When it rains it pours....

  "When it rains it pours and opens doors and floods the floors

we thought would always keep us safe and dry."  

  It is no secret that I'm not a fan of water!!!  It has never been more true than right now!  Soooo we had what we thought was a small incident of water in the kitchen until I went downstairs and found water all over the floor in the laundry room.  Then I decided to feel the wall to see if it felt wet, the wall felt soft so I (yes looking back I realize I wasn't thinking clearly) decided to push on the wall, well my hand went through the wall!!!  I ran back upstairs and started looking under the sink and dishwasher.  I took pictures and e-mailed my Dad where we discovered where two of the problems were.  Then when Zach got home and pulled the dishwasher out we discovered even more problems.  We started wondering if maybe we should turn it into insurance or not, leaning towards not but our agent told us to have a restoration company come look at it then go from there.  The first two companies we called said they couldn't come for over a week!!!!!!  Finally we found one that came right out and started looking at it and telling us all of our options and their recommendations.  They pointed out that our kitchen floor had a "hill" from the dishwasher to the living room (that's how much water was under the layers of floor, it was swelling and causing a "hill").  We quickly realized we were in a much bigger problem than we had originally thought.  Sadly we were told we would have to tear up our entire kitchen floor!  Our beautiful kitchen floor that Zach put in only 6 short years ago that we absolutely loved!!!!  Our final results in the kitchen were that we had to tear up the floor, take out under the sink, fix all of the pipes and hoses under the sink and between the sink and dishwasher, put in a new sub floor, take out part of the wall and replace the dishwasher.  In the laundry room we had to take out the wall, the ceiling tiles and redo more pipes.  So needless to say we turned it into our insurance company.

  This experience has been an eye opener for us!  First off what at first seemed like our 3rd choice of restoration companies couldn't have worked out better.  They were awesome!  They were always giving us options, letting us know their opinions and letting us know what stuff we could do ourselves to work off the deductible.  Second, I'm so grateful for an awesome husband who is always willing to work hard and is handy.  He would get off work and some nights work on the house until 2 in the morning just to wake up at 7 the next morning to head to work.  Third is we have the BEST FAMILY EVER!!!  When I felt overwhelmed and knew there was no way Zach and I could get done what needed done in time I called my Sissy and Jessica on the verge of tears and they showed up with car loads of kids and worked their bums off!  My brothers Shawn and Larin came ready to help move stuff out as well demo the kitchen.  My Dad was the designated babysitter : ).  Our nephew Cayleb was such a trooper and helped several late nights as well as all day and into the night when everyone else came.

All I can say about this whole experience is stress, stress, stress and thank heavens for the amazing restoration company that we ended up using.  They were awesome and made this whole crappy experience run as smoothly as it possible could.

And so it begins....
Day 1, oh how deceiving the damage first was (please excuse the crappy picture quality)

Good bye beautiful floor that I loved

It was very interesting as we went down multiple sub floors

to see all of the variety that once graced our kitchen

My  thoughts after our meeting with the claims adjuster and restoration company

Those blue dehumidifiers are INSANE!!!  Loud and WOW they suck ALL the moisture out of the air

Even 2 sub floors down got wet

As  you can see by Kabree's attire life still goes on despite our house chaos, luckily for us we had 2 very willing teenagers; Libby and Katie, to take Hanna and Kabree to dance

Feeding the hard working crew!!!  Seriously don't let their ages fool you this kids were hard workers!

  

Keagan, Grandpa Vance, Wyatt and Mattie making the best out of the 3X3 area they had to play :)

By week 3 of having our house tore apart and the constant stream of people in and out

I was going a little crazy!!!  FYI Hanna told me to take pictures of how I felt every week : )

 New sub floor in and wall patched up

 Basement wall patched

 The new floor

There were a few bumps along the way, when they went to install the dishwasher they found some wiring problems and part of the cabinet broke off, nothing they couldn't and didn't fix,

but at the time it was a bit disheartening.

When they first installed the floors, we freaked out a little because there were 2 sections that weren't flush with the rest, they were slightly raised.  But the floor guys came and fixed it.

FYI look close at the cleaners as well as the ridges on the drawers and cabinets, yes we lived in constant saw dust for a month!!!!

