Step One: Prevention

Well, our home is officially a disaster. Monday night after we got home and discovered the water damage, we called insurance who quickly referred us to a prevention specialist. They came over right away, whistled in that "ouch" sort of whistle and said they'd be back in the morning with their crew. 

Jake worked from home on Tuesday so he could be around if the workers needed anything. He had me pretty worried when he said their was drywall everywhere and the house was a complete disaster. He could barely find a path to the door to take Cosmo out. But these guys know what they're doing and fortunately had the house all cleaned up (as clean as it could be in our situation) by the time Alora and I got home. 

So here it is: our house that, although far from spotless, was at least somewhat presentable

now looks like this.

 

The company we are working with is Servpro. They do fire and water clean up and restoration. So far we've been very happy.  They're fast, efficient, reassuring, and they make and area that could be a complete disaster, not as chaotic as it could be.

Although Servpro is doing a great job in keeping our home in some sort of order,  these are still not exactly great living conditions for a dog and almost-two year old, or any of us for that matter. We have 8 industrial fans, 6 floor heaters, no air conditioning, holy walls, exposed carpet nail strips, unhinged doors and sheets upon sheets of  plastic wrap. We've shipped Cosmo off to stay with my parents for awhile and the rest of us are staying in a hotel. 

Let me tell you, it is no easy task getting a toddler to go to sleep in a strange place with people in the room. Jake and I have spent the last hour sitting in the dark taking turns rocking her in the provided swivel desk chair, trying to find a good lullaby station on Pandora to drown out the noises. No sooner than we got her laid down (for the third time) there was a knock on the door to drop off the towels we asked for almost 4 hours ago. Ugh.

We're hoping to be able to 1. go home in the next few days, or 2. at the very least, get moved to an extended stay place. Somewhere with some sort of room divider to help us all have a little more normal in our evenings.

 

For now, we're trying to make the most of this situation by telling ourselves that we will be able to make some improvements on our home in the process. Unfortunately, there was very little we were hoping to improve. Either way, that's where we are now. What an adventure this will be...