The Flood!

I had no idea what was in store for me when I told Joey that I wanted to do some minor remodeling of the house. Ever since we bought our home two years ago we have wanted to replace the carpet of the main level with wood floors. I finally talked Joey into doing it for me as a Valentine’s Day gift. What I didn’t know was that the small remodel would soon be a complete overhaul.

Redoing the floors was going to take a good portion of the weekend. Joey knew that he only had a few days off work to get everything completed so he asked a few of our friends to lend a hand. The plan was that Joey would spend Friday night moving out furniture and ripping out the existing carpet. We also had tile in the entry way and kitchen that required a full on jackhammer to be lifted. The rest of the weekend Joey was planning to use our friends help and lay the new floors. What we thought was going to be a simple process turned out to be much more than we bargained for. What we found after pulling up the carpet was the cement floor beneath was completely cracked making it unlevel. Putting the new floors over this was not an option so Joey had no choice but to poor new cement and level everything out. Doing this extra process was going to take more time than he had planned for.

With our friends help and some long nights we were able to finish the floors as planned despite the setback. Joey finished the flooring at 1:00AM on Sunday night. I was so excited to have the new floors completed that I decided to stay up even later and clean the dust off everything. Joey and I just stood there and marveled at the job well done for what seemed like an hour. At this point we were very sleep deprived and headed for bed. Not having the furniture moved back in we decided to take the next morning off work and get everything complete.

Joey woke up about 8:00am the next morning ready to get started. Oddly he headed for the bathroom and started to jiggle the handle of the toilet. I heard this going on but thought nothing more of it and dozed off back to sleep. Minutes later I was woken up to Joey yelling at me to get up and the security alarm buzzing. Still very much asleep I went running down stairs thinking that we had a fire on our hands. Just as I reached the entry way in my home I was met with wet feet. This woke me up emidently. I understood now that Joey herd running water. I ran to the alarm and shut it off, I guess Joey was busy trying to stop the water source (the dishwasher connect had blown due to high pressure) and didn’t turn off the alarm. In my shock I ran to Joey and told him that it was going to be okay and that all we needed to do was start vacuuming it up. So, there I was with the shop vac trying to get up the water on my own. At this point I think that we were both in shock and didn’t quite grasp the severity of what we were dealing with. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the floors were all worped from the water and that we would not be able to save them. I felt so bad that Joey had put all his hard work into something just to see it under water. Now thankfully we had not moved in any of the furniture at this point so the damage was mostly on the house itself. After we got up what water we could on our own, I called the insurance Company and they sent us a disaster control company that continued getting the water up and ripping out the floors.

Okay, so here we are not only do we no longer have beautiful floors but we had water damage on about everything! The Insurance Company sent in fans to try to dry everything out but the more days that went on the more that we realized that severity of the damage.

Here is a list of things that we had done as a result of the water damage.…plus a few upgrades;)New dry wall, insulation, prime/texture/paint, carpet/pad, cabinets, granite countertops, fridge, dishwasher, and AGAIN new flooring.

While we were at it we also added some New furniture including a couch, desk, chair, mirror and a kitchen table. Let’s just say that RC Willey really got use to seeing my face in those months.

While our house was under construction it was determand unlivable for the time being. This is when the Country Inn Suites became our little home away from home. While I love staying in hotels, living out of one for over a month was not as much fun as one would think. So, okay it wasn’t all bad, hotel life did have it’s perks, pool and hot tub admentities were nice and there was the breakfast everymoring and never having to make your own bed. While all of these things are nice it didn’t come close to making up for living out of suitecase and trying to keep two small dogs from barking at the unfamiliar hotel noises.

While this experience was challenging I think that we got a lot out of it. Not only did our house turn out great but Joey and I gained a little more “marriage glue” in the process. This whole experience really helped me realize that out of bad can come something good. I couldn’t be happier with how everything looks and it sure makes me appreciate having a nice place to call home. I am so lucky to have such a great husband to help my get through this without ripping out my hair. They say that your first year of marriage is the hardest but if you survive you will thrive. I also want to thank him for all the hard work that he did while still putting in a 65+ hour work week at the post office. Aside from his hard work ethic he is so talented, our house turned out perfect!

It was amazing how caring all of our friends and family were during these hard times, we were offered a place to stay and even home cooked meals. I especially thank my Mom for everything that she did. While we were in the hotel she watched the dogs for us almost every day. She is such a huge support to me. I don’t know how we would have done this without her.

Next…a bathroom remodel?….do we dare?!?