Wednesday, September 2, 2009

" Part 2 - The Flooded House "The soaking wet and abandoned home


Good Afternoon Happy Friends,
*
Hope all is well in your camp........
I am a feeling a bit blah today, I truly think it is
all the rainy weather we have had this week.
It has been pretty much overcast everyday
so far, and today is no different. We have
50% chance of showers for today as well.
Hey, the grass and plants love it, and
so do I, less on the waterbill, and who
could complain about that!!
*
Will continue my story from yesterday.
*
**
***
We left the house around noon or so, I think,
this info is rather blury in my memory for some
reason or other. Know we got checked into our
hotel at some point. We did not have our lil
dog with us as some friends took him off our
hands till be knew we could find a place that
took animals, and fortunately, the hotel we
picked the La Quinta was pet friendly.
*
We got checked in and we were talking about
how neat it was the Lord would not let us be
away from home this weekend, and what a mess it
would have been if we had not been here, and came
home Sunday Evening. I am sure we would
have had drywall damage for sure.
*
We still didn't know for sure, but the fellows
that worked in our house felt pretty sure
there would be no drywall damage cause
the water was on the floor such a short
time. Somewhere between 4-5 hrs or
maybe less. We could not hear anything
in the bedroom, so it might have only been a
couple of hours or so for all we know.
*
We decided to make the best of the rest
of the day since the only thing it was
costing us was inconvenience, and there
was nothing else we could do until the
next week. There was a store we both
love to go to near the hotel, called
"Old Time Pottery", unfortunately, the
have now closed it! Anyway, we decided
to go looking around just to get our mind
off of things and to try and have a lil fun
in the midst of the craziness.
*
As we were looking around we came across
the picture you see as my header. It was
a $200.00 picture marked down to $49.95.
We both loved it immediately, yet we thought
we don't even know what our house is gonna
look like after this, new carpet colors or any
thing, but it was such a classy looking picture
and the price was great, so we decided to
get it and if we didn't think it would work
we could always take it back within a month
or so. I think we were either still in shock
or in denial one of the two!! lol
*
I truly believe that was one more of the blessings
God had in mind for us, because that picture
has helped me make more decorating decisions
over the last 8 years. It used to be over our
fireplace in the beginning, it is now in the
dining room, but has been over my bed,
and in the foyer, and in the hallway.
She gets around!!
She is responsible for the color on the
outside of our house. We have the same
brick on the outside of our house that is on our
fireplace. Originally I was going to go with
a pine green, but saw a house similiar to
ours in that color and thought yuk!!
What do we do now, came home saw
the her hanging on the fireplace and
thought that blue looks really good
on that brick, so bingo had my colors,
and we have loved it!!
*
Sorry I am spiderwebbing a bit.
Our daughter came home on Sunday
evening and we took her by the house
so she could see what it looked like,
course, there was no water or
carpeting at that time, then it
was on to the hotel.
*
Come Monday, I started the phone
calls to the Ins. Co. and what have you,
and sort of set up a command central
there in my hotel room so I would have
all the papers and numbers avail that
I needed. Think we didn't get to meet
with the Ins. lady until Tues. or Wed.,
cause they had to get all the fans out
first. They left all the humidifiers for
a few more days. We were in the rainy
season like now, so it was even more
messy as we came and went daily.
*
When I did meet with the Ins. lady,
she was a jewel, in fact, I have often
wondered if she truly were an angel
in disquise. She was so helpful, and
so sweet, and so understanding. They
have a company that works for them,
that come into homes and take care
of situations like these. So we could
either go with them or get our own
contractors, so we chose to go with them.
She said we should not have to do
anything! Course, it is our house so
we really didn't mind doing stuff.
*
Unfortunately, 6 weeks went by and
I had met with some of the contractors
but nothing was getting done. We had
been home over a month by then,
and had taped paper drop clothes
to all the concrete to help keep the
concrete dust down, and cleaned the
hard floor in all the walkway areas,
and packed up more stuff to get it
out of the way. Plus we had a garage full
of water damaged furniture and stuff.
At this point we only
knew we were getting new carpeting
and that they were gonna try and
fix our cabinets.
*
Finally, I called the Ins. lady again,
and told her nothing had been done,
and we were not sure where things
were at, so she got them moving.
We then found out we were also
getting new floors because there
were seams that were starting to
come up, and then they started
assessing the furniture damage and
anything that got water damaged.
*
Once work started in the house,
we had all sorts of opportunities to
be kind, and patient, and helpful,
and to pray for or with some of the
workers, and to have conversations
about the Lord. We even had the
neatest reconciliation with one of
the men. He had yelled at me over
some business dealings, he wanted
all the $$ from the Ins. for that project
up front and I said, I'm sorry but I can
only give you half until the project is
completed. We have learned from
