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I had mentioned previously that I thought our abundance of water in the furnace and laundry room was due to a pressure relief valve on our water heater giving way. Seems it was not the case. As I discovered later, even though I closed the water main as tightly as I thought I could, it was still slightly open, and water was still leaking out the pipe rupture just beyond the main valve. So, that mystery solved.

Remember the 1/2 inch or so of ice in the laundry room? Well, when we fired our heater back up, all that ice melted, and that water needed somewhere to go. And go it did, over the already soaked hall way carpet, right in to the office. Where we had books stacked. Oops. Thankfully, we didn't lose anything important.

We're pretty much convinced the previous owners had ferrets (the major cause of Crystal's and Jonathan's congestion). The down stairs--especially the family room, which got a fair share of wet carpet too--reeked today from all the moisture and whatever pet stuff was in the carpet. Great smell.

A bit of good news. One of the wood panels in the family room had pulled away from the wall due to all the moisture, and what should be found behind it? Clean, pristine, sheet rock. If this pattern holds for the other walls and rooms, it will greatly reduce our remodel cost. Woohoo!

If you go look at your water heater, it will probably have a little valve on the side connected to a pipe that goes down to the floor. That's a pressure relief valve: if the tank ever acquires too much pressue (steam, over filling for some reason, etc) it's designed to let go and release water rather than compromising the tank. Apparently it also works if the water tank freezes up.

As I mentioned yesterday, we had an inch of water (or so) in our furnace room, and about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in our laundry room (and out into the hall). I couldn't figure out quite where all that water had come from. While the pipes did freeze (more later) there just wasn't enough water in them to cover that much area (I'm pretty sure). While water may have leaked from the outside (the wall was wet near the bottom, but that was probably from the puddle inside: the wall around the chimney was dry), it does appear the valve on the water heater tripped.

As to the pipes bursting, a pipe in the upstairs bathroom probably burst, a pipe above the hot water heater appears compromised, and the pipe right after our water main enters the house froze. So, an interesting situation. We'll have to see exactly how much of the floor and walls we get to rip up.

It started out that we thought we needed to rebuild the house. As other posts have shown, it might just be a remodel. When our chimney liner collapsed, causing our heater to stop, and freezing the house, I thought we may have escaped broken pipes since water leaked into the tub down stairs.

I might have been wrong. In the past couple weeks it has really warmed up. Our water is off, thankfully, but it appears pipes leaked. We went to the house tonight to get some things, and discovered water in the laundry room, and out into the down-stairs hallway, some icicles in the down stairs bathroom (not sure which pipe leaked in the up stairs bathroom), as well as about an inch of water in the furnace room.

So, what I know or think I know right now:

1. Water has leaked in from outside (the "well" around the chimney has water in it)
2. It appears that possibly the water heater leaked after it thawed out.
3. A pipe in our up stairs bathroom leaked.
4. A lot of repair is going to have to be done, and a lot of walls torn off.

Well, God is in control. "For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him." Just pray for us...we need it right now.