Things I wish I'd done before the storm

15 years ago

I just thought of two things I wish I'd taken care of before torrential rains appeared in the forecast. One is to ask the roofer to track down a leak I noticed a few weeks ago. Water dripped down my kitchen pendant lamp. The other thing is my gutters. The gutter at the back of the house is badly in need of cleaning, and if I'd taken care of it the gutter would be able to divert water away from the foundation. As it is, I'm sure my sump pump will be working overtime. :-(

Can you think of anything you wish you'd done (or bought) before this storm loomed?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

Georgysmom
15 years ago
I wish I had bought tomato juice so I could make gazpacho. But I think that's the least of my worries. We already have one tree down and I'm hoping the rest remain standing.
glenda_al
15 years ago
For me! GET FOOD to cook. My refrig and cabinets are bare unless I am having companyy.
Related Discussions
Things I wish I'd done/bought before hurricane
Q
Comments (4)
From what y'all have been through and will go through with Ivan, I think the most important thing is TRANQUILIZERS. You can always replant and clean up but you can't always get yourself together enough to do it. Hurricanes are traumatic and three in a row just kills the human spirit. God bless.
...See More
Things I wish I'd specified on my plans.
Q
Comments (2)
Well said Junior. As I, and others have said on this forum: NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING! OVER COMMUNICATE!! We are building our third custom home, and each architect is different, each builder is different, and each sub is different. Even with this home, there are so many things I would do different. I have given our builder lots and lots of pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. He has quite a file on us. We also made a personal binder that contains notes from our meetings with the builder and subs, every bid, every selection, all plans, interior and exterior elevations, etc It's been my bible throughout this process. So far we have been fortunate that our builder has not charged us anything to move a couple windows, move the speaker locations, and a couple other minor changes. He's been absolutely terrific throughout the entire process. Even when we changed the size of baseboards, there was no change order. And he has gone out of his way to make sure he gets good pricing on materials. I personally have purchased most "allowance" items and paid for them as we go. Huge savings.
...See More
One thing you wish you knew before you got married?
Q
Comments (14)
Thanks! Good words of advice. halfdecaf - I love that you repeat your vows on your anniversary. That sounds like a very worthwhile tradition and one I might copy for us. I know the "good cop/bad cop" role is pretty tricky. It's not really how we intended it, but it's how I feel usually. My BF's own father abandoned the family when BF was at a very young age and his mother essentially detached from the family as a result of her husband leaving. As such, BF had no healthy parenting images to look up to so he leans toward parenting out of guilt or giving in too much to his own son. I come from a fairly strict, but caring, family so I've tried to share my own parenting examples with them. The result is that BF's son now has a normal bedtime (when we met he would let his son stay up until midnight! And he was 5!), he cleans up his own plate after dinner, he's not allowed to throw things or act physically in anger, he's not allowed to hit his dad or be disrespectful to us without consequences, etc. So I feel like the "bad cop" because I implement/encourage a lot of the discipline and a lot of the rules about what's acceptable and what's not. The only reason it's working is b/c BF currently backs me up on the decisions and is actually a little grateful that I know a little more than he does about general parenting, while he knows more than I do about his son's specific needs. So I think we make a good team. Of course, if either one of us ever stops supporting the other, I can see how that might cause some mutiny... We are also considering premarital couseling. One of my biggest challenges is learning to bite my tongue and not constantly tell him what to do. I was single for too long and have lots of rules in my own head about the way things "should" be done. On the flip side, he was single too long with a young son - essentially living the bachelor life with a kid tagging along (have you seen the Adam Sandler movie, Big Daddy - something along those lines, but not as extreme). So figuring out when my comments cross over into "nagging" seems to be a fine line. I never want to be the "nagging" wife.
...See More
Things you wish you had done....
Q
Comments (15)
Someone has probably posted this idea elsewhere, but when I was looking for a chunk of granite to set into my tile counter, I explored (at length) the remnant options. I found the chunk I wanted at WS Goodrich in Epping NH, and the price was around half what I saw elsewhere. And they had a lot of very large pieces, so if you were doing a small kitchen, it might be possible to piece together some remnants of the same kind of granite. I'm not so in love with granite that I mind having only a small piece, but some of the stuff I saw there was almost enough to make me change my mind. And they cut my piece the next day. Nice folks. So maybe checking around a little is a good idea. (I have no idea if these stone places are as common elsewhere as they are in NH.)
...See More
azzalea
15 years ago
Hm, we got food in, checked the pumps and generator. Filled the vehicles with gas, charged the phones.... not sure there's really anything at all left to do. Well, except push my DD out the door. She turned up shortly after lunch, and has been hanging out all afternoon--she and a friend are going out for dinner, but friend is doing wash, showering, drying her hair (???????)

And I'm getting HUNGRY--but don't want to eat till dd is on her way.

Well, guess I might wish that we'd sold this house--I'm here, keeping an eye on things, while DH is spending the night at the country house, to make sure that's okay.
maire_cate
15 years ago
I guess we did the most important thing we could do - we put on a new roof this summer. We managed to get 25 years out of the old one but this past winter we lost some shingles in the valley and had a leak. The roofers also cleaned the gutters.
glenda_al
15 years ago
oops, I'm not in the path, but when bad weather is mentioned I do get in food.
jannie
15 years ago
Cleand the gutters. I know there's a blockage along the back of my house because we had two maple tree volunteers growing in the gutter. A neighbor cut them off but couldn't remove them. Now one is already growing back in the blocked spot, full of leaves and soil.
marie_ndcal
15 years ago
We have always had food and other necessary items on hand. When you live in the mountains or in earthquake country you learn the hard way not to. By the way no matter where you live, or by yourself or with others, it is just plain stupid not to keep at least a week's supply of food, can/dry etc on hand. You never know when an emergency will happen or at what time. Also matches and candles.
sherwoodva
15 years ago
We have food, water, sump pump back up battery, car full of gas, etc. But the gutters didn't get cleaned. DH has severe allergies so he does not spend much time outside and I can't even lift the ladder. Time to start hiring someone. It is amazing how the teens around here are not interested in doing chores for cash. This is NOT a ritzy neighborhood.
tobygirl
15 years ago
I think we're as ready as can be. My husband just finished wiring the generator to the circuit breakers in the electrical box. He also bought chain saw oil today. I'm sure he will be needing it - we are surrounded by woods on three sides, plus several huge maples right in front of the house.

Things I wish I'd done before the storm

Comments (9)

Georgysmom

glenda_al

Related Discussions

azzalea

maire_cate

glenda_al

jannie

marie_ndcal

sherwoodva

tobygirl

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US