Water should not be coming from there...

In 2015, Christine and I had budgeted to replace the title in our kitchen with something a bit modern. One Friday night, we came home, and our tiler had been busy with a demo on the kitchen floor, and we were anxious to see the progress, but we saw more than we anticipated - water was streaming in from the wall behind our oven. Fast forward five months, whole new flooring throughout our downstairs, black mold, and we had a kitchen that eventually didn't cause us PTSD to see.

This past weekend, I ran to Whole Foods to grab some groceries to make dinner with Ellie. As I walked through the flower section (Christine's been stressed, so I wanted to get her something), my phone started ringing. I answered and heard Ellie screaming about water and Christine in a panic. Oh no, I thought, it's happening again.

I checked out and rushed home to see water dripping from a crack in the ceiling in our main family room. Water was pooling on the flooring as Christine was throwing towels down. We grabbed some buckets and caught the water. Our new homeowner's insurance company, Branch, sent out a team to mitigate the water; they cut the ceiling and dried it.

Fortunately for us, it's not going to be entirely disruptive - we need to get a couple of chairs cleaned, a rug cleaned, and we're trashing a Christmas tree (this is the one year I convinced Christine to let us keep our Christmas tree up until Candlemas!), and our floor is intact. We're looking to change our ceiling to a wood ceiling with new beams.

Lesson learned: Don't depend on a rubber ring when installing a new toilet - always go with the wax seal.