Demolition Day

Today is Demolition Day at our house.  All of the flooring in the downstairs of our home is coming up.  Stuart left the hotel this morning and got to the house for about 9:00 to let the workers in and give them a key.  They started by putting up plastic sheeting everywhere to help control the amount of dust that would have to be cleaned up.  Then they went to work pulling up the vinyl floor in the kitchen and the wood floor elsewhere.

By the time the workers left for a lunch break, most of the flooring was up and this is what the living room looked like when I was standing at the front door.

 

Here is the entry way with the stairs in front of me.  This part of the floor is higher than the rest and was not affected by the flood.  However, our insurance is replacing all of the other wood flooring so they agreed to replace this small piece as well just so it all matches.  The black tile "landing" that you see below is just inside the front door and it is also coming out.  It wasn't part of the insurance claim but we want all of the flooring to be the same and our contractor is working with us to try to get this included in the work and still stay within our budget. 

Still in the entry way, looking to the left into the school room/formal dining room area.

This picture below is of the living room and playroom from the back door area.  I never noticed how "peachy" those walls looked.  I'm going to repaint them all with the same neutral color we've started using in other rooms that we repaint as needed.  Eventually all of the house will be probably be that same color.  It is a very pale tan color and will lighten and brighten this area more.  I'd love to do the painting before they put in the new floors so I don't have to worry about drips but that would mean working through the night when the workers aren't here and I don't know if I have the energy for an all-nighter these days.

Insurance is covering replacement value of the flooring that we had as well as some other repairs.  We decided to do some of the work ourselves to save some money to put into upgrading some repairs.  We also wanted to be sure to find flooring that was extra durable and wouldn't scratch easily because our kids are still young enough to be destructive.  We decided to not use same wood floor that we originally had but chose something more durable and a little less expensive.  It is a commercial grade laminate that looks like wood.  Click THIS LINK to see it.  It is called Old World Florence and it doesn't scratch or dent easily.  It is a floating floor so it isn't glued down which means that individual boards can easily be replaced if they do get damaged.  Our contractor said that we can actually replace the carpet in the playroom (which isn't part of the flood claim) with this laminate flooring without effecting our budget since it is cheaper than the flooring that insurance paid us for.  I love this.  Not only would all of the flooring have the same consistent look but I would like to get rid of all of the carpeting in our home so this would be a small step towards that goal.  Carpet is impossible to get completely clean and I worry that it is contributing to the asthma and allergy problems that Nicholas and I have.

We are trying to do some of the repair work on our own in order to upgrade the vinyl flooring in the kitchen to tile.  Our contractor laid out a few choices in the kitchen for us to decide on.

We have been a bit overwhelmed with choices.   We want it to meet our needs by being pleasing to us but also durable for our kids.  However, we may sell the house in the next two years so we want to be sure that we make choices that will be selling points for houses in our area.  So we contacted a friend of ours who is a realtor to come by and talk with us and the flooring guy.  It was actually fun going through options with them. 

 

She helped us make the decision between the wood flooring and the laminate wood.  She said that buyers will love the look and durability and the fact that we can get it at a cost within our budget to allow us to cover the entire floor with the same thing is great (i.e. removing playroom carpet and black tile at entry way). 

The laminate we chose is on the top of the porcelain tile that we've chosen for the kitchen.  The tile will also go into the half bath, laundry room and little hallway that goes to the school room.

The tile is definitely an upgrade over the vinyl flooring that we had so that will be over the budget that insurance is paying for.  There are several other things that need to be done that aren't included in the insurance payment.  There needs to be some leveling done before the new floor goes in and some of the baseboards need to be replaced that insurance didn't say were affected by the flood. Also insurance is covering partial replacement of cabinets in the kitchen but we might need to put more money into those to make it look consistent.  But our contractor is doing a wonderful job to try to work with us and help identify projects that we might can do on our own or that don't really need to be done right now so that we can put that money into these other areas.  I'm sure we will still owe money in the end but what a blessing it will be to have new flooring all over the downstairs of our house.

Aunt Elaine

It has been a rough week with having everything we own in the first floor of our house packed up and moved into storage and our family moving into a hotel for an unknown length of time.  As we were heading to the hotel on Wednesday for our first night there, I got a call from my Dad.  He told me that my Aunt Elaine had passed away earlier in the day.  I was shocked and saddened.   

And I felt guilty as those regrets of "Why didn't we go visit them more often" popped into my head.  It is times like these that we realize just how important family is and how we are only blessed to share their lives for a short time on this Earth before they are called back to be with their Heavenly Father.

