Wednesday, August 23, 2006

new pics

Ok here is the latest batch of pics. It looks like we will only need to have our bottom cabinets replaced and that it will not be a special order so that is nice in that it should only take a few weeks to schedule and get them in. Then next up would be the floor and that is still up in the air a bit. More to come on that. Finally we are thinking about changing out counter top and that would be a special order but I dont think that would really impact things very much. We meet with the contractor next monday to discuss the plan and maybe start setting some dates. But in the mean time enjoy these pics of what used to be my kitchen!





Cheers!

Friday, August 18, 2006

And they are outta here!

Cabs are out pics to come. Its kinda funny when you walk into your living room and it looks like your kitchen and your kitchen looks very very empty. I still dont know whats happening in terms of which cabs get replaced or not but I hope to know soon. Also Im starting to get some info on the flooring and im very very hopefull that sometime next week (earlier than later) I will get a check from state farm so that I can get my floor back.

Oh I know I have not mentioned this in awhile but yes I am still training albeit not like I would prefer. Consistency is the key and lately I have been sporadic at best. I workout maybe 3-4 xs a week instead of a solid 6 with a rest day. This might not sound so bad but I really feel like im just maintaining my current level of fitness and not increasing at all and well yeah I have this little race coming up in a month that is 26.2 miles long and I dont feel ready for it. The farthest I have run so far is 10.5 and that was last saturday. Im hoping to do 11 or 12 tommorow and then 14-15 next sat. After that if I could pull off an 18 miler that would be really quite wonderfull. than I could start tapering down to lead up to the big day. If I can pull 18 then I will feel pretty good about the marathon. Otherwise im going to be pretty nervous. SO thats just one more chapter in what many people think of as "The book of stupid things Chris does."

Cheers!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

HA HA HA

Ok after some major acts of FUBAR things have been progressing very slowly with the house. Oh I do have to give a shout out for the boy scout troop at my church. They heard we needed help and I swear they sent like 50 boy scouts to my house and they were just packing up everything they could find. They really did save me a TON of time so thanks again boy scouts. Oh and Thanks Luke again for mowing my grass your a lifesaver! SO back to all things FUBAR! SO tuesday my cabs and vinyl were supposed to get ripped out but no. Everyone who came thought everybody else was going to do everything. ITs so the american way. SO long story short. Heres the update on where things are

Vinyle is gone
bottom cabs come out tommorow morning

Carpet sample is back from ITL so I have a value for that but no value for pad or the vinyle yet... just playing the waiting game.

Cabs -- so far cant be matched -- what does that mean you ask? well if they cant be matched then they ALL have to be replaced. IF thats the case we are looking at roughly 2-3 months till things are put back together again. Fun.

After the cabs are out you can expect some pics with the vinyle and cabs out.

Cheers!

Friday, August 11, 2006

pics of damage

Since a pic is worth a thousand words im just going to throw these up.




And it just keeps getting better

Well the guys from servicemaster came yesterday to help me evaluate whether or not I was going to need to file a claim with state farm. HA HA HA after being there for literally 5 min they said - "File you claim." I was like seriously????? And he replied Our job is going to cost around 2,000 just to dry everything out and that doesnt include fixing or replacing anything. SO let me give you a quick rundown of what all is ruined.

-- Carpet -- most of it has been cut out already -- eeekk
-- baseboards
-- my walls up to about 8" high in the low spots and 3-4' in the high spots
-- my kitchen cabinets

Whats still on the iffy list
-- all my vinyl.

SO whats happening now? The cleanup crew left 7 industrial fans and 2 very large dehumidifiers to help dry out my walls and see how much they can salvage. They come back today to take some more readings and I think they will know if the vinyle is gone today. SO big day for the house!! he he anyway thats whats up with me.

Cheers!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Snakes on a plane.

Yeah thats all I can say. "snakes on a plane...." Why is that you might ask? B/c the last two days have been ab-so-freaking-lutely crazy. Let me break it down for y'all

August 9th 7:10am
I walk down stairs to leave for work and am troubled by an unfamiliar sound that is EXTREMLY loud. as I come around the corner I am greeted by what is a pretty terrifying thing for any homeowner (i.e. sucker) to behold. What was it? Well to be frank it was roughly 1/2" of standing water on my kitchen floor and a large area of my carpet that was very very squishy. I can now make out the sound and its the sound of massive amounts of rushing water coming from my mechanical closet. I open the doors and I swear it was like that scene in the second ring movie where the mom opens the door to the bathroom and water is everywhere in the room. Everywhere and you just cant figure out where the water is coming from. SO I just stood there for probably 10 sec. in shock. Just staring at all this water thats well everywhere. Finally I was able to figure out where the water was coming from so I start trying to shut some of the valves to get the water off. I finally get the water off and there I am. Soaking wet and looking at toshi's food dish floating across the kitchen floor. I walked upstairs and told lisa that I wasnt going to work today and briefed her on the sitch. I went back downstairs and started to try and clean things up. Fast forward to about 10:30 when the floor is close to pretty much dry and I start making my way to find the replacement tank I need. Meanwhile lisa went to grampas and got the wet/dry vac and the carpet wet vac and was pulling gallons and gallons of water out of the carpet. I think 15 gallons was our best estimate at one point. And ya know what. thats a whole lotta water and the carpet is still really wet. SO around noonish I roll back into the house and start working on getting this tank installed. I had been warned to get good wrenches and to make sure the pvc was supported well so that it didnt break. Now you know I wouldnt be talking about this if it had gone smoothly! HA! yeah I was screwing it in BY HAND and the piece it screws into cracked!!!!! ARGGGGG I was 1/4 turn to far which means I was a 1/4 turn past being done. SO then I had to cut the pvc out go to lowes and buy pvc to re-create this jacked up joint the builder put in. I think it came as a big surprise to me that I actually got the right pieces and got it all glued together and working - With no leaks!!!!! SO its about 3:30pm now and I am wiped out. The kitchen is dry but the carpet despite lisa putting a smackdown on it is still really wet. SO that was it for the day. The high side of this is that I was able to get the whole thing fixed for roughly 55 bucks. Versus what a plumber would have charged to come out and fix it for me. SO thats good. SO that ends that day.

August 10th:
Ok so today the carpet is still pretty wet and Lisa was talking to a co-worker and he basically told her we should call our insurance company and find out what we should do b/c if their is bad enough water damage there is a good chance for things like mold or walls being weekend and what not. SO we talked and I was like ok. SO today at 4pm im meeting a guy to get an estimate of what the damage is from our catastrophe yesterday. Worst case scenario its really expensive and we turn a claim into insurance and are out our deductible plus we get the added bonus of getting a 10% per year surcharge for the next 3 years. SO yea! Dont you love insurance. Something that penalizes you when you use it. ITs AWESOME!

SO im leaving work early today to meet with the guy and i will let you guys know whats going to happen. On the good side if all the floors are ruined it might be a good time to upgrade! who knows.

Cheers!