Sunday, June 3, 2007

ya gotta be kidding me...

So, it's about 1:45 am and I can't sleep. I was asleep for about 3 hours when I thought I heard some noises. It was my hubby walking about, probably back and forth from the bathroom. At any rate, I'm up and can't fall back to sleep. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to stay ahead of the blogging curve.

By the way, anyone got tips on how to de-stinkify a basement that's been hit with some water damage?? It all went down on Saturday afternoon. Technically, the rain came Friday. It was pretty much massive, torrential downpour. There was all sorts of flash flooding... it was major, major rain. I didn't really think anything of it, since we kind of live up on top of a hill. I mean, we've had rain at this house before without any problems. And then, Saturday afternoon, it dawned on us that we still don't have gutters on the house. Being that Mike was not home when it rained, he didn't even think of it when he got home, and as I said before, I thought the elevation would take care of things for us.

Alas, it did not. Apparently, the rain flooded one of the basement window wells and just poured into the basement. In about a half hour we received almost two inches of rain, and I kid you not when I say that much of that ended up in our basement. So Saturday afternoon we made a mad dash, moving furniture and cleaning up. We wet-vacced as much as we could, got fans going 24 hours a day, and moved the dehumidier right next to the damaged spot. Luckily, the water only came in through one window, and the damage is contained to only about 1/4 of the basement room. Unluckily, it has been rainy and damp since Friday night, and despite our best efforts, it is taking a very long time to dry out downstairs, and it's getting stinky. We don't know what to do!!

So here's what we're thinking as of right now, and please, PLEASE make suggestions if you've dealt with this before!!

1) The in-laws suggested we wait a couple days until they get back from vaca... to give it time to dry out, and then use their carpet cleaner to try and clean things up.

2) Mike would like to rip up and remove all of the carpet in the basement and murder the contractors who had scheduled to put our gutters on the house on Friday, but didn't because they "didn't have time", and left the house at about 4:30 pm to start their weekend festivities.

So, yeah. Mike is not very happy. We've been without gutters for almost two weeks now, and he has been worried about something like this the whole time. And now I have to admit that he was right, and well...

So, other than the smellyness of my house, things are actually coming along quite nicely, on the outside. If the rain stops (and it might not for a couple days... booooo!) it should only take another two work days for the contractors to finish everything up (gutters and all)!! And then we can get to work painting the door, re-staining the deck, de-stinkifying the basement and whatnot. I'm building a picnic table, too! Hooray!

Ok, I need to go and try to fall asleep. Wish me luck!

Oh, and did I mention that tomorrow is my last day with students?? And it's a half day??? And that Tuesday is my last work day until the end of August???? Well it is! Maybe that's why I can't sleep... the anticipation is killing me!!!!!! Oh also, kind of funny... I'm going to Hersheypark on Thursday. With a bunch of 9th graders! Oh wait... they'll technically be 10th graders... does that make me less of a nerd??? Yes, I think it does!

Oh and also, Bird, I am TOTALLY jealous that you got to play ball with girls from the team at PSU. Can I tell you that that is like... MY DREAM??? I would have been drooling.

Oh and also, Anna, I am totally embarrassed that you shared my French Revolution video with people I'm not related to. I totally wish they had put the version I played for my 6th period class on youtube, because that version was much better!!

Oh and also, I'm now in training to do the Heptathlon (sp??)! Since jav is out of the question due to the fact that it murders my elbow every time I try to throw hard, I thought I could do the hep just for fun!! Obviously, jav is involved in that, but I won't have to throw it hard since other events are also involved. And I'm also trying to find more 5k's and am training more for that. I think I'm just too competitive, and around here competitive volleyball is too far and few between. So now I can keep myself busy for the summer!

Ok, I'm actually gonna go, now. Zzzzzzzzz. That's me, trying to sleep. Goodnight:)

2 comments:

Sara K. said...

Sorry to hear about the stinky basement. Sounds like you're on the right track with pulling up carpet and airing everything out. I would suggest that Mike rethink murdering the contractors. We'd miss him at the reunion.

I did have my own personal fiasco with water and flooding a couple weeks ago. I stared filling the sink to do dishes and got distracted. Me?!?! I was probably one task too many in my multi-tasking morning routine. I ended up upstairs getting kids #2-4 dressed for the day and doing hair, brushing teeth on whatnot. I came downstairs, heard running water and literally was about to yell at Lydi and Gaby for leaving the water on, when I realized, oh boy, this was my doing. My sink, which is about the biggest kitchen sink you can get, was overflowing onto the HARDWOOD floor, puddling across all the way to the fridge. I wanted to cry. I might have cried, it's all a blur. So, I wiped it all up, thinking well, it could have been worse. A day later my whole floor cupped. So it's bumpy, like driving over railroad tracks. They are more like speed bumps that prevent the kids from running and sliding across the kitchen. My dad assures me that it takes weeks for wood to thoroughly dry out, so there's hope. It does seem to be a little better. We were planning at some point to refinish them, but man do I feel like an idiot. My solution is to never wash dishes in the sink again.

Anna@Exasperation said...

Sara, I think that's a good solution. Too bad I have tile, or I would use that as a reason at my house.
Alyssa, while I don't believe Mike should actually harm, mame or murder the contractors, I do believe it is within his rights to have a stern discussion. 4:30 is ridiculous, especially if they were late starting your job.
As for the smell, we've had much rain and much smell as well. We have discovered all sorts of little leaky areas of our house that need to be caulked and the like...and we live in Texas so we get Texas sized storms several times a week for the last month. Awesome.
I hope you finally got some sleep.
Lastly, I have a challenge for you. Apparently, the name "Maverick" is not going to be Scott's official callsign. Lame. So I thought you could do us all a favor and think of a good list of potential callsign names for him. That should keep you busy for at least five minutes.