Too little too late

Don’t you hate it when someone asks your opinion and doesn’t do anything with it? Thanks to those who commented or emailed with their favorite. For those who are curious the favorites really ran the gamut – there wasn’t one stand out winner. But alas, I’m not going to meet the deadline to submit my photos. At least not this year. They have to be printed, dry mounted on foam core and at the state fair office by Sunday. And that my friends, is not going to happen. Between the basement, my actual job and a smattering of other events going on this week I just haven’t been able to get them ready. We haven’t even had time to mow the lawn and after the massive rain and warm weather we’re encroaching on our town’s eight inch ordinance. I’m almost tempted to let Ryan burn it off. Okay, not quite.

Speaking of burn… the national planning level jumped from a 2 to a 3 and then up to a 4 within two days. For us it’s an indicator of the level of outside resources they require. So at a national planning level of one the local firefighters can generally handle the response. At a two they start to recruit other firefighters from nearby states. At a three they may ask engines from the western states to come out. By the time they hit four there’s a good chance Ryan will go out west. And a five – well I suppose that means they’ll take anyone that can work a shovel or a hose. We also got the official certification in the mail yesterday. Ring of Fire, LLC is a legitimate business now.

Meanwhile the basement continues. I fine sanded the family room last night. It’s ready for texture. I also finished painting the wainscoting. A few touch ups here and there and the laundry room will be done. Ryan sanded my scrapbooking room and applied the second coat of mud. There is still drywall to be hung in the closets and Ryan’s hunting room…but I guess that’s at the bottom of our priority list.

While at Lowe’s last weekend Ryan’s sister and I grabbed every paint sample in the store. I’ve had fun looking at the endless possibilities. Since moving in we’ve… excuse me… I have only painted one room. Ryan thinks paint is a waste of money. I think he’s full of hooey. J After being paint suppressed for nearly two years I’m really excited about being able to do whatever I want in my room. I looked long and hard at a blueish turquoise and an apple red but then realized it needed to match the flooring. I think its orangey tan with a little blue and green. It may work. It may not. But I haven’t drug myself out to the garage to take a good look at it yet.

I want it to be a really happy room. Lots of fun and creatively inspirational. Perhaps I should enlist the help of the interior designers in the family. But maybe you all have some phenomenal idea … what would you do with a room that has orangey, blue and green floors? Oh, and it has a hard wood ceiling. Don’t ask me why they put a floor on the ceiling but it looks kinda cool. It screams log cabin woodsy but I’m just not feelin’ it in that room. Love your thoughts…

Picture Poll

Some women here at work are trying to convince me to submit my photos to the State Fair contest. Take a look. Leave a comment or email me with your favorites por favor!

This is the John Hancock building in Chicago


This is a flooded field north of our town...



Just a newspaper...


My dad bailing hay...

Fire hose on Ryan's truck...

Construction has begun

We were up bright and early Saturday to start putting our basement back together. With the help of Ryan’s sister, brother-in-law and our good friend Jason we got drywall hung in the family room, laundry room and my scrapbooking room. It was actually… kinda… fun. Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

We got the first coat of tape and mud on the family room and my scrapbooking room. Since two walls in the laundry room had a chair rail with wainscoting (pronounced ‘wayne’s coating’) Ryan and I opted to put it along the other wall as well. This meant we didn’t have to take the time to tape, mud and texture that wall. After our help went home we made a trip to Lowe’s (my fourth of the day) for more wainscoting and installed it before we went to bed.

We started again early Sunday morning as well. Brother-in-law Tom helped us sand the family room and apply the second coat of mud. I spent the morning painting the newly applied wainscoting. After Tom left Ryan and I tried hanging drywall in one of the two remaining closets. It didn’t go quite as smoothly as it had the day before. I could see the steam rolling out of Ryan’s ears and decided it was time to call it quits before he burst into flames.

So we spent the afternoon wandering an air conditioned mall not thinking about the basement. We did however purchase the top chair rail to finish off the new wainscoting in the laundry room. Of course we couldn’t find anything to match the other stuff, but after searching three stores it’s close enough. So if you’re ever at our house and notice the trim is a little different – please keep it to yourself.

Steps until it’s finished:

1. Hang drywall in closets and hallway – tape, mud, dry and repeat
2. Paint and install chair rail in laundry room
3. Sand my scrapbooking room, apply second coat of mud and let dry
4. Sand the final coat of mud in the living room and scrapbooking room
5. Texture family room and scrapbooking room
6. Paint walls
7. Lay the new vinyl floor in my scrapbooking room
8. Hope the laminate wood floor goes back down in the family room
9. Install baseboards

Any takers?

A big thank you to Ryan’s mom who not only provided food, but also babysat our nephews so Tom and Melissa could help. Also want to thank Stefany who let us borrow her husband for the day.

helping a friend...

We spent the weekend ripping out the bottom two feet of drywall and insulation in the basement. Just thinking about hanging, taping, mudding, sanding, texturing and painting the new stuff about caused me to start hyperventilating. But just before I start to have a mental breakdown I think of my friend Becci.

By Friday afternoon I’d checked on my brother and sister, even my brother’s girlfriend. They were all fine. I was diving into a communication plan for Sep and Simple IRAs Friday afternoon when I realized Becci lived closer to the river than any of them. I shot her a text message asking if they were okay. Minutes later she wrote back. “Flooded. Lost everything.” I called her and found out they voluntarily evacuated Wednesday morning and have been staying with her mother-in-law. Thursday John had to borrow a boat to maneuver the four feet of water to check on the house. He looked in the window and saw Becci’s piano floating in the water. At this point there’s nothing I can do – there isn’t even really anything they can do until the water recedes.

Now thinking of the work that lays ahead of them makes my heart hurt. I really hope to get over there to help but between our clean up and the 4^th of July I’m not sure when it’ll happen. That might not be a bad thing. I’m sure they’ll have lots of help right away, but they may need more help after awhile when the volunteers thin out. It’s going to be a long process.

Many thanks to Ryan’s parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew for helping us this weekend. And a thank-you in advance to the friends and family who have already volunteered to help. It feels good to know we’re loved.

Flooding back home

Here are pictures of Elkader. Hard to believe we were camping near the pool just three weeks ago.

http://www.alpinecom.net/~ccrnews/

sick of water

After days and days of rain, dealing with a flooded basement – twice, and buying a bigger sump pump we’re still not out of the marsh yet. We have been relatively lucky with only 3 inches the first flood and maybe 5 inches the second. We almost had a third go at it when we took out the gas powered pump to help other people in town – but succeeded in getting it back to our house just before the water took over my scrapbooking room.

The southern part of town was not so lucky. Many had several feet of water in their basements and a dozen or so had feet of water on the main level which required the fire department to evacuate and sand bag. Some of the wives and I made lunch for the workers. Eventually residents started showing up. Many of them didn’t have anywhere else to go. The town festival is supposed to be this weekend. After many phone calls trying to find out if we’d get our deposits back, I think the committee is going to cancel it. We’re all dealing with water damage to our homes and don’t have the time or energy to pull it off this weekend.

Meanwhile, mold is starting to grow in our basement. I’m going to attempt to kill it off with bleach. However if we find more on the inside of the walls when we cut out a section of dry wall we’ll have to tear it all out. And if there’s mold in the drywall, there’s probably mold under the hardwood laminate floors. If that’s the case we’ll be making a call to our home owners insurance.

And on top of all that more rain is expected in a couple days.

I have pictures and even video of the basement while it’s flooded… however no way to post them yet.