Chronicles of a Sleepy Rabite

What a weekend! Let’s recap what happened. Here’s post 1 of 2 since I’m covering four days.

Friday:

Met up with Myrna and Sky at Heritage Century Park, after which we decided to go for Pho because, well, we were hungry (I was hungry”ish”, but that’s because hot weather kills my appetite). Turns out that the restaurant was closing for its yearly two-week break starting today, so it’s a good thing we went then. Had some salad rolls and a quarter of my noodle bowl which ended up going to the guys.

Then we went to Ikea to get the flooring. I was waffling on getting the flooring because I didn’t want to bug my dad, but I decided to get it over with and pick up 10 boxes and two of their equaliser thingers. Walked out $600-something poorer. Anyways, we went back and my dad helped us bring everything in — while he was doing that, I ninjaed him a Timmy’s gift card (bwahahaha).

By the time we got everything in, we were hot (and bothered) and we so totally didn’t want to start on the second coat for the walls, so we played Dragon Quest IX all evening long in the library, and we liked it.

Saturday:

Got woken up at 6:15 am by the cats. Woke up Myrna at 6:50 am (hey, you’re the one who asked for it); Sky got us A&W breakfast and we started on the painting. Halfway through, we realised that we wouldn’t have enough paint, so Sky went to get some more, and an air compressor and a shop vac from Home Despot while Myrna and I continued painting. Turns out we didn’t need the extra paint YET, but we still hadn’t painted the section behind the fish tank, so we’dve needed it anyways. (The 4th can, though… bah, I’ll probably paint the stairwell eventually.)

After that was done, we moved everything to the “TV/couch” side of the room and went to the AMA (needed to renew my plates) and Bonton Bakery (mmm, chocolate croissants) to kill time while the paint dried. Then we played a bit more Dragon Quest IX (shush) and got started on the floor at about noon.

It started off slow, but after the first few cuts, we sped along. I think we stopped at around 4 pm, about two rows before the column, which was about where we wanted to stop as this was past the point where I needed the flooring down to move the aquarium. We took a break to get some baseboards from Home Despot, where we waited half an hour so we could cut everything in Echo Hatchback bits (they had a deck event going so everyone was using the self-serve thing). Then we got home, ordered a pizza, played more Dragon Quest, and ate.

Where the guys busted their backs getting the flooring in and I kinda just sat there cleaning up and providing potable quenchables to them, there was nothing they could really do while I took care of the aquarium. I got all the fish out (eventually) and drained all the water, and then I removed the 60 lbs. of gravel I had in there. Once that was done, the guys moved the tank to its new home… and it didn’t break. WOO! So I cleaned out the filter (while Sky put back the gravel), started filling the tank, and then had the bucket lifted while I pulled the clear garbage bag I’d been using as a fish bag (common tactic) from the bucket…

… and it ripped and sent all the fish flying into the bucket.

All I could do at that point was put the fish in (water temp was 76°F, bucket temp was 75°F, not a big deal), but the fish were clearly in shock. There wasn’t anything I could do at that point, so we ripped out the nail spike/baseboard/carpet and put the primer down, and went upstairs to play Dragon Quest IX and relax (with me feeling like crap the whole time).

Sunday and Monday recap coming later on today, plus pics! (No, not of the fish.)

It’s kinda hard to explain this without pictures, but Sky, Myrna and I pulled the stuff out from under the stairs last night, and I’m pleased to say that my theory for how the water got to the other side of the room was spot on.

- Water overflowed from sump, went towards under the stairs because that’s the direction my house is slanted in
- Water hit the vapour shield that’s under the framing
- Vapour shield channelled the water under the framing
- Water went behind the storage room, didn’t stop because it had no reason to
- Water stopped at the lowest point of my basement on that plane, which is where the TV is; had nowhere to go but down along the wall where my art was, all the way down to the side where the couch was, and pooled there

The only thing they were right about is the seepage by my computer desk — that, however, is totally fixable, and the surveying crew should be able to confirm that.

So that’s that. Again, fuck you, Intact Insurance.

Edit: Right, forgot to mention this:

- The Christmas decorations are fine. Yay! The box wasn’t, but that was easily remedied.
- We lost one plank of the flooring, and even then, it was warped, not soaked. This is very encouraging for if this ever happens again.
- We lost a whole section of carpeting, though (the extra stuff that was kept when the house was build), but meh.

Current Mood: Drained