November 14th, 2018

Gather 'round children, and I will tell you the tale of the Great Pantry Flood of 2018  It is a story of great mystery and marginal courage, of failures and successes.  It is a my story.

I begin this story by going backwards more than two years now.  I begin at the beginning. (of the story, not the beginning of time, that would be ridiculous)

Before we bought our current house, we looked at a lot of homes for sale here on the island.  Some we were able to eliminate from possibility immediately, others took a wee bit longer but in the end, the choice was narrowed down to two.  The house I preferred and the house Tim preferred.  Ultimately, we ended up choosing the house that Tim liked best.   My biggest concern about his choice was the kitchen. It was  disaster!  The first time we toured the house, as I walked through the kitchen with a sour look on my face (I could never play poker) Tim walked behind me promising that the very first thing we would do was to reno the kitchen.  That was right after I attempted to open a kitchen drawer and the front of the drawer came off in my hand.  I nodded reasonably.  Then I opened the slatted bi-fold door in the kitchen and found, to my surprise, squished into a surprisingly small space, a full sized side by side  front loading washer and dryer with one wobbly shelf above it that I couldn't reach on one side and an entire HVAC system on the other side.  The was the very  narrowest of spaces between the two.  Even I couldn't completely fit and would have had to snake my hand through  a partially opened dryer door to put clothes in or take them out.  I attempted to demonstrate the many failings of that area by wedging my own little self in and then giving Tim a very telling look.  He understood it immediately and said,"This can be fixed".

Well I trust my husband and I believe in him. So when we bought the house, before the ink was even dry on the closing paperwork, the reno had begun.  The washer, dryer and HVAC system were all moved to the utility room and now there was this unexpected space in my kitchen. What to do, what to do?  Tim suggested a walk-in pantry and I cheered!  What a wonderful idea!  I adore my pantry.  It may be my favourite room in the house!  There are shelves before me, shelves to the left of me, shelves to the right of me AND room for my rolling baking cart upon which lives my massive mixer but also has a cabinet, opening shelving and drawer to hold all of my many baking implements of destruction (Thank you Arlo Guthrie)

Back to the present day.

Sunday we did the majority of the shopping for my upcoming baking marathon.  Bag after bag of baking requirements were unloaded from the car, brought into the house and set on the kitchen counter.  Tim drifted off to his next Big Thing, his job now being done, and I set about putting things away.  I didn't bother to turn the pantry light on because well it's day light, the kitchen light was on and also I know my pantry so well that I could, right now, tell you exactly  where anything is that you might want from there.

I stepped into the pantry with an armload of goodies and heard a very tiny "splash".  I was taken aback because in my experience, walk in pantry's almost never make a splashing noise.  I stepped back out, set down my various items and turned the pantry light on.  The floor was covered with a very thin layer of wet. Dang!

My heart started pounding and I think I mumbled something like, "Well this is unexpected'  because I'm clever like that.  Now, the room to the left of the pantry is the utility room.  And in that utility room,  on the wall shared with the pantry is the hot water heater.  That was my first panic stricken thought.  Honestly.  First I thought Hot Water Heater and then the next thing that danced through my head was a string of dollar signs. I dashed into said utility room expecting to see pools of water in there as well only to find things humming along perfectly normally and a bone dry floor. Hmmm.  Well if the source of the water isn't the hot water heater than where could it possibly have come from?  

Next panic riddled thought was the guest bathroom.  Yup, directly behind the pantry would be the guest bathroom.  I groaned allowed as I raced to the guest room.  Now my head is filled with not just rows and rows of dollar signs but also a lot of noises like Yuck and Ick and Ewwwww!  Fortunately, my fears were unfounded.  Guest bathroom was perfectly fine.  Exactly as it always is.

I returned to the pantry now with a head full of questions marks. Where on earth is this water coming from.  I began moving things out of the pantry.  First my giant pastry board which has absorbed some of the water dang it!  Next was the baking cart which I rolled to the far end of the kitchen and noted the nice wet trail the wheels left. (sigh)  then the bin of cleaning supplies then the bottles of gatorade (One of Tim's favourite summer time drinks for after any exertion in the heat and humidity) then finally the many different containers of water which we use all of the time and then immediately replace all of the time.

I have never been a fan of bottled water until we moved here.  We learned very early on that living on an island, you must have bottled water in the house at all times.  Occasionally, for one reason or another, we experience water line interruptus.  And, Hurricanes happen.  So we keep bottled water in the pantry.  Both individual bottles AND gallon jugs.  I moved the case of bottles first then the gallon jugs.  The first two gallons were perfectly normal and as I expected them to be.  The last jug was empty.  What the heck?

Oh yeah. There was the culprit.  But the question is why?  Why would the jug leak?  I still don't know.  I suspect that it was the most recently purchased replacement gallon jug and what I mistook to be condensation was actually a leak.  And was that tiny pinhole  leak in the seam up at the top up the bottle where it wouldn't be much of a problem?  No, of course not.  It was way down at the bottom of the bottle so that the water could spread allllll over the place.  Naturally. Because that's how these things work.

We are so fortunate that it was just good old H2O that I was cleaning up.  The floor of the pantry is now exceptionally clean, everything has been dried off and returned.  I will sand down the wet edge of my giant pastry board once it finishes drying out and re-cure it so that will be all good too.  

AND whats more, lesson learned, I will now carefully inspect any gallon water jugs that I buy instead of just grabbing them willy nilly.  

Some people learn from the mistakes of others.  Other people must be beaten with sticks to learn anything.  I seem to be of the second type.  Please, please be the first sort of person and learn from my mistakes.  I don't remember where I ever read it, but I think of it often,"If I cannot be a good example, I should at least be a horrible warning".  That's me. The cautionary tale.

Below you will find a photo of the perpetrator.  The Hideous Fiend!  The CAUSE of the great pantry flood of 2018