Frankenstorm Sandy, please please be gentle with us

Hurricane Sandy will come to my house between 2:00 a.m. Monday and 2:00 a.m. Tuesday.  Color me nervous.

Let's look over the checklist of everything I need to do to prepare for Sandy.

1. Buy bread, milk, and toilet paper
2. Get furniture off the deck
3. Tape windows
4. Invited Hurricane Irene to come last year and clear most of the trees from around the house

Yeah, I think we're ready. 

Prayers are welcome.  Seriously.  Pray for us.

638.  Stores with vodka (hurray!)
639.  Tenants are out of my house (there will be a blog on this)
640.  Knowing there is only so much we can do to prepare for the storms in our lives.  Trusting in God and his plan for us is the most we can do
641.  God is good    
642.  The faith in God given to me by the Holy Spirit

Remembering Hurricane Irene and praying for Isaac to be weak

Good Monday morning! 

There's a phrase you won't hear come from me very often.  However, this Monday morning is a good morning, for me.  Today I am praying fervently and continuously for those in the path of Hurricane Isaac.  Last year, this very weekend, was the Saturday night my house was broken by Hurricane Irene.  (I'm just gonna say, I hate the "I" hurricanes, 'cause back in September 2003 when Hurricane Isabel his my area it wasn't so much fun, either.)

Because this was such a huge issue for me and I blogged about my hurt, fear, anger and recovery, I feel today may be a good day to take a walk down memory lane.

I have to admit, before Irene hit I was pretty hopeful.  The forecasts weren't predicting a very strong storm surge with this hurricane.  Back in 2003 the storm surge from Isabel was pretty devastating and the flooding was awful.  This storm wasn't going to have any of that, so I was hoping for the best and even singing songs about Irene.  August 26, 2011

The night of Hurricane Irene came and went.  It was a terrible night.  A tree fell through our roof.  There was so much rain.  It just rained and rained and rained.  My husband and I put three 5-gallon buckets under the largest holes and just kept dumping them into the toilet.  The tree fell around 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night and stopped around 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning.  It was an incredible amount of water.  While my husband and I bailed, my son cleared his room, because it was the most damaged.  Needless to say, we were moving fast and furiously.  The next morning we went out to check out the neighborhood and it was shocking.  There were, no kidding, hundreds and hundreds of trees down in the neighborhood.  Dozens and dozens of homes were damaged by falling trees.  I had never seen such devastation.  Our neighborhood is only 126 homes.  I'd guess half of them had serious damage.  It was heartbreaking.  August 29, 2011

I started feeling sorry for myself pretty quickly.  The guys that came to take the tree off the roof of my house dropped it on my deck.  More repairs would be needed.  Looking at the mess in the bright morning light was overwhelming.  We had a broken house and a smashed car and a broken deck.  All I could see were dollar signs and WORK.  Someone told me the feelings I was experiencing were similar to those of people robbed while at home.  My home was invaded.  The invader was a tree, but it was still an invasion.  August 31, 2011

There is just something about getting to work on a problem that helps you gain perspective.  Once we started having the insurance adjusters come to the house.  Once we started getting estimates for the repairs.  Once we started getting to WORK on the problems, things started looking up.  My husband put the mother of all patches on the roof.  We had planned a vacation to Reno, NV to attend the US Navy Tailhook convention.  It is always held the weekend after Labor Day.  We'd pre-paid and we were going.  I wasn't comfortable with a blue plastic tarp on my roof and not being home.  My husband made a plywood and shingle patch.  It could have lasted for a year.  Boy, that's love.  September 2, 2011

Another aspect of my recovery from Hurricane Irene was my desire (my son would call it OBSESSION) with clearing away STUFF.  To this day I am committed to clearing away anything unused or unnecessary in my home.  It's an ongoing issue, but it's going my way and it feel great.  September 19, 2011

A month after Hurricane Irene wrecked my house I was beginning to gain perspective and regain a sense of control over my life.  (I am aware it is an illusion, but I love the illusion of control)  Our family was recovering.  We still had a lot of work to do, but the work was getting done.  September 27, 2011

And then I had a new roof.  There is comfort in the phrase "a roof over our heads."  Until I had a roof that was secure and hole-free, that phrase never had as much meaning.  It's amazing how one perspective can change with their circumstances.  October 21, 2011

