Friday, November 7, 2008

How the Boys (and a Girl) Got New Bedrooms - Part III (Procrastinating Plumber)

Welcome back to my never-ending story…

Previously we saw that Roger got some rain, and saw a really good baseball game (AFF, don't follow this link, you don't like it remember), and got his butt put into a ringer, or frying pan, whichever suits your imagination better.

We continue…

“Jenni, they said that they cleaned it up.”

“Does THIS (showing me sopping wet towels) look like they cleaned it up?”

“No.”

“Well, why didn’t you check on them?”

“Uh, uh, because they said that…”

Okay, I think you get the drift of what was going on, and what kind of trouble I was in. I am sure that I would be in trouble with each and every one of you dear readers as well, but…

Really no excuse will be good, unless it had something to do with child birth, and that wouldn’t be a good thing to have happen wither, since my lovely bride has not been pregnant since March of 2006.


Cleaning up a two-day old flood damaged basement is not fun.

I do not recommend it for anyone. Ever.

After going through and looking at the damage, which was way more extensive than I would have believed, honestly, we came to the realization that some major work was going to have to be done.

Pretty much all of the outside walls were trashed, the carpet on Benjy’s side was full of some sort of mold and mildew and was quickly becoming a toxic hazard. Something big had to be done.

So we talked to my neighbor. I’m still not sure if we actually went over and asked his opinion, or if he just took control of the situation and told us what to do. It’s all a blur. Although he did have a good suggestion, which was to contact the insurance agency we’ve never had to do that before, so we didn’t know if I should stop what I was doing, to wait for an assessor, or what. Turns out that we could keep on cleaning up, especially when we mentioned that the environment was probably not good for my asthmatic daughter.

With the go ahead, destruction could once again commence. That was kind of fun, I have to admit. I mean how often does one get to destroy walls, and not get into any trouble. We also decided that we would redo the downstairs bathroom, and give the boys separate bedrooms, they had been sharing a really large bedroom for a really long time and we figured that we could just as easily break the room into two. So Andy will finally get his own room again, of course that’s until we move Danny in because Andy will be going off to college in August (*fingers crossed), and at that time each of the kids would have their own bedroom.

I should mention that during our great planning sessions for the bedrooms and bathroom remodel, we also decided to build one of the girls (Jessie as of this writing, but always subject to change) a room of their own down stairs.

Whew!

The kids have been helping where they can, and if we (Jenni and I) can motivate them into helping, and we are finally at the point where all the electric is working and the walls are up. By this weekend we are hoping that the rooms will have some primer on them, and that the boys will have picked out a color, or two for their walls. The floors are going to be tiled – no more fiber on the floor, thank you very much.

I should also mention that we re-graded the side of the house where the water came in also. That’s when really evil and mean Roger showed up, and a story I shall not ever repeat. Sorry, but it really is pretty bad, and I’m not trying to tease a story, I promise.

What did I forget to mention? Oh yes, the bathroom. Well, the main reason this project has taken so long is because we have been waiting on my neighbor (yes, that one), the plumber, who apparently is also an electrician, carpenter and flooring expert, to finish his part, which was (I thought, silly me) to do all of the plumbing. Long story, short, we are still waiting on him, but get this, he says he’s waiting on me.

And he’s serious.

Here I am leaving parts of wall undone, so he can have easy access to the piping and now he says that he is waiting on me.

Well slap me silly and call me a cab. (Don’t really know, it just popped into my head)

Anyway, in the next edition – oh yes there has to be another, heck maybe two more at this rate, I hope to tell you that the project is done. With pictures even. No promises though.
Continued (unfortunately)…







4 comments:

  1. I can't even imagine that kind of renovation project. I think I would rather move than deal with anything plumber-related.

    I'll get right on calling that cab for you!

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  2. Whew. I am tired just thinking about all that work. It does sound like it will be worth it.

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  3. When (IF) ours ever commences, I'll update like you are doing. THANKS for rubbing the baseball game in there, R...............

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  4. Can you remind me how to get 2 new rooms with an old one, 1 new bathroom, new floor everywhere ?
    The problem is that we live at the 6th floor, and mu neighbors below wouldn't appreciate, Insurance either.

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