Our house has been torn apart. Literally. The night of April 12th, I couldn't sleep. About midnight I decided to follow my usual remedy and came downstairs to fall asleep while watching TV. It worked! But I slowly awakened to the annoying sound of the dishwasher running. "But wait, it didn't sound normal... Whatever, I'm comfy... I didn't think I set the dishwasher to run again tonight... Jeff must have... Argh! The running water is making me have to go to the bathroom!" I finally decide to get up about 3:30am and OMG! The carpeting is soggy! And the kitchen wood floor is a giant puddle! I yell up the stairs to Jeff that we're flooding somehow and he flew down the basement to turn the water supply off. He stayed in the basement while I gathered every towel we owned. I repeatedly soaked up the kitchen floor with new towels then threw them out on the frost-covered deck to drip dry. When I couldn't soak up anymore, I joined Jeff in the basement. I had no idea the water was raining from the ceilings in the basement. I began the towel routine on the floors again after placing garbage cans, plastic bins and laundry baskets under spots where it was leaking most. Ceiling tiles literally disintegrated from being soaked with the water. Jeff and I were so cold and tired from hauling our damp mess out of the house.

We placed our claim online at 7:30am. No response. I called the insurance company at noon to follow up because we were worried about our saturated living room carpet that we hadn't touched. The insurance company assured us someone would call the next day (!) and we could do anything we deemed necessary to prevent the water damage from spreading. Jeff and I decided to cut the carpet where it was wet and take it out. Wow! The carpet and padding were so saturated they just poured water as we moved them out to the patio. At 2:30 we did receive a call from ServPro, the insurance company's restoration team, that they would be to our house within the hour. That's more like it!

So from Wednesday through the following Monday, our home was an obstacle course full of loud dryers and special floor mats with a zillion hoses. Paige, Jeff and I were forced to eat meals out then spend our evenings up in our bedroom to watch TV.

The fans are now gone and so is our carpeting, mud room flooring and basement flooring. Now Jeff and I have to resolve our claim and choose who will repair it all.

My parents came down Sunday and stayed til Thursday to help me deal with my mess. I purchased a workbench for Jeff online through Craiglist deciding since all our belongings were in upheaval, it was time to organize Jeff's tools that had been tucked into the little nook below the basement stairs. I enlisted my Dad to build one wall where we'd set up the work area and he did it in 3 days! Pretty spiffy! Now, the organization begins!

Last Wednesday (13th) was also Abby's 21st birthday. She told us her roommates opened a bottle of wine at midnight to celebrate. Kristin was in town for a tradeshow and took Abby out for dinner that evening. Abby called us later and sounded like she had a really great day.

I'm still unemployed, which for the past 2 weeks has been a godsend. But I have to admit, I'm getting a little nervous. A couple leads here and there, but nothing's come of them. So I've invented a project for myself: to redesign Jeff's company's website. It's been under construction for 3 years! Jeff says I can anticipate getting paid, but maybe a discounted rate. Right now, that sounds good to me!