The company/management plumber, bless his heart, arrived about 10:15 pm Sunday night. I had spoken with him on the phone, about an hour earlier. [ Someone in one of the other buildings had his number .] Since the crisis was over, he said, and he lived ‘out-of-town he would deal with it ‘tomorrow’. I had asked him if he would try to get ahold of anyone in management to tell them we had a problem. He said he would. I understood his reasoning: the water was subsiding as the man upstairs, with a little help from his friends mopped up his apartment. But surprise, he changed his mind and showed up. In between the times I had been emptying my pots and pans as they filled, I had cleaned up all the ‘items’ dumped on my carpet, putting them in shopping bags and luggage, and placing them out of harms way. As the water ceased to gush, and was becoming a mere trickle, I replaced the large towel and other containers with pots and pans. Being able to wring the towels out in the bathtub, I could mop the floor. I had at hand one of those t-shaped rubber scrappers one can use to wipe down glass or a windshield. It was perfect. The wood floors are poly glazed and it slid right over them and could be sponged up and squeezed out. Remember we are not speaking of a house-sized kitchen, but rather an apartment sized one which is rather like the sleeping compartment on a train. The larger rug and the 4 chairs – have no sofa- I could move around and away from the earlier streams. So the larger rug escaped disastrous wetness. On hands and knees I wiped up the bare floors. Plus point: floors washed better than ever in the years I’ve been in the city. In normal daily life, I use fans in my space to keep it cool. Now I turned them on the rugs and the furniture, left the ceiling lights on for heat and accessed what the damage was. One small kitchen rug, rinsed off and hug over the shower curtain rod to drip dry. Eventually hung it out in the hallway over the banister. Also in the hallway I had thrown down USPS priority boxes that had become damp standing next to a dripping wall, and they took up some of the hallway water. They acted like square lily pads in a pond. The next rug was the 3+x5+ silk rug from Persia. It took a hit. I rinsed it off too, but one end is stained brown. Someone is going to have to step up to the plate to have that cleaned. Went to the stairs and called up to the plumber as I heard his voice. ‘This water”, I said, “is brown. Am I dealing with sewage? Because if I am I will need to do another form of cleaning.’ ‘No’, he replied. “The brown is coming from the dirt between the floor and ceiling that is left after the rebuilding. I am certain about that!” And he went into a long explanation. I had to agree it didn’t smell and it was clear like beef broth.
Monday, management came to see. All I had to show for it was a receipt for 10 lbs of now clean and dry towels, the request for one rug cleaning and the painting of the ceiling in the kitchen, bath and sitting area. Little could they imagine the streams of water, into the sink, over the gas stove and around all the ceiling spot lights. Plus point two: my stove is wiped down to a fare-thee-well: the top, under the top, the oven, the bottom broiler, door edges and sides. So the total aftermath: one clean apartment and an upstairs neighbor who said, after I had finished quizzing the plumber “I owe you big time. I just smiled and said “yes you do.”
ps. This is the same neighbor who a while back, ordered up the call girl at 4 am who ended up at my door. He and I need to talk!