A Funny Side Note to our Basement Flooding Issues

As I wrote about recently, we've had some minor flooding issues in our basement that have caused us a fair bit of hassle to deal with.  The problem is still undiagnosed, despite the efforts of several competent people doing their best to define the problem.  The only thing left in our arsenal before the big guns come out is to have a drain/pipe cleaning company come out and ensure there are no blockages/plugs in our system...the house's plumbing system, that is.  If nothing shows up there, our beautiful, fifteen-month old, white poured marble shower is going to be ripped out in a last-ditch effort to figure out what's wrong.  Ouch - hurts just to think of that shower being taken out.

Anyway, as I do several times a day now, I went downstairs late afternoon yesterday to make sure no further flooding had happened.  To my horror, I discovered that the bath mat outside the shower was completely sopping wet, as well as the floor just outside the shower door (exactly where it had been pouring from a couple of weeks ago).

"Oh no," was my first thought - "it's starting again." Two weeks ago, just prior to the bigger floods happening, we found the bath mat unexplainably soaking wet; so this seemed like the beginning of exactly the same pattern.  I drafted an email to our insurance adjuster to tell him the bad news, phoned the restoration company, and got myself mentally psyched to have another big clean up job to do last night.

Then, on the way to Matthew's hockey yesterday evening, an inspired Geoff asked Matt if he knew anything about the watering can that he'd found on the bathroom counter in the basement.

Very sheepishly, Matthew said "well, ok, don't get mad, but I was seeing how much water I could put on the bath mat to get it really wet."  Huh??  Who does that?  Well, clearly my son.  Insert exasperated sigh here.

Geoff asked how much water he had poured onto it, and Matthew admitted that the (large) watering can was about half full the first time he poured, and about a quarter full the second time he poured. You've got to be kidding me!

Well, at least this time, the mysterious case of the water-logged bath mat was easily solved.  Now, to humbly call back the people I have just told about the new problem.