That's what I was thinking last night as I was moving towels from the washer to the dryer. It was 8:35 PM, I had gotten up from the movie and my sewing, and I heard water. I thought: "Water is running, somewhere. Is the sprinkler system on? Why is the sprinkler on?"

I said to Steve: "I hear water running." And he said "You turned the dishwasher on."

And I thought "I didn't turn the dishwasher on. You turned it on – and you forgot that you did." Honestly, ladies, isn't that what you would think too? So, with the dryer now on, I went to the kitchen. The dishwasher was not on. I felt bad for assuming that Steve was so forgetful and then I thought, "why do I hear water?"

I walked through the living room and into my studio, headed for the bedroom and bathroom. It sounded like Steve was in the shower, except that he was sitting there, on the sofa. Just about then, I stepped into hot water. I speeded up, and rounded the corner as the water was getting deeper and deeper. 

Did I take a picture? No, I did not. If I was younger, much younger, I would have been snapping away :-). You will have to imagine a waterfall, like this:

flowing out from under the cabinet door under this sink:

Many things happened in rapid succession:

• I hollered to Steve.
• I probably used a 4-letter word. Maybe more than once.
• I pulled open the cabinet door, knowing that there is a shut-off knob.
• Hot, hot hot water spilled out and my glasses must have fogged up because I couldn't see anything. And the water was HOT. And I my feet were in lots of water!
• I suggested (probably loudly) that Steve should GO OUTSIDE AND TURN OFF THE WATER!!! He did. The waterfall stopped.
• I called, and then texted Rick, our contractor. 
• I called Chris – 'HELP!"
• Steve and I got towels and 5 gallon buckets. I was thinking that we'd wring the water out into the buckets. Not a great idea. The water was 1/2"-1" deep and covered the bedroom and half of my studio. 
• Steve got the Shop-Vac. Great idea! I got the extension cord.
• Rick called, said he and Juan were coming.
• Chris showed up with lots of towels. He and I and Steve got busy.

(Sidebar: Steve read this and said that he was the one who got to the bathroom first. He's probably right. Memory is such a funny thing. That would explain why, when I said that I don't remember what I saw under the sink… it's because he had already looked at it. But I know I looked too 🙂 – and I'm sure I suggested that he go outside to turn off the water. I think.)

We had the majority of the water off of the floor before Rick and Juan got here, by around 9:10 PM. All things considered, that was pretty fast.

This is the culprit. The (naked) end of the black plastic hose should be connected to the thing at the top of the oval knob on the left. That is the hot water supply. With the hose off, and the water on, water shot up and to the right like a hot geyser.

We store our toilet paper in this area. It's funny, but as we were sopping up the mess I kept wondering what the little bits of paper were. It was the toilet paper that was dispersed with the water! Weird.

The bathroom and kitchen sink fixtures are top of the line. We got them not at a big box store, but at a local plumbing supply. I love them. However, Rick said that he's seen this sort of problem once before with the same sort of fixture. The connector on these is different. We may be changing our sink fixtures, to ones with an old-school sort of connector. For now, the water is turned off in both bathrooms and (most of the time) to the kitchen fixture.

By 10:00, all of the water was sopped up, Rick and Juan were gone, and Steve and Chris and I had fortified ourselves with a bit of good scotch. All of us had fingers crossed that we had gotten the water up soon enough to save the floors.

Got up this morning to realize that the floor (in half the hallway, our bedroom, and my studio) is toast. I took photos. With the flash, the color is good but it's harder to see the damage.

The color is bad, but you can see that the edges of the planks are curling up:

You know, this floor cost too much money to live with it this way. I have no idea how they are going to get it off of the slab (because the glue is more than strong) but there must be a way.

We went to OKC this morning to visit Steve's family. We came home to many, many loads of wet towels.

I have a blog post already written for Monday morning so you won't see news of this in that post. I will, however, let you know what happens. 

Do you remember the dish towels from our book, Applique With Attitude? I've been using mine in the new kitchen!

These dishtowels are appliqued with big stitches in perle cotton – fast and cute. I've been meaning to share with you what I learned from the Prescenia folks about their threads at quilt market.

