Great Flood

Another Leak, oh my!

declutteringthestuff Great Flood, Life Happens

Some of you may remember that we had our house flood about 2 years ago.  We affectionately (??) refer to it as the Great Flood of 2015.  That was a horrible time.  House flooded so we moved into a hotel, John’s dad passed away, and our daughter got married all within a month.

Barb’s first day with students this year was Tuesday.  She came home to a damp rug in the master bath.  Thought that was odd and decided to wash the bath linens.  Walked into the guest bathroom to standing water.  Not as deep as the Great Flood!  This was about 1/4 of an inch.  Just enough to be contained in the bathroom.

She immediately turned off the water to the house (lesson from the Great Flood) and began cleaning up the mess.  This time we didn’t need the industrial water vacuum called out!  It appeared the water was oozing from the boundary of the hallway tile and bathroom flooring.  Thankfully, it oozed into the bathroom which is slightly lower.

Plumber was able to arrive on Thursday. Yep, we went 2 days basically with no water.  When we had to flush, we turned on the water and quickly did anything else that needed water (washing our body quickly!!)

We had a leak in the pipe to the master bath shower.  He was able to fix it within an hour!

IMG_4221
Why does our house like to leak???

Thankfully, the wall they had to remove is in the linen closet.  A few things were damp but not permanently damaged.  The plumber recommended a restoration team.  Having been there before, we opted to rent an industrial dehumidifier and fan.  It is a small space between the shower and wall.  We feel we didn’t need a restoration team for this one!

Now we have to listen to these 2 devices for several days.  Never so glad to be back at work!!

Another FORCED look at what is in the linen closet again!!

Decluttering the kiddo’s stuff

declutteringthestuff 2015 in 2015, decluttering, Great Flood, packing party

Kiddo history  We have 2 adult kiddos (28 and 26). They both went away to college, leaving home in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Their bedrooms have remained as they left them until recently (thank you “Great Flood”). We are now trying to reorganize their rooms into a guest room and den/office area.

Kiddo 1 recently married.  We are assuming she will not being moving back in.  Most of her belongings are gone but the sentimental stuff was boxed up and left here.

Kiddo 2 moved home for a year after college to prep for med school and is now back on the opposite coast – in med school! She left mostly sentimental stuff here and not packed up.

Unpacking after the “Great Flood”  As we are unpacking the boxes, each box must be opened. The packers were not really detailed about contents and frequently marked the boxes for different rooms. Very frustrating to say the least!

Kiddo 2 called today while Barb was looking into a box from her bedroom.  A few items were discussed and kiddo 2 made a great suggestion:  why don’t we set a certain amount of time and FaceTime so I can quickly let you know if it is a keeper or a goner?”   We knew she was smart!

So we promptly switched to FaceTime, set a 10 minute limit, and decluttered 4 pairs of shoes, 3 formal dresses from high school, and about 20 knick knacks together!  She might be almost 3000 miles away, but we still were able to get her to declutter her stuff!

  

  

2015 in 2015 Update #5

declutteringthestuff 2015 in 2015, decluttering, Great Flood, minimalism, packing party , ,

We can’t believe how much stuff we have decluttered!  After the “Great Flood”, we have been unpacking and decluttering along the way during July.  Our stuff was delivered July 14 and we staying the night for the first time July 30.  We had to wait for a bathroom to be functional.  Things are not quite back to normal but they are coming along.

Here are the numbers so far for 2015:

House = 5269

Garage = 2424

Barbie’s, etc =  2301  (See this post for details)

GRAND TOTAL = 9994 with 32 trips to Goodwill.  9 of these trips were this recent month!

Items removed this month = 1632 !!

WE WILL MAKE IT TO 10,000 ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE HOUSE!!  Who knew that we would actually declutter this much stuff when we started in January.  We were tempted to go around and find 6 items but we are too tired tonight.

We didn’t eliminate any stuff from the garage this month.  It is still full of boxes/belongings/furniture that used to be in the house.  The Barbie category didn’t change either.  The toys left are in the rafters of the garage and can wait until we have more of the house completed.

While we are unpacking, we keep thinking how much more work it would have been with 8362 more items.  The approximate 1000 books alone gave us a backache!

Life in the Motel musings

declutteringthestuff Great Flood, minimalism

Since the “Great Flood of 2015”, we have been a resident of the local Residence Inn since May 19.  They provide breakfast daily, “happy hour” 3 days a week, and all the stuff needed to stay in their rooms.  We are in a studio room – king size bed, living area and full kitchen with most of what you would need to stay there.

Here are some of our musings.

  • Our larger couch is way more comfortable to sit on to watch movies.
  • Streaming movies hasn’t been a problem.  They provide decent wifi.
  • The knives they provide SUCK!
  • 4 plates for the both of us is not enough if we eat/prepare more than one meal a day.
  • 4 glasses are not enough either.
  • 4 utensils for eating is definitely not enough!
  • They should provide a sponge for the kitchen. 
  • We miss our washing machine.
  • The coffee maker just isn’t the same.
  • We miss our gas stove.
  • Electric stovetop is easier to clean than our gas stovetop.
  • It is ridiculous that they will come into the room to change the towels and make our bed every day.  
  • Glad they have the “We are all set for today” sign.
  • Not sure we could live full-time in 450 sq ft.
  • Walls are nice to have.
  • Cleaning up 450 sq ft is easier than 1300 sq ft.
  • The Dog likes his daily walks – there are police dogs in training staying here and he really likes leaving his scent on every bush!
  • We won’t miss carting our recyclables from the hotel to the house.
  • The hotel should make a better effort at recycling.
  • We have generated a lot more waste in the last 2 months. 
  • This may be larger than our RV, but it feels more confining.

Falling off the Wagon . . .

declutteringthestuff financial simplification, Great Flood

We feel like we are spending money hand over fist!  The Great Flood of 2015 seems to have resulted in great profits for Home Depot!  Our contractor is purchasing most of the supplies there.  When the “water mitigation” crew removed our doors and door frames, they also took the door knobs!  So a trip to HD to purchase door knobs.  The doors were installed – now molding and baseboards needed to be picked out.  Today, we went and ordered the carpeting and “wood” flooring.  We debated eliminating the carpet, but we like having warm feet in the winter upon rising!  Guess these are needed items so maybe “Falling off the Wagon” isn’t exactly appropriate. Continue reading →

Unplanned Packing Party Update #2

declutteringthestuff Great Flood, packing party ,

So we are basically 3 weeks post flood.  We are referring to the event in multiple ways:  the day our house leaked;  the great flood of 2015;  the unplanned remodeling;  the unplanned packing party.  It really depends on the day!  Moving to a small studio hotel suite has been challenging to say the least.  The house being empty isn’t bothering us – maybe decluttering the stuff has made a difference in our views!

Things removed:  drywall, all flooring, all doors and door frames, bathroom vanities, and all our belongings.  Removing the damaged drywall, etc was $8331.  Asbestos test was $750.

Now to the rebuilding:  The furniture is being restored at a cost of $6927.  Insurance gave us $24,197 for structural repairs.  As of today they have replaced all damaged drywall, texture coated the walls, prime coated the walls.  Monday they will be painting all the walls except for the bathrooms.  We have decided to do a bath remodel while everything is removed (pics in next post.)  Hubby will be adding porcelain tiles above the new tub!  We are hoping the doors are installed this week.

Here are some pics of our dining room. left one is before any repairs. Right one is from last Thursday before the texture coating and primer coating was applied.

IMG_1685                                        IMG_1860