Yay Fenric!
wolfguard - I sometimes record the 4am showing of Buffy or Angel. They feel more alive that way.
lostinamerica - I had almost the same thing happen with the refrigerator! First it flooded all over the laminate in the kitchen and entryway, under the cabinets, and dampened the hardwood in the living room behind the refrigerator. The day it happened, I was planning to schedule the plumber to replace the frozen valve to the water line so that I could replace the refrigerator. That happened on an emergency basis, and I replaced the refrigerator. I ran fans over the floors and pried up some baseboard and reducers and got a shop vac to suck up stuff . The hardwood dried up pretty well, but I never seemed to run out of water under the laminate. I had some other plumbers out, and they checked for leaks in addition to a few other odds and ends, and found nothing. So I kept running the shop vacs. Finally I pulled the new refrigerator all the way out, and found that the new valve was leaking, but it was such a thin film of water that it was almost invisible. It turned out a gasket was missing. Now I'm dry, but water was under the vapor barrier, so it is probably mildewing quietly. The oak in the living room was an old-timey installation, solid wood glued directly to the foundation, so now that it's dry, it should be OK.
However, I had already spent my renovation budget replacing carpet in the bedrooms with tile downstairs (where a water heater and AC coils live) and hardwood upstairs, and replacing the unusable master tub and shower. I knew about the master bath going in, although it got done more expensively and more satisfactorily than I'd planned. So the rest of my funds had to be spent renovating my old town house, which had had little improvement inside in the 34 years I'd lived there. At least I'd had it resided a few years before. I was persuaded into a high-end (appearing) renovation that involved remediating aluminum wiring, new doors, new cabinets, scraping popcorn, granite counters everywhere, painting, a travertine master shower, and a new roof. Also new glass in a lot of the windows. But I got really lucky. The location was really good, and there was low inventory in that price range, and a couple who had lost out in some bidding wars made me an offer I couldn't refuse, well over asking price.
Now I'm planning to put tile where the laminate was. It's a wood look tile that will make a nice transition between the new hardwood on the stairs and the old hardwood in the living room. And it will be waterproof. The contractor showed me the granite in his own house, and I kept stroking it lovingly, so I think I'll have the same thing.
I used to have gas, but I grew up with electric ranges, so I thought I'd tolerate the ceramic radiant cooktop easily. Wrong. It doesn't heat up that fast, and the first thing I did was boil over a pot of stock, so I learned about cleaning it. The downdraft runs, but it doesn't seem to affect steam rising to the ceiling. And after a little studying, it turns out that ceramic tops don't do well if you cook above boiling water temperatures, as you would with canning and candy. I don't can, but I make candy from time to time. Also hot sugar apparently pits the glass, if that's all the damage that it does. I'm going with induction. I've been trying a single portable induction burner with some new pots, and a metal disc to heat old pots, and I really like it. It heats quickly and cools quickly. I've ordered a single burner with an electric coil for candy making.
Now I just need to get the contractor, who is desperately trying to finish work for a 93 year old lady whose husband was just taken to the hospital. She needs her renovations sooner than I will, and it gives me more time to brood. And work on curtains. I don't actually like hemming curtains.
