(main) problem is solved

Thank goodness, we got the leak solved. It appears that a bad soldering job is to blame for our leaky smelly mess. So, the soldering was bad and a teenie little water leaked enough to rust the pipe. That sealed itself for quite a while until eventually it wore through the rust and *goosh*...clean water into 15 year old carpet equals stinky mess. After all is said and done, the repair work really is minimal. Mike thinks he can tackle it himself and I'm fine with that with the understanding that if he messes up or it looks like total crap, he has to get someone in here to fix it.

The two biggest issues now are to replace the carpet pad that ended up sopping wet and to remove and replace all the moulding at the bottom of the walls. We also have to Kilz any affected walls and repaint. Ugh. I just realized that this means repainting our bedroom. Oh, God. Maybe we can just paint that one wall a solid, matching color. I repeat, Oh God.

I feel soooooooo much better about this situation. I was having a breakdown at the thought of having to forgo our ten year anniversary trip because we needed to pour money into this mess of a house. But we do have home owner's and they've covered what we've already done and they're going to cover what we need to do yet. I have to sit down and ask Mike what all got officially covered because we do need to replace the carpet pad and moulding plus buy the paint. All in all, that's not really expensive. But it IS more money than we have sitting around.

Ok. I'm feeling stressed. A few years ago I would have pierced something in response. I'm just saying is all. I'm not as stressed as I was Friday (I will apologize one last time right here to Dave for the tears...sorry Dave) and I do feel much better, but I'm still stressed. I'm done with the piercings...unless I repierce my belly. Or get the top of my ear done... No on the belly while I'm so...um....curvy. Maybe the ear will suffice. Or maybe it's time to suck it up and go for that tattoo? When I save the money, of course. That gives me LOTS of time to gather my wussiness and talk myself into some bravery.