Water, water, everywhere…

…and not an insurance adjuster to be found!

So we all were up in NJ since last Tuesday, good visit.  Vince had lots of work up in the area and we enjoyed visiting Dave and Laurie and the rest of the Restaino clan.  Laurie had her first OB visit, her due date is March 31, not far behind me.  We headed to SI on Friday evening since we were going up to Aunt Laura’s on Saturday for Mel’s shower.  Did some marathon shopping to help my sisters get their gifts together.  Saturday started out well, yummy fresh bagels for breakfast and the fun of getting everyone clean and dressed for the trip.  We figured we’d head home after the shower to have that extra day to get back into our grove.  So Vince packs up the van and his car and we’re set.  As we’re getting ready to leave the phone rings… it’s Jeannette (our real estate agent) and she’s standing in our house in WATER!  Apparently she got a call from once-potential buyers that were walking the house when they happened upon a flooding lower-level.  UGH!!!  Needless to say Vince headed out so he could get home and check out the mess.  Almost six hours later he called to say he was home and that there was water throughout the entire lower level.  He shut the breaker so that the water would stop pumping in (yeah, why the TWO agents that had been in the house couldn’t figure that one out is beyond me!) and he began to look around.  The water in the laundry room was up to his ankles and everywhere else the carpets were sopping wet.  As many of you know our office/craft room is next to the laundry room… yup, big mess.  We had started making boxes as the house went up on the market and needless to say many of them were touching the floor.  Yeah, my stomach started to turn just thinking about all my photos and paper and such.  I was reluctant to stay behind in NY (I missed being home), but I am glad I did.

Vince spent the next two days moving our soggy belongings into the garage, baskets and bins of clothing, my portfolio and canvases, boxes of stamps and paper crafting supplies, boxes of our picture frames and some of my childhood albums, many of the kids stuffed toys and everything that had touched the floor.  I headed home yesterday since I had an appointment to see my midwife.  I went straight to her office.  Everything on the baby end is looking good.  Due date is estimated at February 6th, I am measuring about 15 weeks, and the little ones heart-rate is nice and strong (and very audible now).  After my check-up I made the rest of the trip home.  I pulled up and opened the garage and there stood the piles of our stuff.  I quickly closed the garage door, didn’t want to get into it just yet.  We came into the house and all I could hear was the hum of the high-power fans and smell whatever chemicals the water mitigation company put down.  YUCK!!  After we got the kids down Vince went to work on installing the new pressure tank.  We have running water again!  Yeah!  Then he gave me the grand tour… ugh!  Yup, the water really had touched a lot.  By the time the evening came I could smell it too, not pretty.  We are still waiting on the adjuster to come out and the structural inspector.  We are prayerful for a full replacement since the water has warped to lower part of the paneling and the humidity has already caused mold growth.  Yeah, loads of good stuff.  We’ll see.  In the meantime we are no longer an active listing, so we’ve taken GIANT steps back on that front.  I refuse to go active again until the house stops smelling like a wet dog!

So what happens now?  We wait, we’re sadly getting good at waiting.  We realize this is completely out of our hands, we’re just waiting to see what God is going to do through all of this.  We know He has a plan, we’re just waiting to be clued in…