Today is Ammon's 11th birthday. Do you think he got his letter from Hogwarts?

This is the birthday cake card I made him. I hope he doesn't think the flowers are too girly.

It is a joy and priveledge to be his grandma.

I LOVE YOU AMMON!

Beginning and Middle, but not the End

I thought it might be fun to show a few before and middle pictures. "Before" pictures are from the open house before we bought the house. "Middle" pictures will show with water, and then some pictures of the removal results.

OK, this isn't really fun. This is kind of depressing. I have to remind myself that when it is done, it will be beautiful.

(I'm not too good at figuring out where the pictures are going to end up when I post. I'll work on that.)

The room with the fireplace is the living room. The mold picture is showing damage above the fireplace. Then there's a picture of the living room with the ceiling and that part of the wall removed.

The other two pictures, the room with the chair, and the very dark picture, are of the dining room. That is the same window in both pictures.

Oy.

We checked up on the new house

We went over and checked up on the new house and gathered all the curtains to wash. Nearly all of the carpet has been removed, and several sections of drywall. (Well, I guess it was really wetwall now.)

There's still a bunch of mold on the window casings, which will either be blasted away or ripped out, I suppose.

The plumbers were there, as well as a couple of contractors looking over the damaged walls and doors. I think the contractors were working on an estimate. The plumbers were working on the sinks, toilets, and dishwasher. They ended up removing the dishwasher. It's scrap metal now. The leak damaged the pump.

Amazing what a bit of water can do. We're looking at $20,000 to $30,000 worth of damage. My poor house.

At least it can all be fixed (or replaced). I remind myself that it will be nice when it's all fixed. Then we can move in. Yipee!

Good morning. More news on our house. Our insurance company informed us that not only are we not covered for the damage to the house because we didn't own it when the damage occurred, but they won't issue us a regular policy either. I'm afraid insurance companies have joined with the banks in NOT BEING OUR FRIENDS!

We're still trying to get insurance info from the sellers. Unfortunately, since we closed so late on the house (instead of Nov. 18) they are very hostile towards us.

Ah, well. Anyway, so far the wet, sopping, dripping, moldy carpets have been removed. The plumber has been and said there is no large plumbing damage. All this mess happened from leaks springing in the U traps under the sinks. Amazing.

On the bright side, we got a lot of sympathy at church yesterday.

Card: dream...reality

I made this for a friend's birthday. It's actually tri-fold, but I'm just showing the first two pages.

Mystery solved

Well, the mystery of the house that wouldn't open has been solved. Dave and I went over this morning and he got one of the back door storm doors open, opened the kitchen door, and discovered an inch of water on the floor. The pipes in the kitchen and bathrooms had burst and leaked. We had an inch upstairs and more than that downstairs, along with rain from the basement ceilings, mold on the carpets, walls, and windows, peeling wallpaper, and bumpy floors. And, of course, all the doors had SWOLLEN SHUT!

Eeek! We called our insurance agent and our friendly local Stanley Steemer, Jeff Holt. Jeff and his two helpers (his sons) came out and evaluated the damage, and we will probably see the insurance guy tomorrow.

So we won't be moving in for a few more weeks.

But we probably will get new carpets and flooring.

Anyway, it's beautiful out there and we are still glad we bought the property.