and they were SO great! The sooner they can get in, the sooner the drying process starts – less stinky smells to have to deal with! Plus, they’ll need to get in and take pictures to show the insurance company.
3. Call the home insurance company! With servpro, they wanted to talk to my insurance company before they touched the floors, that way there wouldn’t be any surprise fees at the end.
I really want a light color for the kitchen, but I still want it to "go" with the backsplash and everythign that I already have, so i'm trying to find a pretty, washed-out shade of yellow, and i'll accent it with blue(that way I can use hydrangeas!!)
4. Try to look on the bright side. Not gonna lie, there were a few moments early on in the process where I was pretty gloomy about losing my pretty hardwoods, BUT once I started thinking of all the new things I could do with the space, I felt so much better! Definitely channeled my energy into making mood boards and pinterest boards for kitchen ideas :-)
5. If possible, see if you can stay with a friend. Right now, my house is hot (running the AC was causing the dehumidifier to have problems) and it smells bad (2+ weeks of warm water under the floors), so I've been very thankful to have had other places to stay. Plus, its a little weird seeing my house without floors in my dining room!
Behind the Scenes at My House: