Wonderful News!

So, no more living the Gypsy Life soon?

What great news, Raven. I hope that you are back in your "new" house very soon!

I'm so glad that positive progress is being made.

I hope you and your husband are doing ok. I know you still have a long way to go before things are settled and often think of you both, all you've been through and and the continuing road to recovery.

Oh, how nice seeing some good news!!! You'll be glad that you're finally seeing some progress, albeit a long way to go. We're here with you on your new journey.

I'm so happy for you, it sounds like finally, everything is returning to normal.

Socks, Most of the furniture was lost. The water level got up over a foot and more in some areas because parts of the house are sunken. Anything wood or laminated swells up and just blows up. All drawers in dressers that water got to would swell up so you can't open them and they just break apart from the pressure of expansion. I learned so much from this experience! Every Cabinet in the house, kitchen, bathrooms, etc warped and the drawer faces cupped. These were solid wood cabinets too. Uppers were OK but am replacing all because I can't find the original ones I have no idea where they were bought. I am hopeful my appliances survived. Here's the horrible thing, we had just bought brand new kitchenaid appliances the week before and they had been delivered and were sitting in my dining room waiting to be installed. So my existing appliances and my brand spanking new appliances were all in the house in the flood. My husband and neighbors kept trying to put blocks under my new stove and dishwasher and the fridges but it just kept coming up to fast. So water did get in them. Won't know until they get installed what survived. My fridges I have 2 are currently working. I had to have a repair company come work on the big new one because it was not running. He said the same part he was replacing in everyone's went out in the water. It was $500 for the part and they discounted the labor $100 for flood victims. Cheaper than a new fridge and he guaranteed it for a year.

All my furniture is leather so the bottoms got wet. We cleaned them very well with bleach and mold spray, we will just have to wait and see. Boxsprings were ruined some of the mattresses might be OK they didn't get wet but that doesn't mean it's OK. A lot of stuff was wiped down and sprayed with mold prevention stuffstuff and moved to the storage pods in the front yard. Right now every room is just studs from the floor to 4 feet up the wall. Because of mold growing on drywall that's fema requirements. Then dehumidifiers were put in to dry out the wood, it's tested with a meter to make sure it is dry. Then it's sprayed several times with the fema required mold remediation treatment. Once that dries then the foam or insulation can go in and the drywall. That's where we are now. Takes a long time to get it to the proper stage.

There's absolutely nothing where the kitchen once was it's gutted to the studs. Same with all bathrooms. We discovered termite damage which had to be repaired and the back wall of the house had been done wrong previously and had to be completely removed and replaced including all the windows. It was actually kind of fortunate we found out about these things which we had no clue about.

We basically have very little left in the house because it was such a nasty environment we got it to the storage pods or in the rv. I have a limited amount of clothes currently. A lot is stored. A lot was lost. All stuff in dresser drawers mostly got thrown out. We did do a lot of loads of wash to save the better stuff. I had boxes and boxes of fabric from my sewing business. All in plastic bins stacked in the sewing room. Well those bins float and move in the water current and tip over and fill up with water! My neighbor came and got several bins of fabric and washed them on sanitize setting. I told her she could have them. Luckily my machines were up on tables but the foot pedals were in the water. I had boxes of beautiful leather in colors, I used to make a lot of leather clothes and jackets. It got soaked and mold was all over it, thrown out. There just wasn't time to try to salvage everything we had toto be very selective.

I lost my greatgrandfather's banjo, it was beautiful. And my dad's guitar. Some things I may never know, what got thrown out in boxes saturated with water.

I truly don't know what we would have done without the rv. I shudder to think. I have friends and neighbors that offered us to come stay with them as long as we need to. My guess is probably a hotel or little apartment rentals. But I do know many of our neighbors now have an rv in their driveway. But we had to make costly changes just to stay in it. We had to get an electrician to run a dedicated 50 amp circuit breaker to the garage to plug the rv into so we can run everything including both ac units and we had to have a septic company come and add a special riser on the lid on the septic tank so we can dump the rv into the septic tank. That was over a thousand dollars just for that stuff. Fema did allow us a little on that as part of living expenses since we are not paying for a hotel room.

I don't mind talking about it. If I can help someone know something that saves them in a similar situation it's good. My neighbor gave me great advice since she had been through it before. But in reality the water comes up so fast you can only do so much before you have to get your self to safety.

Things are looking better now! We gave the contractor the tiles we want to use today. We are about ready to order cabinets and countertops. I have decided on my paint color. Behr Bleached Denim 560F - 5 in the marathon paint. White trim and white wainscoting in several rooms.

Tiles if anyone wants to look floor through out exceptbedrooms and office and sunroom is Lowe's style selection natural timber ash porcelain tile 8x48 big tile.

Master bath Lowe's Del Conca Verdiana Bone porcelain tiles 6x24

Kitchen backsplash only 2 or 3 rows high Lowe's Del Conca Ancient Gray stonestone porcelain tile 3x6

BedroomBedroom floors and back hall to bedrooms Lowe's carpet tiles Cool Query lc30

I am not absolutely certain about the kitchen countertops. I am waffling. This collection is top my possible countertops, my paint color, the dark cabinets I am getting, and the floor tile. Not a great sample. I may instead go with a real stone, either soapstone or a grayish granite.

I didn't answer about preventing it from happening again. Not a darn thing. But we are smarter. And will make better choices for purchases including furniture. Things with legs! Bathroom vanity with legs, off the floor. Never will I put stuff on the floor in closets or anywhere else. Get containers that are water tight or forget it.

