Home Sweet Home

We're home!!

Actually, technically we're not 100% there, as we are still sleeping in the loft - since I'm paranoid about dust, paint, carpet, and general new house fumes. But we spend our waking hours there, and -supervised - Ben is finally allowed inside the house too. We have a couple of nice days coming up, so I'm hoping that with some more cleaning and more open-window air-out time, that we'll return to our house permanently on Sunday.

So the house overall turned out beautifully. We love the upgraded bathrooms, the new floors and we picked out some rather bold paint colors that ended up looking pretty cool (at least we think so). Some of the details aren't so great though - and we're trying to not let that bug us. The engineer in me is trying not to obsess about crooked light switches and mis-aligned cabinet knobs. The handyman in Mark is trying to not obsess about all the parts of the job that would have been cheaper and turned out better if he had done it himself. But the house is truly way nicer than it was pre-flood, and we're both so relieved and grateful to have a home of our own again.

And so far, it looks like our stuff made it through the move okay. We were both pretty nervous about that - as we hired movers to pack and move our stuff into storage - unsupervised - as we were desperately trying to get the house back into order in the early days when we thought it would be a matter of days - or at the most - weeks. However, despite very serious orders from Mark to NOT pile anything on top of the percussion instruments, when he went to pull the furniture from storage, he found boxes and chairs piled on top of the xylophone, vibes and marimba. Gasp. Mark has examined but not yet played the instruments. They look okay, but there may be rattles and other extraneous noises when they're played. Those are hard to get rid of and difficult to say whether they're from age or from the storage situation. We're both dreading the process of dealing with a claim with the movers and figuring out how to get the instruments fixed if they are. Let's just hope for the best.

Our furniture (or at least the furniture that we are not replacing) is back in the house, and about 60% of it has been cleaned. Once we finish cleaning and unpacking for immediate needs (clothes & kitchen stuff), we'll embark on unpacking and cleaning the contents of the 75 boxes still in storage. We're planning on paying for the storage locker for the month of February - so that should give us plenty of time to deal with our stuff. Oh, all our stuff. Who actually needs 75 boxes worth of stuff?! I'm hoping by the end of this, it won't be us. :)

And amidst all of this change, we are also moving Benjamin into a new daycare program. There is now space in the small church Montessori program that has been at the top of our list for almost one year. Today was his first "transition" day into the program - where he and I spent an hour visiting the class together. Mark continues the transition tomorrow - and I think he leaves Benjamin in the room for about 15 minutes. Our little man has been such a trooper - and I think he will transition well. He slept in 4 different places over the last four nights - as we moved from the loft to a hotel, to another hotel, to our house (until I decided the next day that it was still too fumy), back to the loft...

Anyway, it is with mixed emotions that we make this move to the new program. I'll have to write more about that in another blog entry.

In the meantime, please pray/think good thoughts that the fumes will dissipate, the dust will soon settle (and not contain lead particles, which I OBSESS about these days), and that our house will soon be a healthy place for Benjamin to live. Oh yeah, and that I too will soon stop obsessing about whether the house is "settled" enough to live in 24-7. And finally, that Benjamin will make a smooth transition into his new class. Thanks. :)

I'll try to take pictures of the house soon and post them - but unless I do so before Sunday, it may be a while. The router for our internet is packed away somewhere in those 75 boxes...

Delays...

But it looks like we may finally be in our house soon. Latest estimate (as of today) is Tuesday. So keep us in your thoughts over the next few days as we migrate back into our house - it's going to be crazy and chaotic, and probably not much fun. But it will be so nice to be home for the first time in 4.5 months.

Brief Update, Long Overdue

Thanks faithful blog readers, for sticking in there with us even though we haven't updated the blog in FOREVER! At least, I assume you're one of the ones who didn't give up on this blog if you are reading this post. :)

So - no - we did not get back in the house for Christmas. Or New Years. Things really slowed down during the holidays, which was really tough for me especially, because I was sure we would be back in the house by the end of the holidays - so as everyone was getting back into the routine of getting back to work, etc., we went back to the routine of living in our friends' third story townhouse. That was a bit of a low for me.

We did actually have a pretty nice holiday, though, with lots of family to help pass the time, and help watch Ben so we could get a few things done. I hope to follow-up later with a post with pictures of our holiday fun.

