You Get What You Wish For!!

Well, I didn't WISH for my basement to flood, but remember yesterday, at the end of my post, I may have typed the words,

"Something is bound to happen soon enough to shake things up!"

Well, things happened and shake up is an understatement! I had such perfectly relaxed and enjoyably fun plans for my evening yesterday. I had to get my oldest to karate, where her dad would then take both of them home with him afterward. Afterward I needed to drop a check off for a friend and then go home, let the dogs out, eat and hit the store for some stuff for the race this weekend and school pictures next weekend. I was going to wrap up my night with an evening karate class and some relaxation on the couch with some mindless tv. It was a kid free night and hubby was at work, so it was a night to get a bunch of running done with no demands or timeframes. Ahhhh... best laid plans right?!

Instead, I got the first two things done and headed home to let the dogs out. When I walked in the door I set down my work stuff and turned to go downstairs. I was actually baffled for a moment as to what I was seeing at the bottom of the stairs and then it hit me... WATER! A whole lot of freaking water!! (Don't mind the dirty clothes I threw down there that morning.)

My first reaction was fear because I couldn't hear the dogs moving around in their kennel under the stairs like usual and there was a lot of standing water. As I made my way down the stairs the reality of how bad it was hit me.

All of the dark spots are standing water. The lighter spots are wet carpeting where water squished up over my feet as soon as I stepped down. I immediately called The Hubby at work. When he didn't answer I simply texted "The basement is flooded." That got a quick response! He was home less than 30 minutes later with a fire hose and water pump. Turns out our sump pump died. With all the rain we got over the last two days, we're lucky it went out while we were home to take care of it and on a day when we didn't have any kids at home. The walls are studs are all wet, there's damage in every nook and cranny from the living area to the laundry room, to our bedroom. Oh and the dogs were safe, but standing in almost 2" of water for who knows how long.

After I let the dogs upstairs and outside I could hear a cat wailing from downstairs. I figured he was stuck someplace horrible. Nope! He was stranded on Couch Island and was less than thrilled about it! I rescued him of course, so he and the little kitty remained on the stairs spectating my clean up skills until The Hubby locked them away so we could leave doors open to pump out water and start carrying everything to the garage. A HUGE thank you to a couple of Duluth Fire's finest who came to help us in our time of need. Three strong firemen and our basement went from pre-donation clutter to completely empty (except the laundry room which was piled several feet high with soaked blankets, sheets and clothes because the water got into the newly folded baskets of clothes. *sigh*).

The water removal guys finally showed up at 11pm and finished their task at 2:15am. To say we are tired today is a complete understatement! Today, The Hubby has been on the phone with adjusters, insurance agents and contractors trying to get the ball rolling right away. We are out a bedroom for the time being. My dresser is in the garage, as is the rest of our bedroom. Except the bed! That's in the middle of our living room floor. I'm not sure how we will fit six people in one level of our house. I know people do it all the time, but with two dogs who will be locked out of the basement and two cats who prefer the upstairs... I think it's going to feel a bit crowded for a while. We'll probably do some bedroom rearranging and double up the little ones until the contractors can get in and do the repairs.

On the bright side... we were planning to remodel the basement - living area, bedroom and laundry room - in a year or so. This gives us a bit of a jump start. This isn't the way I wanted to go about it. The leg work and paperwork... UGH! This weekend will be spent finishing laundry, going through all of the items and making a list of what is damaged, when we bought it, how much it costs and then the fun of replacing the things that need replacing. Oh and of course, I'm sure we'll end up fighting with the insurance company because we cannot have this done half way. With Emmy Lou's Mastocytosis and asthma, mold is a HUGE trigger, so we can't risk that with this repair, even if that means replacing things the wouldn't usually replace. I'm not going to risk a sick kid for them to save a few dollars. So, this should be great fun right?!?

Anyway... it was a crazy night. I ate lunch at noon and didn't eat dinner until after 8pm. I will admit that I ate my frustrations a bit and shared some buffalo wings with The Hubby. My main dish was a cheesy chicken though, so I wasn't horrible. Back on track today. The Hubby is a rockstar, dealing with all of these different people. Tonight we will have two kids home, plus a spare and my mom. I see it as a good dry run for figuring out sleeping arrangements for the next few weeks. Can I just say TGIF?!?!