This post has taken me a while to write as the rebuild was completed in late May, 11 weeks after the flood, and I’m finally finding the time to write it. I can’t express the relief that we felt once all of the rebuild was complete and our lives could get back to normal.
Our challenges all started March 8th when I walked into our home to find water streaming from the second floor down into the first then down from there into the basement.
I will say that once the rebuild started it moved at a great pace. The delay to start was mainly caused by waiting for budget approval and then from there for flooring to arrive and once it was ready. I hired the the company who did the cleanup to do the rebuild as they’d been so amazing with the first part! They moved everything along at a great pace!
The first big fix was to repair the huge hole in the first floor ceiling. About 6 weeks after the flood it went from this
to this one day 1
to this on day 2 as it was still drying.
When the ceiling was being sprayed little bits of it bled down onto the walls
which meant an unexpected surprise that the entire main floor would be repainted! Woot!! I chose to keep it neutral and just lightened it up a bit.
Once the painting was done it was time to install the flooring. In order to do this everything needed to be packed up and I have to sing the praises of the restoration company as they came in and packed up everything in our entire 2 upper floors. What a blessing it was to have this done for me and not need to do it myself! Each evening Hannah and I would come home and guess what our house looked like. There were only 2 nights that we needed to stay with my parents which was pretty amazing considering absolutely everything we owned was packed away.
Living Room
Kitchen and eating area
Hannah’s room when it was being used for storage. (LOL – yes, she made a game of making her way into the rooms each evening when we checked out the changes.)
Then the following day as they were laying the carpeting in her room. I can’t imagine how many people it must have taken to pack and move everything and it was all seamless to me. I’d leave for work and it would look one way and I’d return to a completely new home. All of this was coordinated by the restoration company and I am SO grateful!!
Friday night I was just hoping that we would be able to stay in our home for the weekend. You can imagine my excitement and awe when we walked into THIS! Yes….I cried! Even the beds were made! I was so relieved that after 11 long weeks our lives were finally going to be back to normal!
Playroom as a storage room
The playroom
Mommy’s Room stuffed to the gills! This was what it looked like Friday morning when I left for work…
And this was what I came home to 9 hours later!!! EVERYTHING was back in it’s place!!! There were more tears when I walked into my room. (I’ll admit there were even tears the first night when I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, just being able to FINALLY put my feet on the floor without having to find shoes or slippers first.)
The final room to be renovated was the washroom where the flood started. The renovation company had hoped to keep a functioning bathroom in our house each night but the night I arrived home to this and I realized that that hadn’t happened! This is what I saw when I opened my garage door. LOL – of course this was also the night that my piano students were coming to my house for lessons! Oops! I sent out some quick texts to let them know that the house would be without facilities. 
Because the bathroom vanity sat in water for over 24 hours the insurance company replaced it and what a treat it was to move from the 4 door cabinet
to a new one with drawers! Such a treat and I’m so happy with this new piece of furniture!
The very last step was to have the new couch delivered that had been sitting in storage for almost 2 months. Our former couch (aka: the Big Blue Sponge) was old;
the filler love seat was tiny;
but oh…the new couch (with recliners!!) is wonderful!
It was a LONG, somewhat challenging few months as we recovered from the flood but now that all is said and done and it is behind us, it was a blessing in disguise. I would not wish this on anyone but now our 20 year old home is fresh again and we couldn’t be happier!!
A big shout out to so many who helped us through this!! There are too many to name (and I know I’d accidentally forget someone!) but, you know who you are and please know from the depths of our hearts, how thankful Hannah and I are!!