There is no way we could ever thank those who helped us enough!!!

  I have learned that floods are STRESSFUL, I have learned that having your house coated with sawdust can drive you to the loony bin, having constant fans and dehumidifiers can give anyone a migraine, I have learned that keeping a 2 year old, 5 year old and a 3 month old Great Dane confined to one room multiple days in a row is just as insane as it sounds and I have learned that I really don't like having a constant stream of people in and out of my house (fyi they were all awesome and very understanding of a very curious puppy and 2 very curious girls).

  During our 5 week ordeal we did spend one night in a hotel to escape the sounds of the fans and dehumidifiers and the smell of the sealants, one day at Heathers so we had a break from the bedroom confinement, one weekend in Arbon so we could eat food that didn't have to be microwaved and one meal with Gary and Sally.  One thing I'm proud to say is we survived and our house is put back together!

A Glimpse Into Our Lifes...

  First off lets be honest our life is CRAZY!!!!!  Mostly do to an OCD, EXTREMELY uncoordinated, slightly high strung Mother!!!  So here is an assortment of our daily activities, so that we can remember a few of our favorite things.

  Most days start sending Kabree off to school and Zach off to work, then Keagan and I jump into preschool.  But then there are our favorite days, the days Kabree doesn't have school!!!
  Keagan is obsessed with flash cards right now!!!  So for preschool we stick to mostly flash cards and coloring!

 A, B, C's

Keagan's favorite letter right now is "bbbbbb.....B"

 Number time
I wish I could take credit for teaching Keagan her numbers, but sadly Leap Frog Numbers Ahoy did

Story time, Kabree is loving that she is able to read some books and is always wanting to

read to Keke....and well of coarse Cleo because Cleo cannot ever be left out!!!

  After pre school and reading we do crafts.  These girls LOVE crafts, coloring, painting, anything crafty they love it!  Right now they are obsessed with these water paint books we found at the dollar store.  I can't lie I'm loving that these books appease them and that the finger and water paints can stay in the drawer for now. 

 Painting

 Painting wasn't enough this day so we had to color too!

Thank heavens for color wonder markers with this kiddo!!!

Our master pieces 

 Our latest thing is search and find books

    The girls LOVE to play the Wii, their favorite games are Wii party and Disney Just Dance.

 Dancing girls

 If Cleo starts to feel left out she starts nudging Kab with her rope until Kabree plays with her

   Everyday after school we pick up Hanna and Justice and they get to hang out with us for a few  hours.  These 4 kiddos are as close as cousins can be without actually being raised as siblings.

   

  Getting the new dishwasher was exciting for EVERYONE!!!  Mommy  was excited to FINALLY (after a month) not have to hand wash dishes anymore and the girls were excited to have a play house to decorate and a new slide.

 Cleo was very concerned where her girls were

 Decorating the inside of their house

Kabree discovered that the box could become a slide too

  Oh the faces of Keke, she is constantly pulling some kind of face or going cross eyed and if she gets even the slightest of reactions she keeps it up the rest of the day!!!

  Again being a house of girls we love to do our nails!  We usually just paint them but Aunt Jessica gave the girls each a set of press on nails for Valentines day!  They couldn't wait to put them on and were so excited to show them off.

FYI yes Keke's lips are blue, from her fun dip she had enjoyed earlier in the day : )

Keagan loved taking the nails off and then sticking them back on, they kept her entertained for hours!

What I see 90% of the time, Keke "loving" on Cleo, whether Cleo wants it or not!

    In a house of girls there is lots of Barbie, princess, baby dolls, dress up and the list goes on and on of all things the sparkle and shine.  Luckily for Justice we have lots of boy dolls, princes and boy dress up too!!

What Cleo does 3/4 the day 

This is how these two do quite time as of late

   We have an amazing Ward and neighbors and we have found a family we love to pieces.  Kabree's friend has school opposite days as her; which really stinks for them, but it works great for us Mom's.  It makes it so we can both volunteer every week and we just switch babysitting.  Keagan loves the days she gets to go to Ashleys and both girls love the days Sienna and Kelton come to our house to play.

 Surprise, surprise we do crafts when friends come to visit!

  Our lives might seem dull to some and a bit crazy to others but we sure love it and wouldn't change it for the world!