Finally the drywall, paint, and carpet cleaning was being completed and we would soon be able put our possessions back where they belonged.  (I'm still trying to convince my son that his possessions do NOT belong in the guest room)  Irene was becoming a distant memory.  November 10, 2011

And then everything was fixed.  The last piece of the puzzle came with the replacement of the window in my bedroom.  I cannot tell you how much work it was and what kind of mess we had to live in to get through it.  But, we did it.  I learned so much about myself and my family in this time.  Mostly I learned how much patience my husband has.  He did all the dealings with the insurance and the mortgage company.  They were a PITA.  I've heard tell that normal is just a setting on your dryer.  There may not be a universal normal, but there is an individual or a family normal.  And when you get it back, it feels wonderful.  January 18, 2012

Thanks for taking this look back on surviving Hurricane Irene with me.  Please pray for all those in the path of Hurricane Isaac. 

534.  Learning that journaling or blogging can help me gain perspective and increase the gratitude I have for God's blessings
535.  Praying for people you don't know, but are experiencing something you do know, increases my faith.
536.  Lots of rain over the weekend and lots of green this morning
537.  Getting news from an old friend you haven't spoken with in a long time  :)

Hurricane Isaac

Normal has returned

The final project in the restoration of my home was completed today.  It feels good to have the walls and ceilings and windows sound again.  It's good to have this all behind me.  I still have to finish putting a few of the odds and ends back into place.   But, for all intents and purposes, normal has returned to my house.  This experiences held so many lessons for me.  There is nothing like having your home, your sanctuary, invaded.  It teaches you about yourself and what you can do.

I've learned I have a strength I wasn't sure I possessed.  I'm strong enough to carry five gallon buckets of water from the attic to the bathroom all night long.  I'm strong enough to deal with insurance companies and mortgage companies who don't want to give me my money.  I'm strong enough to push my son to take action when he is paralyzed with fear.  I know I'm not the person saying quit, but the person saying persevere.  It's good to know.

I learned I'm the person who trusts my husband.  I don't have to double check his work.  I know he will do whatever is necessary to get the job done.  He spent hours (I'm not kidding or exaggerating in regard to this) on the phone with the mortgage company.  They did not want to give us our insurance money.  I think my husband learned to have confidence in me, too.

I learned I can make decisions, and then be satisfied with my decisions.  I know this may not sound like much, but for me it is.  I have a huge fear of not being to make decisions in my life.  I observed my mom and her mother, my grandmother, have difficulty making decisions in their lives.  I've had a few experiences in my life with buyer's remorse and it scared me.  I don't want to be the person that cannot make up her mind.  This experience offered opportunity after opportunity to make decisions and choices.  I rose to the challenge.  I made decision after decision without hesitation.  There are some things I'm happier with than others, but, you know what, it doesn't matter to me.  I'm not fretting over the roof being a bit lighter gray than I'd hoped.  I'm not upset the window is a half an inch taller than it should have been.  It's done.  The fact of the matter is, nobody but me will ever know the difference.

We've still got a few trees leaning this way and that way.  They will be taken care of in due time.  Normal has returned.  Life is good.

New ceilings and other updates

This afternoon I want to share an update on the reparations to our home from the damage inflicted by hurricane Irene on August 27, 2011 .  A date burned into my memory.  Good news everyone, the projects are moving along.  If you remember the last house update post I wrote after getting my roof replaced, I have a new roof!, on October 21, 2011, let you know of all the happiness I was feeling at that time.  And, as an aside, I got two or three comments on that post from roofing contractors.  They weren't the roofers I used, but roofers will take advertising any way they can get it and my roof was the prettiest roof I'd ever seen.  :)

Today I will share the news that the ceilings of my son's room, my room and the dining room have all been replaced and painted.  Also, my attic is now fully insulated with new, fresh insulation.  We are warm and dry.  I came home from work yesterday to the smell of paint.  It was a wonderful smell.  It made me feel so good I almost forgot about the three days of living in a total mess caused by having drywall replaced and having a ceiling spray-textured and having all your furniture moved into hallways and entryways and stubbing your toe a hundred times.  It's All Good.  I also want you to know the guy installing the drywall in my house was a total professional.  He did a perfect job.  It is such a joy to have honest, professional craftsmen doing work in your home.  I thanked him and I thanked God for him.  I'd show you pictures, but you would just see pictures of ceilings and they don't make fascinating subjects.  But, I gotta tell ya, they are GORGEOUS.

