Venting...

I need an outlet...so here it is....

We spent the morning running errands and picking up supplies for the house. Once we were there I had no motivation to do anything. Anthony and I both took about an hour nap before getting to work. We spent the afternoon stripping the old, stuck on vinyl which actually came up easier than I thought it would. I took out most of the tack strips while Anthony finished the kitchen. The neighbors came over and had an mis-hap with their a/c unit so we tried to help them get the water out of their attic. We chatted waiting for the vinyl installer to show up so we could show him the problem areas in the house we were worried about. He said we could just screw the subfloor back down and all would be well.

Anthony and I went to dinner, came home, and I realized how much crap we still have to do. In order to get ready for the vinyl, we have to screw down all the floor, every 4 inches, we have to get all the crap we scraped up thrown away, and edge around the walls still. In order to start the hardwood, we have to move all the kitchen contents....somewhere else, and get all the staples removed from where the pad was tacked down. We still need to rip off the rest of the baseboards and finish pulling up the tack strips. All while trying to get ready for school next week. Needless to say, I spent the evening crying in my bedroom again, feeling entirely overwhelmed and frusterated to not have a place to call home. I can't stand this "living in 2 places" anymore. All I want is to move back into my put-together house. I want to leave for 3 days and come home to it all put back together. Thinking off all the work we have to put in next week, I just don't see how we're going to come out alive. I know it will all work out and life will be fine. It's just another one of our adventures. But, I just can't see it all actually working out in the 8 days we have left in the hotel. To make things EVEN better, we have no quote from the insurance yet, and we're still waiting for a quote to start on our counter tops. Uhg!

Waiting is the worst part of all.

If you're still reading, sorry...had to get it all off my chest

Good News....Finally

Thinking we fixed it...then, good night, we went to bed....

Every footprint is water...lots and lots of water...

I wish this picture showed HOW much water there was....you also cannot tell that the vinyl is floating on the other side of the kitchen table all the way into the pantry.

yes, please, save the carpet (it's gone, no worries, not putting THAT back in my house)

I think I now know more information....

The Estimator is very happy because we got all we asked for. We're getting money to fix my floor (not replace it). We're having our cabinets ripped out (which is good, because we can get the floor dry underneath) but we are able to save them and put them back in. We are getting money to replace the counter top, and shouldn't have to rip up too many walls. I'm officially out of my house for a month, but it could be as little as 2 weeks.

We have enough time to rip the house apart and do some repairs ourselves. We are hoping to put in woods floors (thank you Rob and Ruth), new counter tops, and possibly paint the walls while we have no floors in. I can see light at the end of this tunnel and the world is no longer crashing down on top of me. I'm enjoying being able to stay in a hotel with my family (including my cat), being paid to drive the extra 30 miles, and dinner included when we decide not to cook dinner.

Thank you Jeff for being an awesome helper and working for us, and making my life so much easier to manage, knowing I have someone to trust through this whole process!

Why Even Plan?

So, the plan was to take all my summer projects and put them into a lovely post this week. But...instead of that, I'll be moving out of my house, into a hotel, and watching my new house be ripped apart and (hopefully) put back together.

In the process of summer projects, we were putting up more shelves and hit a water line. After about an hour and $10 later, we thought we had fixed the problem and could patch the hole back up and just laugh it off. Morning came, and this was not so...no more laughing.

I had about an inch of standing water in my kitchen, and my living room carpet was completely soaked. The vinyl came up easy because the hot water had melted the glue. We ripped up the carpet, got rid of the pad, mopped/sucked up the water and had fans running all night.

I got a call from a friend last night who has gone through this twice now and gave me the number to for a company that can help. We called him last night, and after coming over this morning, we were told we're moving out for a few days. It's going to take 3 days to get all the water out of the house. We had about a foot of water under our house and some of the flooring is going to have to be removed. All my bottom cabnets are coming out and some of the top ones. I'll have walls ripped out. And, at this point, I don't know what else....