Today marks the four-month mark since we were chased out of our home by Ike. At that time, I packed three days worth of clothes - who could have known that it would be over four months before we would get to return! It's just crazy to think back about those couple of days before the storm, when we had no idea that our lives were about to get turned upside down.

The latest estimate is that the house will be ready by the end of the month. We're hoping for much sooner, as our "hosts" have friends coming for a visit from overseas in a week-and-a-half, so we need to vacate for at least four days at that time. I have a feeling we'll be staying in a hotel - which is okay - but, obviously, would much rather be in our house!

Things are beginning to move along again, so that is encouraging. The bathrooms are almost complete (just built-in medicine cabinets to be installed), the ceramic & wood floors are down and sealed (as of today), the walls are painted (with rather cool colors, at least we think), the doors are in, the trim is up. So what's left? Engineered wood floors, carpet, second coats of paint, and lots and lots and lots of clean up. The "fit and finish" as our contractor calls it, can take a while - so while it doesn't seem like there is that much left to go work-wise, it sounds like time-wise there still is.

I'll try to take pictures next time we're at the house and post them - but the last of our holiday visitors (Mark's parents) are leaving in a few days, and our "hosts" at the Hippie Commune return tomorrow (after 4 weeks away traveling), so I have a feeling life is going to get hectic again rather soon.

But hang in there with us - we'll try to post again soon!

House Update

This is Mark writing. Please check out the following:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Hey, someone stole the bathtub!

It's true. The work has finally begun on our house! It seems like it's been a really long time since the flood, and it has - over two months. But the work is really going fast now. I try to go by the house once each day just to check out the progress, and it's probably a good idea for those working to know that we're involved in the process. Things started the middle of last week with re-wiring the inside of the house. The electricians are almost finished with that and will start work on the exterior stuff tomorrow - new service panel and relocating the wires coming into the house due to modern code requirements. Today when I went by, there were lots of new people there - plumbers. I was surprised how fast they work. I was there around 1pm and all the old pipes were gone, all the new ones were in place, and many of the joints were already sealed. I think next will be some of the heavy work in the bathrooms.

Katherine and I are now officially role models. Benjamin has started imitating us doing some things, which we find absolutely adorable. The first was blowing his nose. Katherine had a cold a few days ago and was blowing her nose a lot. That evening, there was Ben with a kleenex blowing his nose into it. Then today he started filing his nails after watching Katherine do it. Hilarious! Last night, I found myself quietly passing a belch instead of letting it roar as I would prefer. The sacrifices of parenthood.... Here's a few pictures just for fun.

An Update from the 'Hurricane Victims'

Tuesday will mark the two-month point since Hurricane Ike sent us fleeing from our home. It seemed appropriate that we should provide an update - and with Ben fresh down for a nap, I'm *hoping* I have ample time to write some thoughts, post some pictures, and even fold a little laundry. He's the superstar sleeper in his class at school (the norm is 2-2.5 hours!), but we struggle to get good naps out of him during the weekend. We've timed everything right today, though, with no premature mini naps this morning. So here's hoping that this is a good one!

Life Overall

Life is well at the 'Hippie Commune', which is what we have been affectionately calling our living situation with our friends. We are still getting along amazingly well, and our hosts have not faltered in their graciousness to us. We're pretty comfortable in our third floor 'loft', but admittedly do go through occasional down periods where we desperately miss the ease of life in our one story house with its backyard and free-roaming space for Ben, as well as privacy. But we really can't complain - as I can't imagine a better situation considering our circumstances.

It looks like, at this point, Christmas will be the very earliest we'll be back in our house. Our contractor says he'll work hard to make that happen, but it's still a stretch. Especially considering none of the rebuilding has even started yet!

Progress on the house

Chris, our contractor, provided us with his 'bid' for the work to rebuild the house. The number doesn't mean a lot to us yet (except that it's a heck of a lot of money!), because we still don't have the dollar amount from our insurance company. That really frustrates us, as it's been almost two months since we filed our claim! Friday, our adjuster called, and she had just filed the claim with the company. She would not give us a timeline for when we should expect to receive the amount, but said it would be at least another week. We're stuck in a tight spot now, as Chris is ready to start work - and can have a contract ready for us to sign on Monday, but we still don't know how much we truly have to work with, and we also have limited funds to start with, since it's still all out-of-pocket at this point. Fortunately, my company is offering interest-free disaster loans for folks who suffered damages from Ike - and it's a pretty good deal - they give us the money upfront, and then deduct an equal amount from my paycheck over the next two years. But making the commitment to Chris and starting the work makes us uncomfortable because we just don't know what to expect from insurance. Also, we're doing some upgrades in the remodel process, so we know we will be paying for that out-of-pocket, but just don't know to what degree. Fortunately, the first week will be primarily plumbing and re-wiring work (since our walls are all now open, this is apparently a very wise investment for resale), and we're committed to doing this, so that buys us a week of progress with the house. After that, though, it's going to be tough to stay committed to our decisions if we still haven't heard from insurance - as we could opt to go cheaper in a few areas if money is tight. *sigh*