I fully expect to have many comments from all the drywall guys out there in the internets.  Feel free to comment away.  Right now, I LOVE you guys.

We are currently in the midst of having our deck replaced.  The actual decking material is back-ordered, so we will have to wait a little longer before it is finished.  Right now it is framed and the footings have been poured.  It looks like it's going to be a deck.  It looks like it's going to be a beautiful deck.

I am so positive about all the things getting accomplished at my house.  It's a good feeling, to me, to have things getting checked off my list.  I see the light at the end of this tunnel and it's getting brighter and brighter.

I copied my list from the "new roof" post and crossed a few things off.  <3 this.  :)

• Drywall - the drywall guy came today and gave me an estimate.  It was higher than the insurance adjuster figured, but we will see if we can get her to change her mind.  :)   (btw, the insurance adjuster did change her mind on the dining room ceiling and included it in the repairs.  :))
• Paint 
• Clean carpet - when we have the carpeting cleaned, we will know immediately if we need to replace it.  If there is a strong smell of mold, the carpeting goes.  *between you and me, I think there is going to be mold.  I've seen the evidence, but I'll play by the insurance rules.*  (the carpet cleaners are coming on Tuesday)
• Deck replacement - fingers crossed, this will start next week. (halfway done)
• Window replacement - just ordered the window yesterday.  It will take six weeks to come in.
• Remove all trees leaning AWAY from the house - I have no idea when we will start on this.
• Remove trees in back yard - these trees fell into our back yard, but these were trees growing on common (*read, community center property)  We will have to deal with the HOA on this.  (Oh, I'm on the board of the HOA.  It will be interesting to see how this goes.)  (it went very well.  The HOA is going to remove four of the trees)
• Have a Merry Christmas?  I hope so.  :)  (I think Christmas is going to be the BEST EVER)

Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes in our recovery.  It's been a great feeling to have the support of my blogging friends.  You guys ROCK. (no pun intended.  get it?  sheet-rock)

I have a new roof!

I am so happy.  You just cannot imagine the happiness I feel.  A roof.  A roof over my head.  A secure roof with no broken trusses or holes.  I am smiling from ear to ear.  I know this sounds silly to say one can get so excited over a roof, but it's true.  I am thrilled.  This is the first step in the restoration of my home.  My sanctuary.  My nest.  The roof is so pretty.  It sounds funny to say it is pretty, but it is a pretty roof.

A short list of chores still to come:

• Drywall - the drywall guy came today and gave me an estimate.  It was higher than the insurance adjuster figured, but we will see if we can get her to change her mind.  :)
• Paint 
• Clean carpet - when we have the carpeting cleaned, we will know immediately if we need to replace it.  If there is a strong smell of mold, the carpeting goes.  *between you and me, I think there is going to be mold.  I've seen the evidence, but I'll play by the insurance rules.*
• Deck replacement - fingers crossed, this will start next week.
• Window replacement - just ordered the window yesterday.  It will take six weeks to come in.
• Remove all trees leaning AWAY from the house - I have no idea when we will start on this.
• Remove trees in back yard - these trees fell into our back yard, but these were trees growing on common (*read, community center property)  We will have to deal with the HOA on this.  (Oh, I'm on the board of the HOA.  It will be interesting to see how this goes.)
• Have a Merry Christmas?  I hope so.  :)

My pretty new roof

Irene, one month ago

It's been a month since Hurricane Irene hit the mid-Atlantic coast.  It's been a month.  I will give you a short update of where we are in the restoration process.

• The insurance adjuster has been to our home.  They've written a check to us and our mortgage company.  In order to get money to pay for repairs we have to send a notarized affidavit to the mortgage company to get the money to pay for services.  Every time.  For each service.  Tedious.
• We've hired a roofer.  Hopefully they will begin roofing within the next 2 weeks.
• We've hired someone to replace our deck.  This is not to begin until after the roof is replaced.
• We've hired someone to replace the picture window in our bedroom.  This may be coordinated with the roof replacement.
• I've worked with my son to sort through his clothing.  Truthfully, we are only half-way through this process.  He found a bunch of old clothes he had stuffed in a couple dresser drawers.
• My son sold his old X-Box.  *cheering*  He's learning to let stuff go.  <3
• Big tree in the front of the house (with the giant root ball) is cut up and branches removed.  Still need to get the giant root ball out of there.
• One tree in the side yard of the house is cut up and branches removed.
• Valium prescription for Happygirl get some sleep, filled.

