November 2nd 2022 was the day our home got flooded and the reason why I stopped writing my blog (again!). Nearly 8 months later and we have only just finished all the work repairing the damage and redecorating. It has been a stressful few months!

I remember it so well. I was in work and the rain was torrential. I needed to do a training run, couch to 5k, and did not want to skip a session. I wanted to do my run around the car park, to save time as I was going out after work. I thought I may as well just get it over and done with, so I start running, with the dogs running with me. We were all soaking wet already from our walk. As I start running, the rain has eased slightly and I am thinking to myself its not too bad, and then half way through the session the heavens absolutely emptied onto my head. Never known rain like it, but I kept on running, I only had 10 minutes left to go. By the end of the run I was soaked through to the skin and my jumper was so heavy with the water. So I took my jumper off and got into the van to take the dogs home. Heating on full blast to try and dry off and warm up. But the rain kept on coming. Every time I had to get out the van to drop off a dog I just got wetter and wetter. It was hilarious. I couldn’t wait to get home and warm up with a nice hot shower! Supposed to be going to see Kaiser Chiefs in Swansea Arena, not fun weather to be going out in.

I remember driving through Ystalyfera and all the manholes were like water fountains. There was just so much water the drains couldn’t cope. It just kept on raining, but not normal rain, it was the heaviest rain I’d ever seen and it was not letting up. Usually if it rains that hard it stops or eases off after a few minutes, but not this day.

I got home at 5pm and a couple of dogs were still to be collected. Because I was soaking wet and so were the dogs, I decided to wait in the porch. A couple of minutes later and Leanne is shouting to me that there is water coming in through the kitchen door. I just told her to put down a towel. A minute later she’s calling me again and I remember feeling annoyed because I was trying to look after the dogs in the porch. She said it is really coming in you need to see. So i let out a sigh and reluctantly went in the house, expecting to find she was exaggerating, but as I opened the front door I could see water pouring into the living room from the kitchen. The towel she had put down by the back door was now by the living room door. I just couldn’t believe how quickly the water was coming in.

My initial thought was that the drains in our back garden were blocked and that my dad would be so angry with me if I had not kept them clear of leaves. I attempted to open the back door to quickly realise that the water was 3ft deep and half way up the door. There was no chance I was getting out there. We then noticed that the water was just flowing down our back steps like a waterfall. It was absolutely crazy.

Kate soon arrived to pick up her dog. I told her to wait in her car as no need to get wet, I was soaked already. So I carried Topsy out to the car and I just couldn’t believe what i was seeing. The main road looked like a river, flowing fast and as deep as the car tyres. Where was all this water coming from?! Only 5 minutes earlier had I driven along the road with it looking like a road.

It is still lashing it down and I am still only wearing a tshirt. I must look like some kind of lunatic as I’m standing in the street asking the neighbours if they were getting flooded also. Luckily for them, they weren’t. I tried to cross the street and boulders were crashing into my ankles and the flow of the water was so fast it nearly swept me off my feet. I then went back into the house to find the living room totally flooded and the water was now flowing out of the front door and flooding our patio. The dogs water bowls and a pair of wellies were floating around the living room. The dogs were sat on top of the sofa trying to keep dry. I just couldn’t believe what was happening.

Its now 6pm and little Benji’s owner turns up to collect him. I think she had to walk up the street as they couldn’t get the car here. I’m standing in water up to my shins as I hand over her dog. She offered to help but there was nothing anyone could do until it stopped raining. It just kept on raining and raining and raining.

It eventually stopped raining at about 7.30pm! That was over 4 hours of the heaviest rainfall I’ve ever seen. During that time it did not ease off at all, it was literally coming down so heavy it was like one giant drop of rain. No sooner had the rain stopped did the water levels drop. You could instantly see it all starting to drain away. Now for the clean-up operation!

My Dad came round equipped with buckets and brooms, and my sister Juliett came to help. The water in the kitchen went away easily as we were able to brush it into the downstairs shower room and down the plug hole. However, the water in the living room was trapped by the doorstep into the kitchen and the doorstep out of the front door. So we basically had to shovel the water into buckets and throw it outside. The water was heavy so that was my dads job, while me, leanne and juliett filled the buckets. We had to use a dustpan and scoop it up. It took what felt like forever. The water was about 5 inches deep, up to the top of the skirting boards. And don’t forget, I am still only wearing a t-shirt and it is November and I am soaked to the skin.

