The Flood: Part Twelve

So yesterday was the huge step - the carpet got installed. I got to run around downstairs with bare feet without worrying about stepping on nails or getting covered in dust. I started moving some of the things back downstairs, just to get the feeling like it's an actual house again. Now instead of the kitchen being the one place that felt like it was a real house, the kitchen is the place that needs the most work.

So while I had the two workers over yesterday afternoon, I asked them if they'd help me move the TV back into place once the carpet was set up. It's a massive thing, so I was glad for the assistance. It would have been days before I could get it done myself.

With the TV in place, I decided to bring down all the various boxes of entertainment I had - the Wii, the DVD player, the speakers, etc. When I took them all apart, I figured I wouldn't need to worry too much about marking which wires go where because hey, I did it once, surely I could figure it out again.

Except that for the life of me, I couldn't figure out which piece went where. The video in goes here, the left speaker out goes there? No, that's not right.

So I sat down on my couch (which is on a new carpet now - did I mention?), and stared at the whole thing a moment, trying to remember why it was so easy for me before. Then I realized - I was probably drinking a beer when I put it all together the first time. So I went to the fridge, popped an IPA, and sat back down on the couch to look over the equipment. Within a half a minute, I remembered how it all went back together.

There you have it, folks. Beer IS good for the mind. At least mine, evidently.

Next steps, I'll have to move Laura's hutch from her parents' place to our place, and then we're looking at heading out to IKEA this weekend to try to find a couple of pieces of furniture that we've wanted. Once that's done, it's just a matter of moving things back downstairs and figuring out what we're keeping, what we're selling, and what we're just trashing.

The Flood: Part Eleven

Over the weekend, I had a couple guys come by (Eric, Brian and Dan) to help out with ripping out the carpet and getting everything inside all set. We pitched the man couch (a moment of silence.............), ripped out the carpet, and moved all the furnature so that we would be ready for the new carpet to be put in.

I got a call this morning that the carpet people would be by today between noon and four to install the new carpet. Happy days and jubilation! Once that's done, I can go around and touch up the paint, then start moving all the furnature back in place. So close to the end!

The Flood: Part Ten

Last night, Dan and Ellen came by to help finish off the painting. We were able to get the hallway completed now that the washing machine was moved back, and did the whole office. Not too shabby! Tonight I'm going to be touching up a few spots, but for the most part, it's all done.

Almost all of the baseboards have been put in place now too - that was finished around 10:30 on Tuesday night (a 14 hour day for the contractor). He had messed up a part of the office wall and had to re-do the entire room with mud, costing him about 5 hours. I was glad to see that when he made the mistake, he went back and did it right, but I feel bad for how late he was there that night.

The contractor's coming by again tomorrow to finish off the baseboards and put the dryer back where it belongs. Laura and I can wear clean clothes again soon!

Saturday is going to be another working day for me, though not near as much as last Saturday. A few people are coming over to help remove all the carpet and organize the furniture so the install will be quick an easy.

Monday the carpet folks are coming by to install the new carpet. At that point, we should be pretty much finished with this whole fiasco. Just got to get everything back downstairs, figure out which of it we want to keep and which of it we're ready to pitch or sell. That's actually the fun part, so I'm looking forward to it. Everything else... just can't wait to have it all done.

Oh, and I had a bad dream the night before last. That night they re-installed my washing machine, and I had a nightmare that the house flooded again. Glad to see that didn't happen.

The Flood: Part Nine

Over the weekend, I had a number of people to the house to help out with painting it all up. In no particular order, a huge thanks to Eric, Tanya, Dan, Ellen, Chris, Jay and Brian for making the trip out Saturday morning to get things done.

We got started around 9:30, and by 12:00 or so, we had the hallway, the bathroom, and the main room all painted up. We took a break for lunch, then got started again around 1:30 or so on the kitchen when Brian arrived and Jay and Chris had to depart. The kitchen was the hardest of the rooms what with all the cabinets and the like, as well as the fact that we were all (except Brian) exhausted. After polishing that room off by 3:30, everyone by Brian took off, and the two of us went around the rooms replacing all the electrical sockets and face plates.

Yesterday I woke up and headed out to Home Depot to order the carpet and get a few things to finish touching things up around the house. I did a quick white-wash over the laundry room, and called it a day.

The contractor should be back tomorrow to finish up the office and put in the baseboards and kickboards. Next steps for me: paint the office, finish the hallway, and then get a few guys to help out this weekend getting the carpet out of the house so the carpet folks can put the new one in next week. From there, it's just a matter of moving everything back downstairs. End is in sight!