Some houses can be jacked up and raised, the city of Houston is helping some people with that. The cost is big. Our house is much too large to do that. Digging drainage pits doesn't help with this kind of flooding because there's no where for the water to go. The city has to address the problem and dig deeper creeks and add more drainage routes for these highly populated areas. Concrete does not absorb water, if you pave everything with concrete where is the water going to go?

My atrium is flourishing it's a shining star in a ugly surrounding right now lol. My satsuma tree is loaded with little oranges. The stargazer lilies are so full of buds they are dragging the floor. I may end up losing most of my orchids, I have had for years because I had to just put them out in the atrium and they are not used to that and have some sunburn. I wish I could have them in the rv but no room. I will take a picture so y'all can see it.

Socks what happened to your post?

I deleted. Thought it was too nosy. Very interesting reply. We've all heard about home flooding, but not the brutal nitty-gritty. You and your DH seem to be smart, reasonable and have everything under control. I cannot even imagine the emotions and stress you have experienced. Thanks for your reply. Good to hear things are progressing.

(I haven't read it all yet....have to go out for a while.)

Glad to hear about the good things. Your woes make mine seem quite minor. May good things keep happening!!

I like the things that you have selected for the kitchen. Soapstone would be beautiful as well.

Thanks for sharing some of what you're going through raven. I live in a location that, unless we have an earthquake or forest fire, doesn't suffer from natural disasters. I see it on the news, tornadoes, flooding, etc but can't really emotionally understand the loss that one feels. You have been so generous with your time.

Thank you, Raven. Your attitude is admirable: I am very thankful for what I have.

The house is going to be even more beautiful when you're done.

Re: Prevention. Voters need to demand community development plans, zoning requirements, and spending on public works. "Topsy" has grown out of control. Right now homeowners have paid much more in damages than they would have paid in taxes to build needed infrastructure.

Sounds like all good news, finally! Love your choices, would love to see pics when finished, if you're comfortable with that.

I can't imagine going through what you and so many others did. A couple summers ago the foot valve in our 100' well went bad. Had to replace that an 100' of flexible pipe. Took DH over a week. Very, very grateful for our little Rialta to live in while we had no water.

We were in North Carolina (Raleigh area) back in Feb. when there were tornado warnings. I think a tornado actually touched down somewhere near us. I was terrified! The wind was horrible, pounding down rain, alerts coming over our cell phones to take shelter now. I told DH this is bullsh!t! haha Give me a blizzard and 2' of snow any day.

Best of luck Raven on getting your home back.

My prayers for you are being answered. 1. You are finally having good weather and able to progress with all that needs done. 2. The antibiotics are working. I am so thankful for that and know you are too. Love the new things you are picking out. That part should at least be fun. Looking forward to pictures of when everything is completed.

Your colour choices are gorgeous Raven. Reading again, about the loss is horrific. And all FEMA will give you is a lousy $500 to re-build, re-furnish, re-stock with food and start over?? I don't see how they can sleep at night. How do they decide how much to give? Is everyone only entitled to $500?

The fema insurance company will be giving us more than that thank God. They are the ones that pay for the structure damages and we had heavy structure damages. The $500 was what they allowed us for anything else like the furniture, food, clothing etc lol. Hey at this point I am thankful for every dollar we get because it's just never ending, you think you have found all the bad things and suddenly you find a new one. Like the fact that when we took the walls out we discovered that the idiots, that at some point in time did work on the house, had connected a drain pipe for the hot water heater (in case of a leak or pop off valve) they just ended it in the wall! So had there been a leak all the water drains in the wall. By code it must drain to the exterior of the house. So that involves re routing pipe from the hot water heater outside. I don't know what they were thinking I guess they didn't care. AndA while they were examining the hot water heater they found a rust spit on it that is just about rusted through. So we need a new hot water heater. Things like that of course are not covered by anything but our wallet! But omg how fortunate to have found that pipe into the wall and the rust because just imagine had we completed the remodeling and the dang hot water heater give way and the pipe to the wall floods the house! That's fortunate, same with finding the termites and the major rot in the back wall. Those were all things we had no idea about. Very costly things but this is the perfect time to fix it. Thanks everyone. Thanks Linda!

Mywonderful neighbor took me out for a good lunch today and the sun is shining.

Lowe's has the Hunter ceiling fans I want on sale today for $34 they were over a hundred! I need 8 of them. I am headed to Lowe's. Memorial day sales! Just in time!

It's Lunada Bay Tile in Agate 1x4 in Firenze.

A reverse image search found the pic here on Houzz. [Here is a link[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/seafaring-family-home-beach-style-boston-phvw-vp~7555240) to it. Everyone had the same question as you and the company answered.

I wouldn't wish what happened to you on anyone, but you've a great attitude. I admire that. :)

That tile is really pretty. I'm so glad the ceiling fans that you need are on sale. That will sure save you some money. Things are looking up Raven. I think your "black cloud" is lifting.

That tile looks like the gulf coast to me! I absolutely love it!

I thought it looked like the beach too! ThanksR so much for finding it Texas_gem! I want my master bedroom and bathroom feel very relaxing like the beach makes us feel. I think the beach glass look is so pretty. I have found a few different ones so I have to make a decision soon and order it.

Raven, I love reading your posts. I add my voice to the others that say we can hardly believe what a fantastic attitude you have had through these difficulties. My mother is getting ready to pass so reading your posts is good for me. :)

That tile is particularly beautiful! But then I love the color blue.

I am so glad things are looking up for you. I have not been on line to keep track of your progress. You have been in my prayers. I love the colors you have picked out. When you have made your final decisions, be sure to let me know and send your address! I will get the dish cloths made and sent to you.