On water and "home" and changes

There's nothing like a little water to turn your life upside down.

Last week what I thought was a little water from a roof leak turned into a major supply line leak - tons of water hidden under cabinets and flooring and a lot of mold. 

In less than an hour the cabinets were ripped out and apart, flooring ripped up and out and the walls followed shortly after that. 

The house isn't realistically livable - especially after the boxed up contents of my kitchen, along with salvagable cabinets and appliances were piled into my living room and the room sealed off with plastic.

I guess we could live in the 3 bedrooms and bathroom, at least that's what the insurance company tried to say - but I won out - thankfully the adjustor agreed that it wasn't a good environment for the kids to be around. 

So at the moment we're living in a beautiful condo in Destin - one owned by people we know - who graciously offered it to us. Who knows how long we'll be here or any of that  - it seems to be moving in slow motion now. 

just wanted to let you know what's going on...

This old house...

...is falling apart!

In the last week we've had to replace the kitchen light, the brand new $20 light bulb in Mike's outdoor light, the front storm door lock assembly (we're over $100 easily by now and while that probably seems like not much - it's a big chunk out of a tight budget).

And now the biggie - our hot water heater is dying. Day by day I've noticed less and less hot water - and the temperature has been dropping despite my adjusting the temperature higher and higher until it's now on HOT - but it's not hot at all.

I just priced gas hot water heaters and they start in the high $400's and that's just for the heater.

Both kids need cooler weather clothes and some new shoes - they've been growing like crazy. I figure I can get away with a pair or two of jeans each and some long sleeve shirts. Maddie needs new shoes - as all her sandals and other shoes are way too small. She has a pair of Crocs, a pair of white dress shoes and a pair of sneakers. Wyatt has a pair of brown shoes and a pair of sneakers - so I guess he's really ok with shoes. He'd much rather run around barefoot - in fact I just put shoes on him to go play outside and he came back in to ask me to take them off - happily running outside barefoot once free from his sandals (I think they're too small).

I was planning to get them clothes this week when Mike got paid, but I'll have to put it off again now that we'll be spending a huge chunk on a new hot water heater.

This old house sucks. 

We're down to one working toilet - the other requires manual assistance to make it flush. My gas stove has been broken for 3 years now - the oven is broken - and the burners don't hardly light anymore. 

So what's next house? I guess the only other likely things to break are the washer and dryer. We've already replaced the a/c, furnace, refrigerator, dishwasher, floors, ceiling fans and house lights.

grrrrr. 

Almost there!

Mike has been working very hard - along with Toni's help - and a little help from me (and the kids) as time permits. The pictures are crappy - but you can see how much he's gotten done and the small amount left (which we hope won't throw us any surprises...

oh the agony

well we started the floors! 

and after an hour of arguing about which way was the best - and with the help and guidance of my girlfriend Toni - they are going in rather smoothly - other than the fact that our walls aren't square and we ended up having to pull up all the baseboards...

pray for our sanity - I don't do well when the chaos is something I can't control and um - yeah - we're there right now!

The fumes...

the fumes are killing me! 

But the good news is that Mike painted the Kilz on all the wood floors - AND we were able to pry up the subfloor and use shims to fixed the discrepancy in the floor levels! This is great news because it means less mess and steps to getting closer to actually laying the wood laminate.

And let me just say that I put one of the panels down on the floor - up against the wall and it's so pretty! 

Now just keep your fingers crossed for no hurricanes...

One step closer

Well we bought the floors tonight! 

We loaded up the family and drove to Panama City to the Sam's Club there (It was the nearest one that had enough of the flooring we needed). The kids did great on the drive over and watched Mary Poppins - well Wyatt slept the entire way because he never did take a nap this afternoon. 

So here it is - in the poor lighting and not so great camera quality. We bought 44 boxes - enough to do all the house except the bathrooms, bedrooms and laundry room. 

So barring any hurricane activity we'll be busy for the next few weeks. Mike has already gone and fueled up the big boats and I made a list for him tonight of the ones that will need to be moved and where the options are to take them...

It will be a lot of work, so let's pray that it doesn't happen.

Off to dream of wood floors :)

Progress?