Please pray this goes by quickly with no more issues. Thank you for everyone's concerns and offers to help. I'm not sure what we're doing, so I'm not sure how to help. Keep you updated...

out of stress....you get no pictures yet....

Vacation!

I was going to wait until I had all the coast pictures before posting this, but I'm getting impatient.


The first day it was foggy until we passed over Neahkahnie Mountain, then the sun was out. So, before even being at camp, we jumped out of the car for our first photo shoot :)

Day 2 - hike up Neahkahnie Mountain

Day 3 - CRABBING!!!!

Before we left, it wasn't very warm...

Anthony and David throwing out the small crabs

I had fun playing with the tiny ones. I needed some entertainment.

MacKenzie really didn't like it at first...

Almost finished.

We caught 5 all together. But Jeffery and Vincent were by far the biggest.

Yes, we named them all.

Still day 3...

We went to Short Sands and took pictures in front of the waterfall.

These pictures are about 20 min after we started, I was getting bored of normal smiling.

As cute at this picture is...it's really awkward to hold a kiss while people are taking your picture.

Day 5

Octopus Tree!


Day....I don't know what day we're on anymore...

Tillamook!

Not only do they have a cow to stick your head in....but delicious ice cream too!

On top of Neahkahnie Mountain again. This is the bay where we stay almost every year.

We had a great trip. The weather turned out ok. The last 2 days were the best, the sun finally came out.

There are pictures somewhere proving I DID get in the water, but only shortly. I know Oregon has cold water, but it was exceptionally cold this year. I showed Anthony how to body board correctly haha. At least that's my excuse for being out there. Until next year.....

Why do I love my house?

I love my house for lots of reasons:

1 - I have lots of space to keep all my crap

2 - It's mine

3 - I can turn up the music as loud as I want.

But at this moment I 'm loving my house because my utility bills came today and I can afford to heat it in the winter and keep it cool in the summer. I'm very very happy with paying bills this month!

Hooray efficient house!!! How I love you!

Obviously an old picture...because I'm sure I have a yard, fence...and trees...

Old and Older

Since I was able to drive I really wanted a blue Chevy. Thanks to Anthony (and family) we've had a wonderful rusted blue Chevy for a few years. Well, yesterday she died. She has been dying for a few months now, but now she's dead. We tried push starting her, jumping her, and pulling her around the parking lot with other trucks to start her...poor truck. She will not start without a new battery and we just aren't going to fork up the money for that...any why not?

....because tomorrow we pick up this wonderful beauty! This is the new (older) and improved beast! 1986 GMC High Sierra 2500. Awww we love the new truck!

As sad as I am to see the Chevy go, I'm happy to be driving something bigger and more reliable. Good bye old, hello older!

Can I just be a kid again...?

Before people starting denting my car....

So, more complaining...

About a month ago I was driving down I84 headed to work, when I hear this POP! I look and I have a nasty rock chip in my windshield. I'm annoyed, but no big deal, I can fix that :)

In that same week I'm working down town and I come out of work in the rain and see that my bumper is white (on my navy car, not cool). Someone backed into my car and I know have a cracked bumper. Annoyed, but whatever I can deal.

Anthony and I fixed the rock chip in the windshield right before we went camping about 3 weeks ago and were so proud of ourselves for actually getting something done.

This is the fun part. This week I'm driving to work and notice the rock chip has split all the way down to the bottom on the windshield and is working it's way up. We call the company that fixed it and they will give us a credit of the repair to a new windshield. The insurance company is cool enough NOT to pay for it this time. So, I'm looking at a $250 bill for a new windshield. The worst part of the whole story, is that in 2 weeks the car has it's first dents and they were completely out of my control.

UUUUG!

What did we decide to do? At this point...nothing... We're going to deal with the broken windshield until we have money, we can find a lower price, or until we have to fix it.

Yea, right about now, I'd like to have the issues of a 7 year old in the middle of summer. I'm bored and I think I want to go back to school, because I don't want to clean my room. Yea, wish that was my problem :) Let's go back in time a few years and just be kids again.