Ahhhhhh! That's how I feel right now!!! I haven't blogged for so long. There is never time to sit down and do it but now I need to vent!
Thanks to Hurricaine Sandy, we had a swimming pool in our basement yesterday when we woke up!
Brandon was in Michigan and we had been out of power at that point for about 12 hours so he was calling in the morning to check on us and asked me to check the basement for water. LIttle did I know I was about to go for a swim! I walked down the stairs and when I got almost to the bottom I fell in 3 feet of water!!! Freeeeezing, water!
In the shock and anger of realizing that we had so much water, I yelled for the kids to get out of bed and panic mode set in.....what do we do, who should we call.....Ali watched Brady while Mitch and I started hauling anything we could out of the basement. Drums, guitars, amps etc.
Someone must have been watching over us because not too long after we found the water my neighbor showed up asking if we needed anything and if we were ok I told her what was going on but there wasn't much she really could do but then another neighbor showed up at her house with his brother who has a water restoration and clean-up company and she brought him over to my house. In the meantime, our friends Jim and Ben showed up. Ben brought a generator and went down into the dark water filled basement and tried to get our sump pump running but had no luck. He headed off to work and Jim tried again finally getting it started and the water started pumping out....or so we thought. Even after having the clean-up crew there we were still taking on more and more water so Jim hurried down to save the TV!!!Whew! It took some time but finally they got it right and the water started pumping out. Brandon cancelled his meetings and headed home to the mess.
Because we had so much water, we lost our water heater and furnace so in the fun of the mess, we had no hot water or heat for 4 days as well. What a nightmare..Its really not fun having to shower in freezing cold water or having a dirty baby for days. We ended up staying in a hotel for one night so we could get a hot shower and sleep in heat! AHHH it was nice!
Well that morning when we headed home from the hotel, after having had all the water cleaned out the day before, we had another inch of water and rising...Ugh!!! we weren't sure why because our pumps we working fine so I called in the plumber. He couldn't find anything wrong except our outside pump was not plugged in! Duh! The story goes on with no heat or hot water, big loud blowers in the basement that were so hot that the whole upstairs was steamy and humid. Even our magazines were wilting! On and on and on until Friday when we finally got the new water heater and furnace. Yay for heat and hot water, and Saturday when we went through everything and got all of our "stuff" cleaned up or should I say thrown out for garbage pickup and then Sunday Mitch and Brandon cut out the sheet rock 4 feet high.
The guys came this morning and took out all of their equipment and now the next phase begins. I have someone coming to measure for carpet today (don't forget we just redid the basement and now are replacing brand new carpet, that I loved i might add). We will be hainging new sheet rock, painting, laying new carpet and putting up new base boards all over again!!!! Ahhh the joys of being a homeowner!
At least we are all ok. And we still have a house. In all the things I was going through throwing away... lots and lots of pictures, yearbooks, brandons football newspaper clippings, programs, christmas decorations, easter decorations, halloween decorations, scentsy stuff, bags and bags of toys etc. I had to keep telling myself "it's just stuff" most of it can be replaced. Obviously not the pictures and the football memoribila but at least we have memories!!!! I'm sure there is a lesson in all of this that we needed to learn and when I figure out what it is, i will let you know!!!!
In the shock and anger of realizing that we had so much water, I yelled for the kids to get out of bed and panic mode set in.....what do we do, who should we call.....Ali watched Brady while Mitch and I started hauling anything we could out of the basement. Drums, guitars, amps etc.
Someone must have been watching over us because not too long after we found the water my neighbor showed up asking if we needed anything and if we were ok I told her what was going on but there wasn't much she really could do but then another neighbor showed up at her house with his brother who has a water restoration and clean-up company and she brought him over to my house. In the meantime, our friends Jim and Ben showed up. Ben brought a generator and went down into the dark water filled basement and tried to get our sump pump running but had no luck. He headed off to work and Jim tried again finally getting it started and the water started pumping out....or so we thought. Even after having the clean-up crew there we were still taking on more and more water so Jim hurried down to save the TV!!!Whew! It took some time but finally they got it right and the water started pumping out. Brandon cancelled his meetings and headed home to the mess.
Because we had so much water, we lost our water heater and furnace so in the fun of the mess, we had no hot water or heat for 4 days as well. What a nightmare..Its really not fun having to shower in freezing cold water or having a dirty baby for days. We ended up staying in a hotel for one night so we could get a hot shower and sleep in heat! AHHH it was nice!
Well that morning when we headed home from the hotel, after having had all the water cleaned out the day before, we had another inch of water and rising...Ugh!!! we weren't sure why because our pumps we working fine so I called in the plumber. He couldn't find anything wrong except our outside pump was not plugged in! Duh! The story goes on with no heat or hot water, big loud blowers in the basement that were so hot that the whole upstairs was steamy and humid. Even our magazines were wilting! On and on and on until Friday when we finally got the new water heater and furnace. Yay for heat and hot water, and Saturday when we went through everything and got all of our "stuff" cleaned up or should I say thrown out for garbage pickup and then Sunday Mitch and Brandon cut out the sheet rock 4 feet high.
The guys came this morning and took out all of their equipment and now the next phase begins. I have someone coming to measure for carpet today (don't forget we just redid the basement and now are replacing brand new carpet, that I loved i might add). We will be hainging new sheet rock, painting, laying new carpet and putting up new base boards all over again!!!! Ahhh the joys of being a homeowner!
Its not everyday that you see your couch floating!
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| And this is our garbage pile that was 3 times bigger before all the garbage pickers came and took the couches and a whole lot of other stuff! |
2 comments:
AUGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! HALEY! What a mess!! I am so so sorry that this all happened to you. Thinking of you!
So sorry. What a head-ache! Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors.
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