Things left to do.  No, I can't go there.  How much does all this cost.  No, I can't go there.  It's the thing that's keeping me from sleeping at night.

Today a co-worker mentioned that if I had better insurance I wouldn't be going through all this trouble.  He says his insurance company has NO deductible for hurricane damage.  Wow, thanks for telling me this.  I have no way of  confirming it and you had no damage to your home, but THANKS for the information.  It's good to know I have crappy insurance.  I hope you feel great about yourself now.  (btw, I didn't say any of that out loud.  :))

And, today a Kati posted the first part of a question/answer conversation we had.  Kati writes a blog called CultureTwined.  Kati is a Christian storyteller.  She is a world traveler and is fortunate enough to be able to work all over the world.  Kati, I think, sees the ways all the people in the world are more alike than not.  I love her positive and loving attitude about life.  I love how she can put what she sees around her into words.  Thanks for for the kind words about me, Kati.  It was fun.

Sorting the stuff

This is a little post regarding the ongoing saga of my family's recovery from Hurricane Irene.

Last Friday the insurance adjuster made it out to our home.  My husband handled this all on his own.  He did a pretty good job.  He was completely focused on the roof and the damage in the attic.  And why wouldn't he be?  This is where he has spent most of his time and energy.  I counted on him for this.  We also have to have our deck replaced.  They dropped the tree on the deck while removing it from the roof of our house.  Our deck no longer meets code, so no one will repair it.  It has to be replaced.  Also, we have about a dozen other trees that are either down or leaning that need to be removed.  I depended on my husband to remember to deal with all these things.  I, however, was thinking about the interior space of the rooms.  I was thinking about the dry walling, the carpeting, the painting, the STUFF.  I called the insurance adjuster today and left a voice-mail.  I hope she will call me back.   *Please Heather, call me back.*

But, back to the STUFF.

I remember making a statement in my post, Goodnight Irene, while I was still in shock about my house being broken.  I remember saying something about it being a positive opportunity to clean out my son's room of STUFF.  Obviously I was in shock.  Obviously, I didn't know what the heck I was saying.  There is NOTHING positive about this experience in ANY way.  Ok, I'm sorting through my son's stuff.  With him.  I have discovered my son is,... sort of,... a hoarder.  He gets this from his father and possibly from a recessive gene on his mother's side.  *sigh*

Now we are back from vacation and hip-deep in the work of restoring our home.  Of course, my son did nothing on the sorting of stuff on his own.  Because, seriously, he thinks it is all precious.  Oh my.

I've told you I'm a fan of the show Hoarders.  I know those people have a mental illness and cannot be shamed into cleaning up their act.  So, I was gentle with him.  At least, I was as gentle as I can be with anyone.  We started with clothing.  I convinced him to part with clothing that no longer fit him.  In fact, a couple times he came to the realization the articles of clothing were from his middle school years.  He was able to part with quite a bit.  It's a start.  I moved on to empty boxes.  I know this is a gene inherited from his father.  I cannot, for the life of me, understand the allure of the empty box.  However, I've seen the attraction my husband has for them, so I could understand there would be the same attraction here.  He was able to part with four empty boxes.  It's a start.  I can see this is going to be a long process.  I'm a little scared.  I think I may take to clearing stuff out in the middle of the night, just to get this job done.  *sigh*

I don't want to dwell on this area of my life, but right now, cleaning up and restoring my home seems to be swamping all other things I do right now.  I go to work, but when I get home I start working on the house.  This is my new NORMAL.  This is How My Life Is, for a while.  And I think it will be a long while.  I covet your encouragement and well wishes.  I intend to stay positive, but some days it is tough to do.  I'm seriously trying to let the negative go.  I try not to think about the people complaining that the tennis courts are still damaged and why don't we GET GOING and get them fixed.  It's amazing the attitudes some folks have.  Can you say empathy?

I certainly have more empathy than I ever had before.

Progress and a positive attitude returns

Two roofing experts have told me I do not have to have all the drywall in my son's room replaced.  I just have to repair the holes I put in the drywall to allow the water to  escape.  Wow, this is super good news.  I'm still waiting to hear back from the roofing experts to discover the estimates on repairing my roof.  So far, so good.