Prescencia perle cotton is colorfast and bleach-fast. It doesn't shrink. These are things I knew but it's nice to see that it's really true when I wash and dry projects made with it in my very own washer and dryer :-). You can read more on this page.

I pre-washed the towels and the fabric before I appliqued the shapes. Gotta say – I love using them!

Marilyn Fite sent me photos of a table runner that she made from our new book, The Best-Ever Applique Sampler. She used a variety of cotton bandanas. Very cute and an interesting use of fabric!

This is a gift for her very lucky niece.

It's nice to have so much of the house back the way it was 'before'. Rooms look the same, but better. No more popcorns on the ceilings! That is a subtle, happy change. 

The floors make a statement throughout the house. People come in, look down, and they smile. I look down and smile with them! This is not a look that would work in every house – I am grateful that it works here. If it hadn't I would not have been able to change it. 

We are not putting rugs back in either the dining or breakfast room. These rooms look finished without rugs. The orange rug that used to be in the dining room is now in the living room…

The brick hearth in front of the fireplace is gone, and we don't miss it. The tile in front of the fireplace is level with the floor and, because it doesn't stick up, walking through this area is smoother.

One of the things I did myself was to change the door hinges and knobs throughout the house. No more old stained brass. Steve helped me with the cabinet hinges.

This was not a big expense and it was easier than I thought it would be. I am happy every time I turn a knob.

Both bathrooms have new Ceasarstone countertops. My old soap dispensers didn't look good on them so I bought simple white ones. The little green vase I used to have my makeup brushes in no longer worked so I am now using Jeff's (youngest son) pewter baby cup! 

I put a glass vase inside it to hold the brushes better. I tried to give Jeff his cup years ago and he didn't have room for it. I suppose if he ever finds a place for it, I'll give it to him – but right now I'm enjoying it.

In the next photo, notice the low triangular shelf in the corner. That's where I rest my toes when shaving my legs! Rick (the contractor) suggested it.

On the down-side, our oldest cat, Emma, has decided that our shower floor is enough like outside that she wants to pee on it. It must be the rock floor. I suppose it could be worse – at least the shower is easy to clean. But still, Steve and I would like her to quit.

A friend, Jacquie, suggested that we put smells in the bathroom that Emma won't love: mint, eucalyptus, lemon. That's why there are cotton balls at the edge of the shower. It worked at first, but Emma has learned to tolerate the scents. I bought a bottle of Nature's Miracle No More Marking today. I hope it works!

I think that covers the highlights of the remodel project. I hope that some of what I've shared with you comes in handy when you work on your own homes. Now I am going to get back to work, in a house that is clean and tidy and not full of workmen. Oh happy, happy day!

We have lots of drawers under the counter. Shallow drawers, like this one that holds the knives. Steve made the knife blocks years ago and they work in the new drawer.

The drawers pull all the way out so it's easy to get to everything. So much better than trying to reach way back into a low cabinet…

I bought several more of these Good Grips containers. They work so well! However, from the top, they all look the same. I made labels for the tops to make it easy to find what I'm looking for.

Our refrigerator is not quite as big as what we might buy next so we had the space built for a bigger appliance. What's nice is that there is room for a skinny step ladder next to the fridge. If you remodel, think about where you might stash a stool like this. We are already using it a lot.

And, the last thing from the kitchen is the tall cabinet over the fridge:

It's not a space that either of us will get into often but it's perfect for the tall glass things that I don't use often.

Here is a view through the kitchen, in one direction. We were able to use the same rug that we had before. We kept the dishwasher, refrigerator, and vent hood as well. They work and were too new to replace. I'm glad we kept them. I might have been tempted to go with stainless steel appliances otherwise and it turns out that I like them white. They disappear.

And here's the view from the other direction (I should have tidied up the the towels on the oven):

The microwave is built in over the double oven. I ordered the hardware for a mixer shelf, which you can see below. It was about $80 and it was worth it! The mixer rides up easily and it works better on this shelf than it ever did on the counter. I can get around the mixer and I had no idea how handy that would be. 

Luckily I can open the oven while the mixer is still out. 

The top oven has convection. I've never had a convection oven but so far it works very well for cakes and cookies.