Well the carpet is out and the ugly floor is exposed. It's a combination of sub-floor and concrete. The white on the floor is the kilz paint that mike has painted so far... We're not planning to do the whole floor with kilz, but it might end up getting done anyways. The house is so fumey and the kids and I are hanging out in the playroom where the air is not smelly. We've had the windows and doors open, but it's a losing battle between the fumes and mosquitos.

The pictures are dark and grainy since I took them with the laptop. My digital fell and hit the floor when Mike was moving the desk. He tried to blame it on me - because he thought it should have been in a case, but he was just as guilty for not clearing off the shelves before he started moving furniture. It still works, but I've put it up and away for right now so it doesn't incur any further damage. 

We were hoping to drive to Panama City today and pick up the floors, but I got a migraine and ended up in bed and then at the chiropractor's instead of getting out with the family. Tomorrow we have a birthday party and then Sunday I'm singing both services with the band - so I'm not sure when we'll head that way to get them...

Girlfriends Rock!

So I must say that I am blessed to have some of the best girlfriends in the world. These women love me despite my "character flaws" and they encourage me and show up and help organize my house!

Seriously - I am probably the most organized person in my head, but the least organized in my actual life. Living with two toddlers and a husband who sometimes is neat, but most times is not - means that my house is in a constant state of chaos. 

I desire decluttering and I desire organization. We're faced with the fact that our house just doesn't really have much practical storage and we've got too much stuff. 

I've been weeding through the stuff for the last year and you'd be amazed at all the stuff I've given away and thrown out but we still have too much.

As you know if you're a regular reader we're starting a few home improvement projects now that the summer is starting to wind down. Last night we finally got a new ceiling fan in our bedroom and 1/3 of the carpet has been ripped out of the living room.

We decided today that we will be replacing the living room and the hall and kitchen/dining with laminate as well. Mike has been at Sam's Club trying to decide what we're going to use and what we decided on  - they don't have enough at the one in our local town. So he's taking the day off tomorrow and driving to Panama City to pick it up there - they have plenty!

So in the midst of this chaos my friend Christina came over this morning and helped declutter my kitchen counters - one is just every day clutter and the other is perpetually covered in whatever because it's convenient! She's a blessing, really!

While she did that I gathered up things around the house and amassed quite a pile on the front porch - to take to the Bargain Box. 

I was surprised with a visit from my best friend Becca and her boys Todd and Ryan. They joined us for lunch and Maddie, Niklaus, Ryan, Todd and Wyatt all played and essentially trashed the entire playroom. If it was possible to dump it out - they did it!

It provided a good opportunity to get things good and organized again though - Becca has always been an angel when it comes to keeping my toys organized. She took that on as her mission when I had Wyatt - she said there weren't many things she could do to help me - since she had the boys and they took up a lot of time - but she made sure that my toys stayed organized for almost a year! 

It was a good thing to work in the playroom today - we kind of junked it up by taking the toys from the living room and adding them to the play room for right now.

So I am blessed by the good intentions of my girlfriends. They are awesome and I love them so much!

Thank you.

Home Improvements

Well today I've managed to remove about 1/3 of the carpet and padding in the living room. Mike came home with a new ceiling fan for our master bedroom and after he announced his intentions to install it himself I must say I was a little concerned.

After about an hour of watching him stare at the old fan and read and re-read the instructions - shutting off the power, turning it back on - I called my dad! 

"Dad, could you please come over and help Mike install the ceiling fan in our bedroom - I'm afraid he's going to electrocute himself!"

My daddy, being the wonderful person he is - said he'd be here in a few minutes. 

Unfortunately for my dad that was oh - almost three hours ago and they're just now getting the blades on the fan! Something about how the other one was installed made it very difficult for them to get the new one started.

A trip to Kmart provided  some kind of special screws they needed and I'm once again thankful that my dad is an electrician (avionic) but hey - wires are wires!

I'll be busy using the Kilz on the floors and then we need to get some kind of floor leveler...

oh and I just discovered that the nice, expensive ceiling fan Mike brought home - uses NIGHT LIGHT BULBS for lighting..

grrrr. this is why men shouldn't be allowed to pick out stuff like that! It's a pretty fan, but nightlights don't put out a ton of light. Now I have to go hunting for high wattage light bulbs with the tiny connectors.

joy.

updates to come soon.