We will continue to take each day as it comes.

As I type this post, my husband is on the roof.  He is nailing plywood down, sealing the plywood with roofing tar, covering it with roofing felt and then he will nail shingles to the whole thing.  This is the mother of all roof patches.  I will feel so much more secure with this patch, rather than a blue plastic tarp.  I just love him.

Anyway, my family is moving forward in the recovery of our home security after hurricane Irene.  Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.  I am feeling more hopeful than I've felt in 5 days.  My readers are the BOMB.

Goodnight Irene

I survived the hurricane.  It wasn't fun.  They said it wouldn't be as bad as Isabelle, but it was worse, for me.  In the vernacular of hurricanes, "bad" is a relative term.  If you live near the water, the storm surge of a hurricane is bad.  This is because the wind and force of the water, especially at high tide, will come up and flood your house or yank your pier off its pilings or toss your boat up on the shore.  If you live in the woods, like I do, rain fall and wind are bad.  Irene had a lot of rain.  And a lot of wind.  Coupled with the crappy front we had come through on last Thursday (with tornadoes, thank you very much), the ground was saturated.  So, trees fell down.  And, sometimes your house is in the way of the tree's path of travel from upright, to the ground.

 And when a tree falls on your house, it doesn't mind sticking its branches into your roof.  

This lovely tree stuck three of its branches into our house.  This provided three large holes for water to run freely into our home.  So, you can imagine, for most of the night of Irene my husband and I bailed water out of our attic.  We put a bucket under each of the holes and proceeded to "bucket brigade" from the time of the tree falling, about 9:00 p.m., until the rain stopped at around 4:30 a.m.  I haven't pulled an "all nighter" in quite a few years.  And, there is a huge difference between studying all night and physically working all night.  My body hurts everywhere.

My son was the person most inconvenienced by Irene.  If you can see the window with the air conditioning unit sticking out (Yes, I have central air, but he feels his room doesn't get cool enough.  I'm not going to wear a sweater in July for his comfort.  Anyway, I digress), this is my son's room.  While my husband and I were bailing, I suggested he get everything out of his room and begin to pile it up in the guest room.  I told him the ceiling could collapse at any time.  Unfortunately, the excitement of the storm sort of paralyzed him.  I practically had to slap him to get him in motion.  In the end, he was able to empty most of his room and the ceiling hasn't collapsed as yet.  *sigh*

To make matters worse, a tree fell on my son's car.

 

This tree looks small in comparison, but, trust me, it's big.

 I, on the other hand, am trying to look at the positive in this situation.  What is positive, you may ask?  The biggest positive, for me, in this is the idea of getting my son to go through all his CRAP and cull and sort and basically clean up his stuff.  I'm just going to keep this thought running through my mind.  This is going to be my positive meditation each day until we have put this chapter of our lives behind us.

This is just my small story in the Hurricane Irene book of stories.  I am grateful it wasn't too bad.  I took a tour of my little neighborhood of 126 homes.  I stopped counting homes with trees on the roof at 40.  The neighborhood is unrecognizable.  Everyone was damaged in one way or another.  Thousands of trees are down.  Dozens of homes are flooded.  We can all commiserate in our tales of woe.  I'm so glad no one was hurt.  I'm grateful to have insurance.  I'm grateful to have a job.  I'm grateful to have my health and ability to clean up the mess.  I'm grateful to have a husband who knows his way around a chainsaw.  I'm grateful to have a son, who after an initial hiccup, stepped up and really helped get things working again.

We are going to be alright.  It's going to take time, but everything will be repaired, replaced and restored.  In the meantime, we have a big mess to clean up.

 This is a big pine tree.  Fast neighbors with chainsaws take half of it away quick.

 

 My son standing next to the root of the big oak

  I think there may be enough sun here to grow tomatoes next summer.  :)

 Trying to get the insurance company on the phone.

There are 20 more trees down around the property.  We will be working on this for a while.  Btw, if you need any firewood, you can email me.  Come over, you can take all you want, free.  :)

Irene songs. We just HAVE to keep a positive attitude.

This one is hilarious.

 

This one is pretty literal, but from a different Irene hurricane.

This one is pretty and a rap.  Sweet.

 And this one is just traditional.