Disaster

We had just arrived home from a fun, relaxing, summer weekend at the lake cabin. As I walked in the door, I heard something that sounded like spraying water. My first thought was, "Is someone in the house?", then "We didn't leave the faucet running, did we? No, I think we would have noticed." A million thoughts were going through my mind in the few seconds it took to reach the kitchen. Then, I saw it...water everywhere!!!

The entire kitchen was inch deep in water and it had also spread to the dining room. I yelled for Bryon and he came rushing in. We both agreed that this wasn't good, but we could deal with an inch or so of water. Just mop it up and as good as new, right? Wrong! As soon as Bryon ran downstairs to turn the water off, I heard him yelling and I knew it must be bad. I raced down to take a look and I could barely believe my eyes. It looked as though it was raining in our basement, the Sheetrock from the ceiling had caved in and all our belongings were soaking wet. We were in a state of shock! Even poor Rylan came downstairs to survey the damage and was so upset to see his new train set and table full of water.

I can't even describe the feeling of seeing your house destroyed (at least for the time being). Your house doesn't feel like a home anymore, but more of a place you want to escape from. It is a sadness I can't describe, and an unsettling feeling. Would our house ever be a "home" again? How will we ever get back to the way things were before?

Well, thankfully, my parents raced over to help us begin cleaning up the mess. And, of course, my dad knew just the people to call to help dry things out and begin the restoration process. Slowly, but surely, our house began getting back to normal (with a few bonuses too)!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the flood in progress before the clean-up crew arrived...we were too shocked to even think about taking pictures. But, I do have plenty of pictures of our house all torn up after the first clean-up crew came in.

Before restoration:

The linoleum in the kitchen was ripped out so they could dry the floor. Our cabinets were actually taken out at one point too so they could dry underneath. They were able to reset them without any damage.

The carpet in our dining room and living room was ripped up to dry underneath. Several legs on our dining room chairs were damaged.

The basement carpet was ripped up too.

You can see the missing Sheetrock in our ceiling. We found it on the floor when we arrived home. Additional Sheetrock was taken out too as the stuff that remained in place during the flood was pretty wet.

During restoration:

We decided to upgrade from linoleum in the kitchen to hardwood floors. We already had hardwood in the entry way and we always wanted it in the kitchen too. We figured there wasn't going to be a better time than now. We had to stay with my parents for several nights while it was being installed.

We had also been wanting to put a door to the backyard in our basement. Again, now seemed like the perfect time since everything was already ripped up. This is the "before" picture when it used to be just a window.

Now, we have a door. Bryon had to dig all that dirt out to make the door level with the ground.

Here's the view from the outside.

After restoration:

We had to get new carpet on the main floor in the living and dining room, which was covered by insurance. We loved it so much that we decided to bite the bullet and get it installed in the remaining rooms on the main floor, and the entire upstairs as well.

We originally had this hideous chandelier hanging in our entry way. While we had an electrician here wiring lights outside our new door downstairs, we decided to have him replace the chandelier with a new fan.

This looks a million times better!!!

During our construction process we discovered that our dishwasher had been leaking, as well as the main drain pipe to our basement. So, in a way, the flood was somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Who knows what would have happened if those leaks would have continued without detection?! Anyways, we had been wanting stainless steel appliances. We had to get a new dishwasher because of the leak so we decided to go ahead and get all new, matching appliances. We love them!

While the ceiling in the basement was ripped up, we had a gas line put in for the stove. We got a gas stove with a convection oven and the bottom drawer is an oven too! I love it and could never go back to electric!

We love our new hardwood floors!

Work In Progress:

Since we decided to put a door in our basement, we now have the project of making the ground level with the door which means we have to dig down about three feet. Bryon had a friend from work bring his tractor over and help Bryon hammer out the basketball court and begin the digging process.

We got a lot dug out but still have more to go come spring. Bryon has big plans to build a patio area with a fire pit, BBQ area, etc. Can't wait to see the final product!

Remodeling is contagious!!! We have a few more things we'd like to do while we're at it; granite counter tops in the kitchen, hardware on the cabinets, and new paint on the walls. We'll keep you posted on our progress.

After nearly two months of construction, we are settling nicely into our house (seems like we have a brand new house) and are glad to be back to normal again. Our house does feel like a home once again.