The Flood: Part Eight

I think my estimation of them finishing all the work on the drywall and baseboards in a day was a bit off. The group is here today and tomorrow too. In fact, I'll be heading home this afternoon to keep an eye on things so Laura can head back to the office. Her boss is much less keen on working from home than mine. This pushed back some of our prep work for this weekend's painting party and is making us re-evaluate how much we wanted to get done. Our original plan was to pick up paint last night, get the kitchen painted tonight, and take tomorrow night off before having a bunch of people help out on Saturday. We weren't able to get the paint last night because we had no where to store it yet, but we're hoping to get it tonight. That means we may not be able to take tomorrow night off as we'll be doing a lot of prep work then, and then starting up Saturday morning. Also, we reduced the number of rooms we were going to try to paint on Saturday, only trying to tackle the ones that will have furniture moved back into them (so the kitchen, main room, and office). We've got a handful of people offering to help already, so thank you very much to those who have already responded!

The Flood: Part Seven

So things are looking up now. I mean, the house is still a wreck and is hot as all get out, but the repairs are getting scheduled. Over the weekend, Laura and I went by Home Depot and priced out some carpet. The insurance company had given us almost $600 for the carpet cleaning and restretching and all, and the cost of new carpet came in a just shy of twice that, so we're excited about that. I was expecting around three times that for the new carpet, so I'll take the lower price. They're coming in tomorrow to do the measurements. Of course they can't tell us when in the day they'll be arriving, so it could be as early as 9 or as late as... well... 8, I guess.

Also, we got the estimate from the drywall guy and the damaged parts of the work come in at just about what the insurance company gave us, so we went ahead and scheduled that for tomorrow too. Happy days!

Tomorrow night we're hoping to head out to pick up some paint and get ready for a big painting party over the weekend. More details to come!

The Flood: Part Six

So the drywall contractor came by yesterday. Laura and I really liked him - he used to be a ServPro-type guy, working on drying out homes after a flood. He said he likes fixing homes up more than taking them apart, though. He specializes in working after floods to repair any damage that's going on.

I was able to get him the estimate material from our insurance guy, and so he's working up an estimate with that information too. While we've got him here, we have a few spots we're going to have him work on at the same time, just to make things look a bit nicer. He said he'll put those in the estimate too, though they'll come out of our pocket. Not bad, though, since the insurance company's already paying to get him out here, so these will just be add-ons.

I'm thinking it won't be able to start tomorrow, though, since we still have to clear the estimate through our insurance guy if there's any price difference, and I suspect there will be. So instead, tomorrow Laura and I are off to take a look at carpet places and see what we can find.

The Flood: Part Five

Not much to report today. Yesterday was the insurance guy, and I told you all how that went. Laura was able to set up a meeting with a drywall person for tomorrow at noon, and he said he had no problem coming in on Monday to start working on it. That's pretty awesome! I was hoping to have it done by the end of next week, so clearly the beginning of next week is a better plan. My only worry is that the estimate's going to come out higher than what the insurance guy gave me and we're going to be delayed trying to get that resolved.

The Flood: Part Four

The insurance adjuster came by this morning to take a look at the place. It went pretty much as I expected - he cut me a check, gave me an itemized expense report for how the money was calculated, let me know that if the price came out different on any particular part to get the receipt over to him and we'd work out the details that way. The amount didn't come out as high as I wanted, but when I was hoping for a mere $250,000, I guess maybe I should have been more realistic.

Next steps are to get in touch with the drywall folks and get them out to take care of all the walls. From there we can start painting the house, and then worry about the carpet.

Oh, and best news of all: no asbestos. Lab results came back negative. Happy days!

The Flood: Part Three

Last night I came home and my house smelled bad. I mean real bad. There was a wave of rank-smelling heat that rolled out when I opened the front door. Fortunately most of the smell was kept out of the bedroom, so I headed up there quick and shut the door. Laura came home and we headed over to my folks' place for the evening, watching "O Brother Where Art Thou" and working on the invitations.