I have a special place in my heart for Aunt Elaine and Uncle Broox for helping me find Christ in my life.  I have vague memories of going to Broadmoor Baptist Church when I was little but at some point we stopped going.  I didn't really grow up with any sort of a spiritual relationship.  We probably saw Aunt Elaine and Uncle Broox about once a year and every time we visited with them they would talk to me about Jesus and encourage me to read my Bible and go to church.  They gave me a little white Bible which I did read and I still have that little Bible today.  

After I grew up and moved out of my parents' house, Stuart and I would still get to visit with Aunt Elaine and Uncle Broox occasionally and they still continued to talk to us about Jesus.  Stuart was already a Christian but I never heard him pray or talk about going to church and I never saw him read the Bible.  I wanted to believe but just reading the Bible wasn't enough for me.  I felt like I had my life together and I was doing just fine.  I didn't really think I needed "the crutch" of a higher power in my life. 

But my aunt and uncle never gave up on me.  Every time I saw them they let me know that He was there for me when I was ready.  Over the years I found myself talking to them more when they would bring up the subject and really listening to what they had to say instead of just nodding and hoping to change the subject.  

Then one day as I was rocking my newborn baby boy in my arms, I felt so humbled and so blessed that I prayed.  For the first time in forever, I prayed.  I prayed a prayer of gratefulness and I prayed a prayer for guidance in raising the little angel in my arms and for building our little family to be followers of Christ.  I felt totally in awe of His power and grace and I could so clearly see how He had been there in my life over the years even when I didn't acknowledge Him at all.  I realized that I didn't have my life together at all.  I just struggled a lot and stubbornly fought battles that He had already won for me because of my own prideful ignorance.  It was an amazing moment that I will never forget.  After that we started going to church and reading the Bible again.  I accept Jesus as my Savior and was baptized in 2009.  We are a Christ-following family and we are raising our children to know the Lord and walk in His path.  I am forever grateful that my aunt and uncle kept planting the seeds so that when I was actually ready I would be able to hear His still small voice.

Rachel had a dress rehearsal for her dance recital on the day of my aunt's funeral.  With the stress of the flood and living in a hotel, I hated to add stress to her by making her perform in the recital after missing the dress rehearsal.  I was going to drive the few hours to the funeral myself but we prayed about it and we talked with each other as well as with Rachel's dance teacher and decided that we needed to go to the funeral as a family.

So we packed up the van and headed to Louisiana.  Along the way, the kids made up the most amazing song!  It really touched my heart to hear them worshiping in their own fun way.  I just had to catch this video of them (if you are reading this in email you will have to click through to the actual blog post to be able to view the video):  

We made it over just fine and enjoyed some time visiting with my family and their friends and loved ones.  There was food and fellowship and lots of love for my Aunt Elaine.

We changed into our fancy clothes and headed to the funeral.  I had not packed anything fancy for the kids when we packed up our suitcases to move to the hotel.  However, we were blessed that a friend of mine had just offered two dresses that she was passing down and I still had them in the van with us.  Rachel was excited about them both and picked the most frilly one to wear to the funeral.  She also wore her sunglasses and Great Wolf Lodge wolf ears on the way but we did make her leave those in the car once we arrived at the funeral home.

The service at the funeral home was sweet.  Although Rachel had only met Aunt Elaine once before she started crying during the service.  I tried to comfort her but she just sobbed more so fortunately the family section was close to a quiet room so we scooted out of the pew quietly and I just held her in my arms for a while until she calmed down.  She is such a sensitive little girl.  She didn't want to talk much but just kept saying that she felt so sad and that her body was just making her cry.  It was really touching.

After the funeral we headed over to their church for more good food and fellowship.

Both of the kids really liked spending time with my cousin Elizabeth.  It really meant a lot to me to see them spending time with family members that they don't get to see very often.

Of course, I had to have lots of pictures of everyone and I think my Dad was all done at this point.  He was worried that we were making the round trip there and back home all in one day and he just kept saying that it was getting late and we needed to get back on the road before it got dark.  Once a daddy, always a daddy even when the kid is grown and on their own.

I will miss my Aunt Elaine greatly but her memory and love will remain with me forever.

Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head wiht oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Moving in to Great Wolf Lodge

**This post and a few others to follow are a little late in getting published.  I started them in the hotel but couldn't get pictures uploaded so I wrote the text while we there but gave up on publishing them until we were settled back in at the house.**

We are now out of our house and we have moved into a hotel so that our downstairs floor can be repaired from the flood damage.  The contractor has given us an estimate of 10 days to do the work but it could end up being longer. 

Fortunately, Stuart has spent a lot of time talking with our insurance company and with the manager at Great Wolf Lodge to try to work out a way for us to stay at a place that would be fun for the kids so they don't go stir crazy being cooped up in a little hotel room for 10 days.  With all of the repairs that are needed and the insurance deductible looming over us, we really don't want to have to come out of pocket for the hotel stay.  Thanks to a great deal that Great Wolf Lodge offers to families that homeschool and the generosity of the management at the resort, we will now call Great Wolf our home for the next 10 or more days, at no cost to us!

