We Are The Dunphys

I was mad. MAD. As. Hell. I was ready to write a scathing post to vent all my frustrations.



Over what? Something small and taken for granted: the sump pump switch.



And Harrington’s initial reaction of shock.



See, about six months ago, our neighbors had a lake in their fully finished basement due to a broken sump pump switch. That day, Harrington vowed to put in a backup sump pump. Meanwhile, I stood my ground that anything worth having that had to go on the basement storage room floor was worth the money of a plastic container. Harrington was grumpy about the money and space those plastic containers took up, but I have a fear of a broken sump pump, a fear that resides so deep within my psyche due to an unfortunate accident that occurred circa 1986 on one ill-fated Mother’s Day. I don’t remember specifics, just feelings. And those strong feelings drove me to store our precious possessions in plastic, not old diaper boxes.



But I digress.



Fast forward six months, and It happened: our sump pump switch broke. We caught it in time so only our storage room and half of the living space carpet was wet. There was no drywall damage. Thankfully, the junk carpet in the storage area saved us by soaking up most of that disaster.



I knew Harrington had some feelings of remorse when he said, and I quote, “The best thing you could have done was put all of our things in plastic boxes.”



Great. Nice. But I was still mad. I just don’t think a marriage should withstand a seven day trip to Disney World *and* a broken sump pump switch in a two week period.



So as I said, I was ready to write this uplifting post until I read this by Angie for A Whole Lot Of Nothing. Read it, because if you are in a bad mood and only seeing the glass half empty, this post will shift your perspective in a positive way.



After I read it, I was thankful since it could have been much worse. I also began to see the humor in the situation.



Remember that episode of Modern Family when Claire told Phil he needed to mount the bookshelf to the wall in case of an earthquake? And Phil didn’t do it? And it almost landed on Luke?



I laughed and laughed at that episode. This is one of my favorite scenes.



I found it so very funny because I am Claire and Harrington is Phil. Somehow part of the humor was lost as I was wading around the basement storage room in my rain boots (an item that I bought as Harrington said he didn’t need rain boots since he avoids puddles, but then retracted that statement and said how useful they were in that moment).



But as I remembered that clip, I also realized that my situation can’t be that unique if they wrote a sitcom episode about it.



So I am thankful that Phil, I mean Harrington, worked hard to fix the basement. Within 24 hours, he and my Dad had removed the storage room carpet, all the water soaked up from the carpet with anti-mold powder sprinkled like fairy dust throughout the basement (courtesy of our favorite carpet cleaners at Shoreline), and had multi dehumidifiers and fans running around the clock.



Our basement could have been a lot worse.



I also think there are worse couples to be like than the Dunphys. I personally think they are cute and adorable together. But then again, I might be a little biased.



Have you ever had a home repair nightmare that you would like to share? Were you the Claire or the Phil?