Ebbs and Flows

As promised - I'm going to try to blog at least a couple times a week.  Quick update on the house: they had to sand and restain again and again due to faulty mineral oil or something like that.  Got the stain and poly on now and I can tell a HUGE difference!  It's looking good and we are back on track. 

Soooo - when I last blogged in October 2013 I wasn't spending as much time with Peck as I usually do and I wasn't talking to my sister.  It's crazy how much can change in just a few months.  Let me explain:

• Peck - so we stopped talking around May 2013 and didn't really talk for much of the summer.  It's crazy looking back but I think we both needed a break from each other.  She was dealing with her stuff, I had my own bidness going on - it was a good time for some distancing.  We hung out over Labor Day and saw each other for various events related to my cousin's wedding, more on that later, and started a very slow rebuild.  By the end of January/early February we were talking more, going to bunco and what not.  We went to Valentine's Day dinner with Shelby and Steph (who were going to take us to the airport for South Africa - more on that later too) and Peck and family came with us.  It was great.  However, had the next decision not been made - we still might be on a very slow road to recovery.  What I mean by that is - we decided to let Dra watch the house while we were in South Africa.  The rest is history, or at least covered in the last post, as the water event completely reset Peck and I back to regular BFFs.  Then in all the to-dos with this thing and my going crazy and rebelling Peck has been there and been back to the Peck I know and love.  It's been the best ever.  I love my BFF and so glad we are back in sync.  We've been sending each other songs on You Tube to express our feelings.  I was thanking her for being there for me in all this water event drama and she sent me "That's What Friends Are For" so I sent her "Wind Beneath My Wings" so she sent me "Lean On Me" so I sent "Stand By Me" she sent "I'll Be There" I sent "Thank You For Being a Friend" she sent "You're My Best Friend" I sent "You've Got a Friend in Me" - my ultimate goal is to turn this to a kinky side and send "Wiggle Wiggle." ......this just in.....just got another text from Peck....HAHAHAHA!!!!
• Stacy - during the wedding my parents arranged for Dane and I to go down to my sister's house to watch the Bronco's game with them and it was great!  It started a bit of a tradition for us to go down and watch several other games during the season.  What's nice about that is Stac and I are back to being sisters again. Though I found out a month or 2 ago that she's moving to California.  So that sucks but at least we are talking again and we can keep a relationship going.  It's awesome.  :-)

So relationships ebb and flow and they take a lot of work to upkeep but so worth it.  To that end, I need to schedule time with Sarah, email Jamie and see if I can't find some time to hang out with Becky.  I'm glad that I have Friday Night Lights (FNL) with Peck and Steph.   I need weekly (if not more) doses of those two.  I love all my friends and they each fill a special spot in my life.  I rely on Peck and Steph to keep me (mostly) sane.  They do the best they can.  Last week I got fed up with life and getting hot while dancing so I took my pants off.  Just took 'em off.  I at least waited till the kids got to bed then whhoooooosh!!  Pance Off Dance Off!!!  Since I'm a problem solver and I don't want to have to take my pants off again, I'm just going to wear a dress to FNL this week.  Hee hee hee. 

The Neverending Nightmare

It's been quite some time since I blogged.  I really promised myself that I'd get it together this time and post more frequently.  Whatever happened to the days when I would start off by blogging, get work done, go for motorcycle rides, do whatever I wanted!  I outsource my housekeeping and landscaping, so that's not soaking up time.  I'm not in school anymore.  Where the toot does my time go?  Like seriously - where? 

 I'll try to blog more frequently but honestly not sure how for real that goal is.  How ‘bout this – I do a small mass update today and save some topics for Wednesday and Friday, slowly getting back into the habit?  

The biggest thing going on in my life right now has been going on since February 22^nd.  While Dane and I were in South Africa our house was flooded with water from the kitchen sink.  We suspect the cats somehow turned the water faucet on and the faucet was left over the counter side, not the sink side, so that’s the difference between a $400 water bill and a $40K restore and remodel.  Though I will say that Peck came to the rescue, as she does, and saved almost all of our stuff on top of managing the sh*t out of the mitigation and handing over to me solidly. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words and I don’t have time to type all day, here’s my picture blog:

Water in basement, 1” standing from what I was told – not in this pic but at the worst.  Peck and the family was on scene to mitigate, Shelby and Stephanie came out, Becky and Jamie, Brandon and Jamie – it was all hands on deck to save our house. 

 

Water logged carpet.  All furniture was saved!

 

Water logged counter top and warped flooring.  You can see how the faucet was over the counter just enough to cause a ton of damage.  Sucks, but what can you do.  I've left it on that side before, I can't really blame Dra too much. 

 

A million fans all over our kitchen and in the basement and a de-humidifier (not pictured) to dry everything up.  Crazy town.  By this time you can see the island has been demoed, the drywall, the flooring, the baseboards.  A ton of stuff. 

 

Arya checking out the damage.  We went through 11 contractors before we finally found one patient enough to do our work.  Of the 11 GCs that visited our house, only 4 came back with bids.  Of those 4, 2 would not negotiate with our extremely difficult claims adjuster.  Finally LR Contracting broke it down for State Farm and I just broke down and went crazy.  I drove to my local agent's office and got an advocate there and went crazy on JoEl, our claims adjuster.  Boring story long - he was holding us up based on $1900 difference between the drywall and painting and he was going to take another 5 days to review our claim.  I said nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope.  The next day the original inspector came back and met with LR, worked it all out and got a check to us the next day.  We signed with LR and finally got moving - it only took 3 months, if you will believe that.  Fuckers.

 

 

Work finally starts!  I told State Farm (on a Tuesday) that if someone didn't come to my house by Friday - even if all they did was drop off a tool and scratch their chin at the situation - then they were going to have to pay out on a lot more claims.  I reminded them they hold all our auto, home, property and life insurances and wouldn't it be something if they had to pay out on all of that.  Okay, I didn't say all that but I did tell them someone would be in my house by Friday or else.  By Friday LR came by and taped up this cupboard.  Progress!!

 

Oh snap - the island is demoed to make way for our new idea - total concept built in dining table out of granite.  Back to no kitchen sink again.  Lame.

 

Construction on the new island framing begins!

 

Drywall starts!

 

 

New island has drywall and the plumbing for the new location of the sink is done. Also electrical - but that was done like 4 pics ago. 

 

WILLY BILLY!!!!  Also some hardwood floors. 

 

New porcelain tile in our bathroom - Calacatta Gold or something like that.

 

Floors are sanded!

 

And stained!!

 

Wall texture is done.

 

 

WTF is this?  Freshly stained floors are ruined due to a possible water/oil pocket and discoloration. 

 

 

Partly human error, partly weather and humidity.  Floors have to be redone.