Flood update...
We had some friends over last night to visit and play games, and I don't think we're having people over again for awhile. The restoration crew is in the house right now, moving all our belongings either into the crawl space or into their van for restoration. The walls will be cut and the bottom two feet replaced. The back room is going to have the floor (a raised sub-floor) replaced and recarpetted. Our laminate floor will be torn out and replaced. I don't know what's going to happen with our lovely green wood paneling that passes for walls inside the basement area. It's going to be a minimum of 4-6 weeks before we get to use our downstairs again. *sigh*
It was all rain/ground water, not septic water. We didn't lose anything really valuable or important to us, other than the jumping couch. And, well, it will be fun. The only problem I see is that Tyler starts night school next week, and it might be hard to do his homework in the small area that the four of us will be in constantly. Other than that...I didn't have to pack everything or move it out. I don't have to do the repair work. I don't have to do much, except suffer the noise, the people, and probably sign off of a few days of work (not great, but that's one reason being a Teacher On Call is a good thing, only monetary repercussions).
Fare well, all. I'll post pictures of the flooding when I get the chance.
When it rains, it pours...and apparently floods too!
Well, the past couple of weeks we've been cleaning, and that's a good thing for many, many reasons. In the cleaning process, I've been getting things organized a little better - the children's toys, for instance, are not in a basket on the floor in the basement, but rather in little baskets on shelves. And, they're not currently strewn about the floor. Other things had gotten piled up downstairs too, just because we were focused on bathroom things, etc instead of daily things. Added bonus is that we have a fully functional bathroom upstairs (trim, mirror, backsplash and a single towel rack are all that are left to do, and I was hoping on getting all but the backsplash done this week) to go with our tidier house.
Tyler went downstairs to get the children's inhalers this morning, and stepped into a very large puddle. Some of you may remember two years ago our basement flooded, but was kind enough to keep the water out of the main living area. Not so this year. In fact, the main living area downstairs is under almost two inches of water, and the basement/laundry area is another couple of inches deeper than that. But, because we've been organizing...I don't have a large basket of children's toys to dry out, I don't have a pile of recycling that's soggy to move, I don't have plants flooded on the floor...and we've got a lot of other stuff safe too from raising it due to the flood two years ago. We're going to have to get rid of the futon, which is quite disappointing as it has been a great jumping area for the children (Quentin has given Jade jumping lessons, which is very, very adorable. They both jump off the cushions and 'crash' onto the mattress.) But, if that's it, that's okay, I think.
So, yay for the weather to wait until we'd cleaned up and had a usable bathroom upstairs! Happy New Year!
The Sweetest Thing
Tyler was upstairs putting Quentin to bed. Jade was downstairs with me, almost pretending she'd be going to bed soon too. Suddenly, she gets off the couch and wanders away. I let her go thinking she's just going to play. She starts making an excited word, so I look, and she is holding Quentin's prized crocodile "Barbara" and shaking it at me (in as much as she can with her limited size). "Yes, that's Barbara," I say, not comprehending. "Yes, that's Quentin's Barbara," when she doesn't stop. Off she goes, up the stairs (with me following), up the next stairs (split level), down the hall and into Quentin's room where she gave him his crocodile knowing that he likes to sleep with it. He was very glad to get Barbara, and said "Thank you Jade" to which she responded "Thank you" using sign language, and very happily/proudly came back downstairs.
