Flood Update: Part 17

~Monday (March 7)~

Over the weekend, Daddy hung all of our new curtains, J re-insulated part of the basement ceiling, and put up our new goose-neck wall lamps in the basement bedroom! I’m so excited! Things are finally starting to “come together.” He’s in Mexico this week, so I doubt he’ll have a chance to talk with Mr. A about the floors. Hopefully he’ll be able to finish putting the surround sound system for the TV in later this weekend.



The finished dining room! Fresh paint, a new chair rail, and even new valences!



The new valence in the basement bedroom.



We installed goose-neck lamps next to our couch in the guest room as well.



New curtains in the rec-room!



~Thursday (March 17)~

Wow, I’ve gone 10 days without updating about the flood! Thankfully, that’s because things are basically done around here. All our little “projects” are finished (except for finishing the surround sound for the TV, but I guess that’s not really flood-related.)

Daddy talked with Mr. A on Tuesday night. He was understandably not excited about having to redo the entire floor again, but it has to be done. I guess we’ll schedule something in the next month or so. I am praying it works this time!



Our new kitchen faucet! No more leaks!



And now we have a soap dispenser instead of a sprayer. Now we won’t ever have a flood of the same sort again (hopefully)!



~Friday (April 1)~

A 8:00 a.m., Mommy and the kids leave to drop the animals off at the kennel. Daddy is home to talk with Mr. A once he gets here. We have breakfast, and Daddy works on moving some of the furniture.

Around 10:30 a.m., Mr. M (our neighbor) comes over and we chat with him for about half an hour. Mr. A calls and says he won’t be here until 11:30 a.m. We go back inside and decide that Mom and us kids will leave for the hotel while Daddy waits for him.

We check into the hotel and get settled in. Around noon, Daddy IM’s and says Mr. A is pulling up. Yippee! We eat our lunch and Daddy finally arrives. Unfortunately, because the work crew started late, the floor won’t be ready to walk on until Sunday evening, which means we will have to stay an extra night in the hotel. We weren’t prepared, but we will do our best to look presentable Sunday morning for church!

Daddy brought a book and a note that Mr. L sent for us. He’s been so sweet to us, and very helpful and hard-working. We will miss seeing him!

We leave to run errands around 2:00 p.m. Afterward, we come back to the hotel and I take an early shower so I can go pick up pizza with Daddy. We take along our Father and Daughter Interview to work on. J On the way, we stop by the house to see how things are going. Mr. L and Mr. A are still there working. Hopefully everything will look ok and we can move back in on schedule.

We enjoy a nice dinner and watch the movie “Hachi” in our room. I am really glad that Daddy let me borrow his sleeping bag for this trip. It’s so much comfier than mine!

~Saturday (April 2)~

Mommy gets me up around 8:00 a.m. so that we can go down to breakfast. It was SO crowded down there! We could just barely find a table where we could all sit together.

After breakfast we returned to our room where I read my devotions. We had a leisurely morning just relaxing in the room. Mommy did some of our laundry so we would have something to wear tomorrow. Then we ate lunch.

Around 1:30 p.m., we went down to the pool for a little swim. Ben challenged me to run outside and then jump in the hot tub (it was only about 40 degrees outside.) I accepted the challenge…and we got locked out in the courtyard! Thankfully, Daddy was there to let us back in. We met a lady who had a house fire in her condo complex and has been out of her house for 12 weeks. I’m really thankful that we are nearing the end of our flood saga!



Getting ready for a swim!



“Oh look, there’s two heads in the hot tub!” J



We went back to the room to shower up for dinner. Daddy and I ran by the house first to make sure that everything looked good. I think it’s going to be ok this time! Then we came back to the hotel and walked next door to a turkey restaurant for the first time. The menu looked good. I ordered a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. I was going to order the pot pie, but they were out.

Our food finally arrives about 45 minutes later. It looks good, but my sandwich was cold. Then we were going to order desserts, but they seemed to be out of everything. I don’t know if they were short staffed or what, but I don’t think we’ll be back except maybe to purchase something at the deli.

So instead, we run over to Meijer next door and pick up a half gallon of coconut chocolate crunch ice cream. Then we went back to our room and watched “Mrs. Miracle.”

~Sunday (April 3)~

Mommy gets us up early—around 6:30 a.m.—because we have to be checked out of the hotel before we leave for church. We all get ready and then head down to breakfast. Afterward, we went back to the room and loaded things in the cars before church. We even had a few spare minutes to relax and read before we left.



Roma and Josiah working on Sunday School homework in our studio-sized room.



We finally left the hotel for the last time!!! We made it to church pretty early, which was nice for a change! After church, we decide to go to Bob Evans for lunch. This is our family’s favorite restaurant, and we had a delicious lunch.

Then we went home and spent the afternoon in the basement, because we really didn’t want to drive around in the rainy/snowy weather we were having. We had a nice afternoon relaxing and watching the movie “Divided” that we just bought from Vision Forum. It was awesome!

And finally…we were able to go upstairs and walk on the floors again! This time, they looked right. We enjoyed our evening re-settling into our house.

~Monday (April 5)~"It is Finished!"~

Mr. A came back today to move the island back into the kitchen. So now it’s official: WE’RE DONE!!! HOME FREE!!! It has been a long three months, but a lot of good has come out of this experience, and we’ve gotten many house projects done. I’m very thankful that this chapter of our lives is OVER. But I know the Lord has a reason for everything that happens, and I’m already seeing some of the benefits. Soli Deo Gloria!