when it snows it pours?

Wait, why are there buckets on the floor
of your almost complete kitchen, you ask.

The kitchen is almost done.  We hope to meet with the contractor this week to iron out the details of the questionable billing.  I have little hope that it will end well.

Coach took the 3 youngest kids sledding yesterday.  Ah, sledding.  This was an activity we partook in regularly when the crew was younger.  Bundling them up.  Packing the sleds.  Driving to a hill that came highly recommended.  The last few years we haven't worked sledding into our busy lives.  I think part of the problem is not that we are so busy, but that the timing was all off.  It didn't snow enough last winter, and when we got any snow in recent history it was followed closely by freaky cold temperatures.  No fun!

Coach called to say they were on their way home.  I put some milk on the stove to warm for hot chocolate and returned to the study briefly.  I heard Mini walk in and a moment later she started to holler something about the kitchen. 

It is tough to see here, but
 if you look closely you
can see the water mark on
the drywall surrounding
the area where our recessed
light used to be.

Dear God, could I have burned down the BRAND NEW kitchen by abandoning the warming milk for a few minutes?  No.  Mini was alerting me to the water dripping from one of the recessed lights.  

I raced upstairs.  The kids have been known to leave standing water on the bathroom floor after a shower.  Like so many of their antics, I have no explanation.  

The floor was dry in both upstairs bathrooms.  No overflowing toilet either.  Hmm.

I texted the contractor.  I texted the plumber.  The plumber told us to stop using the toilet.  It hadn't been used in over an hour.  I texted to let him know that turning the water off to the toilet wasn't helping.  He said he would stop by.

Our plumber is the best.  He has bailed us out of many situations.  He has assisted us in non-plumbing issues too.  A regular MacGyver.  Are you aware that I plug up the kitchen sink every time we are leaving to go out of town?  It has happened so regularly, that is is now a thing.  A tradition.  

Now when I try to reach inside the fridge
I get the added pleasure of having
 drips of brownish water drip on my head. 
Anyone want to come over for dinner?

He determined that it was not our plumbing.  We had an ice dam.  Our second floor gutters were full of ice.  The snow that was melting was flowing inside our walls.  Our siding on the rear of the house is ruined.  I can only imagine what our insulation looks like, or smells like.  Have you ever gotten a whiff of wet insulation?  Puke.  And our brand new kitchen ceiling is destroyed.  And new leaks are springing up every few hours.  

When it snows it pours.

Now I notice all the other houses with crazy, over-sized icicles.  I'm wondering if that is a sign of things to come for them, because our icicles are dangerously huge.  Well, until Tank decided to start knocking them off the upstairs windows with a kiddie sized shovel from the comfort of his bedroom.  He was tossing them down to the younger siblings who were using them to enhance their igloos. 

It's official.  I am ready for winter to end.