Hmmm..where to start...
I'm sure most of you heard about our house, but if you haven't..here's the shortest version I can put together. Saturday evening I was giving the kids a bath when all of a sudden the knob that turns on the cold water just shot off. Thankfully it didn't hit either of the kiddos when it did, BUT the huge spray of water behind it was shooting right at their little faces!! We all three immediately panicked!! Me, because not only are both of my babies being soaked in the face by a stream like a fire hydrant, but also because my bath tub was quickly filling with water. I'm talking filling up faster then anything I've EVER seen!!! I grabbed both kids out of the tub and took them back to the corner bedroom and left them there naked wrapped in towels. Ran for my phone and called Randy..nearly hysterical..Randy gave me instructions on how to turn the water off at the emergency shut off..which didn't work. Had to grab a wrench and head to the front yard. In the dark. Soaking Wet. While both of my kids are naked, scared, and hysterically screaming for me from the house. I tried to turn the water main off and couldn't. It was too tight for me to even budge it. Decided to run to the shed and try using the shop vac to suck up water until Randy (who was on the way at this point) got there. HA! The whole shop vac thing was a joke. The thing was full in one minute! Ran back to the yard to try and shut off the water..again..when a friend from church pulled up. Randy had called him since he lived closer and asked him to come help me. By the time we got it off, the water had leaked out of the bathroom and into every. room. of. the. house. Thankfully, this is covered by our home insurance.We spent three nights in a hotel and then had the opportunity to move into a rental owned by the company Randy works for. So Tuesday, the kids and I came over here while Randy was in Jacksonville for work. The house we are staying at is great. Three bedrooms and a great backyard that's fenced in. The kids have been having a blast playing on the back porch and running around in a "new" backyard. I'm unbelievably thankful for the opportunity to stay here and get out of the hotel. Still, I must confess, I'm homesick. I'm not used to having this much "idle" time. I know things will be better next week when Ella has school and normal routines return.
They had a company come out to our house on Sunday afternoon to dry the place up. We were a little "unpleased" to say the least. We just really felt like they were trying to get out of there without having to do anything. They pulled up all of our wood floors in the living room and hallway, but left the carpet. They put blowers underneath it to dry it out. We talked with the insurance company and told them we didn't mind saving the carpet, but we wanted the padding underneath replaced. They agreed completely and told Randy they weren't going to allow us to save it! They wanted it gone, but the people from ServPro didn't think it needed to go and wouldn't rip it out. They kept dragging their feet and making excuses. So yesterday we thanked them for drying everything out and asked them to come get their stuff. We meet with our adjuster on Thursday and he/she will help us decide what all needs replaced and then we will hire out and get it done. The dry wall in the bathroom where it happened is warped away from the baseboards now so we will have to replace that, too. Going to be alot of work, but hopefully once we get the actual orders for it, it will go fast. Hopefully!
Until then, we are just going with the flow! Trying to begin getting ready for the holidays. Hoping I will be in my own home by then..a little bummed that I can't start decorating yet, but thankful to be sitting in a warm house with a full belly, listening to healthy children running around me. Life is still good :)