This morning, ServPro came back over to take a look at things. First thing: check the temperature in the house. I kid you not - it was 102 degrees in the office. They did some testing in the walls, the boards, and the floor, and found it was dried out, so they shut down those infernal machines and cleared them out of the house. Laura and I immediately opened everything up and started clearing out the heat. It did wonders. Not enough, but it's a start. We also started talking about what to do with our house next. Since everything's upstairs now, we figure when the flooring and walls are repaired, we'll have a painting party (or two) and knock out the whole downstairs at once. Once that's finished, we'll start moving stuff down and put them in three piles: keep, trash, and sell in a yard sale. We might be able to get more money through ebay and half.com, but getting the things out of the house fast is the priority here.

For the clean-up, our next step is to talk to our insurance adjuster tomorrow morning, and to get the drywall all fixed. Never a dull moment.

Oh, I also realized that our tickets to Mary Poppins this weekend were in my desk, and my desk was all boxed up and taken upstairs. I tried looking through a few boxes with no luck, so I called the Kennedy Center and explained the situation. They said, "Sounds like you've got a lot on your mind right now. We'll go ahead and print out new tickets and put them at the box office for you for Saturday." Phew. Crisis averted.

The Flood: Part Two

I talked to the insurance folks yesterday. Everything's going just fine on that front. I'm trying to be as up-front about what's going on and ask them every time I talk to them what they need from me to make this process go smoothly. I'm hoping that will negate any kind of problems down the line.

We were told to hold off on bringing in a drywall guy until ServPro's done drying out the house and figuring out how much needs to be done to repair. If they need to break down more drywall, we'll need to know that before the drywall people come through to take a look.

ServPro brought a few more blowers to the house. That brings the total count to 18 blowers (we're talking industrial-strength hair dryers that put out about 120 degree air all day long), 3 massive dehumidifiers, and a "spider" power box that will protect against surges and the like.

Naturally with 120+ degree heat being put out downstairs, we've got a pretty roasting house. Last night we ended up at Dan's place for the evening, and when we came home we set up a fan to help the mini AC. It actually was pretty comfortable. I managed to get a full night's sleep, which is helpful. Unfortunately Laura had a rough night of it. Between her allergies to Dan's cats and to the dust and all that's been kicked up in our house from all the work, she's not feeling all that great.

Well, the insurance adjuster comes on Thursday. We'll see how things go then.

Things I Dislike: Deluxe Edition

There are more than a few things I dislike in life. A fatty piece of meat when you're expecting juicy goodness. One of those dexterity puzzles in video games that make you have to re-do them from the beginning if you miss the first jump. A hangover, no matter how well-deserved.

But now I have a new thing to add to that list. I dislike the hoses that go between my water pipes and the washing machine. Why? Let me tell you about my Sunday morning.

Sunday was supposed to go like this: wake up early, head out with Laura for our engagement photo session, Laura would go to class and I would chill out at home for an hour or two, and then we'd head over to her parents' place to tackle a bunch of invitations with Tini and Mike. It wasn't going to be a fantastic, over-the-top day, but it was going to be a dang good one.

Instead, at 7:30 in the morning when Laura walked out to take a shower, she pauses. There was a hissing noise and she couldn't place it. "Mike, what's that noise from downstairs?"

I take a look downstairs and see a massive water stain on the carpet. Laura usually tells this story better, because I went into red-haze mode at this point, but I'll try to piece together what happened.

Evidently I ran down the stairs yelling "F***!" loud enough to startle Laura. I landed on the carpet and water seeped up to the top of my feet. I looked around and threw open the door to the bathroom, where the sound was loudest. A geyser of water about two feet long was shooting out of the wall above and next to the toilet. I was afraid it was the pipes in the wall for the toilet, but when I looked through, I realized it was the aforementioned hose that connects the washing machine to the pipes. For those who know how my house looks, yes, that means the water was shooting out with enough force to cut a hole in the wall between the bathroom and the laundry room.

I ran over and shut off the water to the house, all the while yelling "F! F!" Once the water stopped flowing, I walked back to the front of the house, fell to my knees and screamed as loud as I could. Evidently Laura had never seen me yell like that, because it scared her a bit.



We could have used this guy.

The entire day was shot. I got a vac from Brian, as well as a dehumidifier and a few fans. Called the insurance company, and then the plumber and ServPro. We had to move EVERYTHING from downstairs to upstairs, so now there's no room in any room except my bedroom. Fortunately I had a few people helping out - a heartfelt thanks to Brian, Mary, Laura's mom, Kevin, my mom, Dan, Ellen, and my dad for all coming out throughout the day to lend a hand as they could.

We have some pictures of the devastation. But my computer's no longer hooked up, so I can't show them to you. Sorry about that. I'll have to update it later.