Disaster Strikes! Or In Other Words, We're Remodeling!

It all started first thing on June 10th. Nate was on his 6th day in Canada for a conference, and was returning home the following afternoon. I woke up, stretched, and read my scriptures in bed with Addison there chattering in one ear all the while. Then Leah started calling her good mornings from the other room, so I headed downstairs to get her a bottle.

As I got closer to the bottom of the stairs, I noticed a strange sound. It sounded like the sink was on full blast. Confused and still half asleep I decided that couldn't be it because the kids can't reach the kitchen sink to turn it on. So I decided the sprinklers were on outside and one had gotten turned around and was pounding the side of the house (which, frankly, needs a good pressure washing anyway.) To my astonishment, I turned the corner to discover that the sprinkler was actually in the house. There was a pressurized spray shooting from the wall across the kitchen and everything was soaked. There were also several inches of water on the floor. My brain was trying very hard to wake up, but in the meantime my adrenal glands decided to engage. I dialed Nate so fast I'm surprised the phone didn't start smoking. He was asleep, but woke up very quickly as I yelled into the phone, "How do you shut the water off?!" Between the two of us I think it would've been a very entertaining phone call to listen to, but we finally figured out which water I was talking about and got a general direction as to the shutoff. 

Fortunately for all of the town in need of some entertainment on the way to work, it's in the front yard. So I sprinted out there with a pair of pliers and yanked the 50-pound cover off the water shutoff. Then I pushed all the spiderwebs out of the way and looked (half-blind, since I hadn't thought to grab my glasses or contacts) for anything that looked like it could be turned. No luck and another frantic call to Nate led him to start sounding the alarm from afar. By the time I'd gone in, found my glasses, and come back out and shut the thing off I think he'd called like ten people in the ward.

Then the kids and I (Addison and Bryn were quite impressed with the whole thing) grabbed every towel we owned and started mopping things up. The trash can was three quarters of the way full of water. It was so heavy! About that time a friend from the ward who just happens to work for a restoration company knocked on our door. He came in, took a look, made some calls, and by the time I had a chance to change out of my jammies we had a plumber and a restoration company at our disposal. And then the phone calls started. People asking if we need babysitting or dinner (times about ten). One of our good friends stopped by with doughnuts (which helped me feel better, if nothing else). Visiting teachers, relief society, elders quorum, high priests, you name it, they were asking what they could do. I felt so taken care of.

Fast forward two weeks or so to today. After going around and around with the insurance company (and with help from Bryce, the one who works for the restoration company), we are super excited that we get new cabinets and countertops! We have a friend from the ward as our contractor, and it is relieving to know he's honest and knows what he's doing. And he's enjoyed several good laughs at the interesting construction job in our kitchen (our house is really old, man), while simultaneously jumping in and fixing it.

In the meantime, we have no kitchen. I mean NO kitchen. Well, we have a fridge, and a stove/oven, and one small countertop housing our microwave. But that is it. We've been doing dishes in the bathroom sink/bathtub for about a week. I went to my friend Kim's house and she and Jenn (another good friend) and I spent a day last week making about 18 freezer meals to stuff in our freezer so we didn't have to eat Little Caesar's every night. Every day our house gets covered in a new layer of fine dust as demolition continues, and continues, and continues. I am definitely missing privacy. We've had at least one person over to check this or reposition that or tear something out every day since the start. Usually before I've done my hair or makeup, or just when I get comfy in the bathroom.

But there are so many blessings to be counted, I don't know where to start. One of which being that we'd returned from vacation the week before the flood. That could've been terrible. And our ward is amazing. And dude, we're getting a new kitchen! We're talking, there may just be granite, recessed lighting and antique white in our future. And, let's be serious, drawers that don't leave a layer of sawdust on everything below them.

Here's some photography of the way things have gone down.

The point of origin.

Dryers. Those were in our kitchen for about a week and a half. That was when the dishwasher was still hooked up. And I thought things were inconvenient then.

Missing a couple things. 

The current state of things.

From another angle (that upper cabinet is gone now too.)

Our current "workable" kitchen. We dance around construction people and their equipment to make pbjs at lunchtime.

The dining room. It's housing all our cabinet stuff. Oh, and we eat there too. (See teeny card table on the far end). We did rearrange a bit to make things more liveable yesterday, since it's likely going to take three weeks after we order cabinets for them to get here.

Leah capitalizing on the cereal being in a laundry basket on the floor. This happened more than once.

Breakfast at the card table. We're using paper and plastic everything.

A couple days there have just been too many people and things in the kitchen to be able to squeeze in and make lunch, so we've improvised picnics with fast food and a sheet in Leah's room. The kids think these days are awesome.