experience that you never give them
all the money up front.
That is not a smart business practice.
I believe he got ahead of himself,
and got in trouble financially and
took it out of me. My hubby called
and told him he did not appreciate
him coming into our home and yelling
at his wife, and he did not feel
comfortable using him as a contractor
now. I don't think he realized how loud
he was........my daughter was in her bedroom
with the door closed which is one the other
side of the house, where the cracked
potty was, and came out after he left
and said Mom, why was he yelling at you??
The contractor told my husband he wasn't
yelling and my husband said oh yes you
were, my daughter heard you all the
way across the house with her door closed.
He seemed shocked!! He did tell my husband
that he has already invested money in
the counter tops and my husband said
we would talk about it and see what
we could do. Anyway, the contractor
came over, very humbly and very
apologetic, he took full responsiblility
for not working out the details in writing
and said that he had gotten ahead of
himself, and that he had a temper and
sometimes it got the best of him,
and he was in a tight spot, but we felt
he was very sincere in his apology
and of course, I told him I was sorry
that I had made him feel like I didn't
trust him, it was just that I was
trying to be a wise business woman.
We also told him we felt the Lord would
have us give him another chance,
and we did and he accepted,
and he did a marvelous job!!
*
We had never had such a neat
reconciliation with someone
that was so humble and sincerely
owned their mistakes like that.
It was truly an amazing experience
for us. He truly was a nice man.
*
I mentioned the above because I don't know
if you have ever heard of the "prayer of Jabez"
or not, but just before I prayed for help with
the carpeting, I was also praying the Jabez prayer.
The prayer says,
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And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that you
would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your
hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from
evil, that I may not cause pain."
So God granted him what he requested.
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I Chronicles 4:10
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Now my understanding of that verse
was not to be so much blessed materially,
but it was about having your sphere
of influence with people enlarged. That
you would have more opportunities to
share and show the Love of christ.
*
Well, I quickly saw how the Lord was
opening the door for those things to
happen and how we really needed to
be so mindful of that as we navigated
these waters of all sorts of workmen
in and out of our home. It was truly
a joyous and rewarding time.
*
I felt much like a military strategist
at times from thinking okay, they
are coming to do this tomorrow, so
we need to move these boxes over
to this room, and also constantly praying
for and trying to figure
out how to be a blessing to those
coming into our home.
*
It was a lot of hard work constantly moving
things around, and trying to keep the
dust down. Making choices when you don't
know what your furniture is going look like
and hoping you made the right choice,
constantly setting up appts, and having
someone in your home all the time.
We painted whole rooms, and reoiled all our
baseboards to get ready for the new carpeting and floors
But I have to say it was a neat time indeed!!
*
God never ceases to amaze me how He
can do sooooooo much with one situation,
and work differently in everyones heart
all at the same time. Guess that is why
they call Him God!!
*
Well, I just realized I have almost
written a book here, so I will stop for
today, hoping that I can finalize
the story on Friday!!
*
So much happened it is hard to narrow
it all down, so sorry for being so wordy.
*
Have a great evening,
and see ya tomorrow!!
*
Love and Blessings,
Nellie

3 comments:

  1. It is interesting to see how things unfolded for you. It is hard to have workmen in the house all the time. People don't realize unless they have done it how much work it can be for the homeowner. I'm glad you were able to feel comfortable with all the various ones you had. We have been lucky to have my friend's son, Steve, doing most of the remodeling we haven't done ourselves and it is so nice to know he can be trusted and is a great worker.

    I am just now getting ready to get the painting contractor over here and wanted to feel at ease with him and his work. I need to do some praying about it and thankful for the refer to that prayer that starts with a J. (Ha, short memory!) I have heard of it before just hadn't really studied it. Thanks for sharing this story and for writing it down. It is a good memory for your blog and now you can always reference it and the photos. I love blogging, don't you? It is a nice way to keep our memory treasures.

    where is sweet Becky? she hasn't been on much again lately. I miss her!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That was a challenging time!
    Praise GOD that He enabled you both to "make lemonade out of lemons!"

    Blessings and Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very happy you were able to work everything out and have a great attitude during the process. ENjoy your day!

    ReplyDelete

Special thanks to all who take the time to leave comments..........They are very encouraging and very appreciated. I enjoy every one of them so much!!
May the Lord Bless You!!
Nellie

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