I Sometimes Think Half My Problems Involve Water Being Where It Shouldn't, Or Not Being Where It Should.

So, guess what exciting surprise I had last night? If you said, "Stepping on my bedroom carpet and finding it wet and squishy in a manner that brought back flashbacks of the Great Pipe Break Incident of 2011," congratulations! SIGH.

Naturally, my first thought was of another broken pipe, so the first thing I did was to go and turn off the water. Which is a royal pain in the ass. That valve is not easy to turn, both because it's stiff, and because there isn't enough room to turn a wrench properly in there. I never did manage to get it all the way off, but I did reduce it to a trickle. A night without water, what fun!

But, on reflection, I don't think it was a pipe this time. I think I'm to blame, for actually cleaning out the damned gutters. Sigh. You see, the gutter on that corner of the house was completely plugged up when I turned my attention to it. And now it no longer is. But the elbow bend on the downspout is not exactly watertight, and, worse, I knocked it slightly askew when I was messing with it. So I think what happened is that in the massive rainstorms we had Friday night, water was pouring down right into that corner of my foundation, which is undoubtedly more porous than it should be. I'll have to put some sealant on that gutter, but I have to wait until it's going to be dry for a couple of days in a row, which, this time of year, is problematic. Of course, it's also a reminder that I really, really need to look into getting my foundation repaired. I've put it off far longer than I ought to already. But, man, at this point affording that is going to be... interesting. Again, I say, SIGH.

Mind you, I still need to completely rule out a pipe leak. I should have been able to do this myself. The technique is: turn the water to the house on, make sure that all the taps are off, and check whether the water meter is continuing to increment. If it is, clearly water is still flowing somewhere, thus, leak. Well, mine is continuing to increment, very, very slowly. But. The faucet in my bathtub is a bit drippy, and for some insane reason the valves that I thought turned off the water to the bathtub don't seem to do anything. I... am very confused. Clearly, I'm going to have to get the plumbers out on Monday morning, in any case, to make sure there's no broken pipe, and to figure out what the hell is up with the bathtub.

The good news is that the wet spot, unlike during the Great Pipe Break Incident, was comparatively small, and comparatively less wet. With the help of a couple of fans, I seem to have gotten it mostly dry already, so I don't think I'll be needing the professionals this time. Although I can't help being a tiny bit paranoid about the possibility of mold. Not to mention the possibility of this happening again. Maybe I should put some plastic sheeting down under the carpet or something, as a temporary precaution. Since I already have it pulled up.

Gaah. I really do get disproportionately stressed out about this kind of thing, you know. My brain starts out with, "Aaargh, I'm not entirely sure what to do about this problem, and even once I figure it out, it's going to be a pain in the ass!", then quickly moves on to "I am a failure as a responsible adult and should not even be allowed to own a house," and before you know it, it's breaking out the crampons and scaling the heights of Existential Dread Mountain, triumphantly staking out the summit with "Everything falls apart! Entropy is a fundamental law of the universe, and it eats everything in the end! One day, I, too, will fall apart, and I'll probably die broke and alone on account of my failures as a human being! Waaaah!'

Some days, I hate my brain. Also my house.