From the parking lot you can begin to see the awesomeness of this hotel.  Those are water slide tubes and a giant water slide funnel.  There is just so much fun inside that it couldn't be contained within the walls!

The kids couldn't wait to get inside.  Of course, the sound of howling wolves greeting us as we approached the door was just the perfect touch.

Here's the view from our room for the next week and a half.

This is such a major event for our family but we are holding to our faith that all will work out well in the end. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28.  I have packed up all of the kids school books and supplies so we will try to continue to work on their homeschool studies here. But we will also make sure that they have lots of time to blow off steam with all of the fun activities there are to do here.  I want them to feel like this is a fun staycation and not feel the stress that Stuart and I may feel as we deal with the issues around the house repairs.

Of course the kids are saying their own special prayers thanking God for helping Daddy to let us stay here for the the next 10 days!

Elements of True Character

We try to work every day on helping our children develop true character.  We want to start this now while they are young so that as adults they will make a difference in the world around them as community leaders, free-thinkers, seekers of knowledge and truth, and of course, loving and compassionate Christians.

I ran across this quote today and it is exactly what I pray we are teaching in our daily homeschool studies.  Math, reading, science, and more are taught, but above all I hope that my children are learning about the elements of true character.

“Character is the aim of true education; and science, history and literature are but means used to accomplish this desired end. Character is not the result of chance, but of continuous right thinking and right acting. True education seeks to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also, honest men, with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love. It seeks to make men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life. It is regrettable that modern education so little emphasizes these fundamental elements of true character.”

– David O. McKay

Packing Out

It has been a challenging few weeks as we have been working on the long process of getting our house back to normal after The Great Flood of 2014. we dealt with giant drying machines, digging our stuff we need on a daily basis from piles created in a mad dash to save them from water damage, finding a general contractor for repairs, and then the regular craziness of our lives on top of all of that.

Lately my anthem I sing to myself throughout the day is Hillsong's new song called Oceans.  I think the name is quite fitting considering how water has had such an impact on our lives lately.  Here's a video of the song I found on YouTube:

Today we start on the next step in the recovery process.  It's time for "Packing Out" in order to get our stuff out of the way so the flooring crew can tear up the old floors and put in the new.  Movers are here now and they are packing up everything in the downstairs of our house.  That's half of our house!  They will move everything into a storage pod that was delivered to our driveway this morning. 

The unit seems a little small to me.  It will need to hold a couch, washer, dryer, sofa table, long school table and chairs, kitchen table and chairs, china cabinets, multiple book cases, plus boxes and boxes of school books, board games, pots/pans, etc.  I'm not sure if they are packing out the dishwasher and stove too but that might need to be in there too.  And this list only includes the things on the affected floor area.  The playroom is a step higher than the rest of the floor so it didn't get water damage but they are talking about packing it out too in order to keep everything from getting dirty during the demolition process.  Apparently removing wood flooring that is glued to concrete can be a very involved and messy process.  There was talk about chunks of concrete coming up with it and having to level things out before putting in the new flooring.
The kids were quite excited watching the whole delivery process. I had to get this quick video of how the truck moved the unit into place:

I called the town yesterday to see if the storage unit could be on the street but they said that is against the town code.  The lady said it would have to go in my driveway yet even then a code enforcement officer could give us a warning to have it moved in some time frame.  Hopefully this will be a quick process and it won't cause any problems with the town.
Insurance is putting us in a hotel starting tonight.  It could be up to 10 days so we've been hoping to get a hotel with a pool so the kids can have something to do during school breaks (Yes, I'm bringing all of our school stuff with us!  The school year isn't over just yet.)  We have really been hoping to stay Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine because their amazing water park is available for guests to use. There have been issues with insurance covering it but Stuart has been on the phone with insurance several times this morning and he is at Great Wolf right now with the kids trying to work out the details.  I literally just got a text message from Stuart that said he worked it all out.  He said the kids are very excited.  He's amazing! That will make for a wonderful "staycation" for the next 10 days...and I can tell you we could all use a little down time right now.
The movers are busy bees downstairs.  They discovered that a wet box had been on our dining room table (aka school table) and after sitting there for a few weeks now has a moldy spot on the wood.  Most of it wiped off but some has gotten down into the wood. 
I think I heard one of the movers say that it might take them 2 days to pack it all out.  And I think there is a concern that it won't all fit in that storage unit after all.  Just another bump in the road but I keep reminding myself that Jesus is with us and He's got this all under control.