One of my wonderful customers (and friend) Penny came round with homemade curry for us to eat and then later came and took all our freezer food to store in her freezer. ALL our appliances were caput. And worst of all, our boiler which is situated outside, was 3 foot under water and most definately not working!. I could not even have a hot shower or put the heating on to warm up. All the electrics had tripped and we were too scared to attempt to turn them back on until an electrician had tested them. The battery was dead on my phone and I had no way of charging it. So as soon as all the water was out, we left the rest of the mess and went to bed to keep warm.

The next morning when we woke up and went downstairs, there was MUD everywhere! We just looked at each other, looked at the mud and didn’t know where to begin. Thankfully our amazing friends Emma and Lesley came round with mops and buckets and absolutely blitzed the place for us. Leanne and I were pretty useless to be fair, but after Emma and Lesley had finished you honestly would not have known we’d been flooded.

After the clean-up, came the smell. OMG the house absolutely stunk and we just couldn’t get rid of the smell. And the damage! Our sofa’s had all gotten wet on the bottom and were totally ruined. The water that had come into the house was so filthy and run off from the farms, that it totally ruined everything it came into contact with. My filing cabinet was full of mud and all my paper work that was in the bottom drawer was not salvageable. Our fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer all broken. Thank goodness we had insurance!

The insurance company came round and installed dehumidifiers and blowers to dry the place out. They advised us that ALL of the downstairs flooring needed to be ripped out and replaced, as well as the kitchen because the water had gone into the bottom kitchen cupboards. The noise on these blowers was so loud, we couldn’t bare to be in the house. Luckily, we then went on holiday for a week (already booked) which gave us a much welcome escape from the smell and destruction in our home.

A weeks holiday in Pembroke, in the same house we stayed in for our honeymoon. The holiday couldn’t have come at a better time, we really needed the break. I swam in the sea for the first time (as an adult) and we went on some lovely walks with the dogs. I tried as best as I could to forget about our home and just relax.

When we arrived home it was depressing. We walked through the front door and the smell was horrific. It had been shut up for a week with the blowers and dehumidifiers going non stop, and it just smelt really damp and smelly like stale mud. Our boiler was still broke and it was freezing! I think we just went to bed and snuggled, at least it didn’t smell upstairs.

The next 4 weeks were rough, we couldn’t start any of the work until the insurance company had approved the payout. I was having cold showers daily, which I didn’t mind too much as it was helping with my cold water swimming, however, warming up afterwards was hard. I felt like I was permanently cold, as after my cold shower I would go to work outside all day. Eventually our boiler was fixed and this helped ease the situation a little. However, Christmas is fast approaching and getting any workmen to start the work this side of Christmas was proving impossible. So we cleaned the place up as best as we could and just made the most of it, with plans to replace everything that was damaged in January.

January finally arrived and we started the work. We did the utility room first and then ripped out the kitchen, with the thought that the new one would be arriving within 4 weeks. This gave us time to then re-do the plumbing, electrics and tile the floor. The kitchen was being reconfigured so it was a lot more work than if we had just replaced the old kitchen in the same place. It took 4 months not 4 weeks!

Delay after delay, problem after problem, I thought we were never going to have a new kitchen. The hardest part of all was not having a sink. We were cooking in the living room with an actifry and microwave! Our living room was piled high with boxes of kitchen appliances and parts of the kitchen ready to be fitted. You literally couldn’t swing a cat. There was no where to relax in the evening. Our upstairs was full of the contents of our kitchen cupboards and the whole house was just completely upside down.

Slowly but surely we had progress and then it all started to come together. Beginning of May and it was finally all done. We could relax again in our home. It was one of the most stressful times ever and I was exhausted from dealing with tradesmen on a daily basis. In fairness to them all, they were amazing. Especially Delme our plumber and Howard the electrician, they had to put up with a lot of changes!

The living room was finished about a week before the kitchen. We had new flooring, new sofas and redecorated. We even painted the stairs to give it a whole new look.

Our kitchen is now luxurious and I can not believe it is our kitchen. I am NEVER ever having another new kitchen for as long as I live in this house haha.

Fingers crossed we don’t get flooded again…….