We also are having to deal with re-sodding a good portion of our front yard, as our flood remediation contractor put all the rubble in our front yard for the city to pick-up. It sat there for two weeks, which was frustrating (why didn't he just get a dumpster?!), and then the city apparently hired out the job of picking up heavy trash - who did an AWFUL job of it - and essentially tore all the grass up under the rubble. We're actually going to try to file a claim with the city to get money for re-sodding. In the past, they have always picked up the top stuff with the claw, and then a person got out of the truck and piled the smaller things in the street, so the claw could scrape it up. It was very apparent that no one got of the truck, and instead the claw just tore into the yard. And they didn't even get it all - Mark had to spend a couple of hours picking up what they missed. *sigh*

Life with Ben

Ben is still doing AWESOME at school! We really love his teacher, and he always seems so pleased to be there when we arrive. This has been a HUGE blessing for us, and has certainly freed up a lot of time to deal with things with the house. Plus Mark and I are definitely less stressed and more patient and kind to each other since receiving help in this area.

Here are some photos of our adventures together as a family over the past few weeks:

We've obviously spent a lot of time with our "housemates." Here Ben is eating snacks on "Uncle" Randy's lap, while watching football. Their eldest daughter Megan was over too. She's done some babysitting for us over these last few weeks, as well.

Bathtime is my least favorite time of day. Most parents I know love bathtime, but not me. Babette offered to give Ben a bath one evening. They had lots of fun:

Mid-October marked the annual Trike-a-thon for St Jude at Ben's school. Here they are raring to go. Ben's teacher pushed his class in the 4-kid stroller - they are in the right.

Ben's class with Nathalie:

Here they come! They completed 16 laps around they gym.

Ben's teacher does all sorts of neat projects with the kids. Here's Ben's first artwork from finger painting:

Mark, Ben and I participated in the Houston Pumpkin Run. Ben's first race! He did great, and we walked almost 5k. Almost because we arrived about 5 minutes late, so to avoid being extremely last, we turned around when we reached the back of the pack. :)

Ben, Megan and I attended a family concert. Ben really enjoyed it, and was watching very quietly - right up to the point where he fell asleep! Here Mark is carrying our sleeping baby back to the car after the concert.

Ben and I had a morning to kill during a no-school day, so we went to the Health Museum. He was fascinated with this video of a talking robot.

I was more interested in the giant mouth display then Ben. I'd put him in the middle, then back up to try to take a picture - but he's obviously ready to get out!

Ben's favorite display was the dancing machine next to the lunch area. And he enjoyed it without me even putting any quarters in the machine! Let's see some moves, Kid!

Mark and I early-voted, and shamelessly used our child to air out our political views:

And of course, we've had many hours in our 'loft' playing, being silly and cuddling:

That's it for this update. Hope you are all enjoying as beautiful a weekend as we are here in Houston (high in the mid-70s!)

Happy Halloween!

Thank you Grandma Susan for turning our little monkey into a 'real' monkey this Halloween!

Triathlon report

Hi, this is Mark again. I did something last Sunday I'd never done before. I competed in a triathlon. In conversations with coworkers and others unfamiliar with triathlon, I've learned that when most people hear "triathlon" they think of the ironman - an extreme endurance race consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. In other words, something only for crazy people who have nothing else to do but train for the event. The triathlon I did is called a "sprint distance" tri. 300 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Okay, it's not as impressive as the ironman, but it was a fair amount of training, and I was proud to have done it. My time was 1:21:36 including all transitions.
The hardest part for me was the swim. I learned how to swim at a young age, and am comfortable in the water, but that's the extent of my ability. 300M is very short by "real" swimmers' standards, but it was a big challenge for me to get to the point of being able to complete the distance. This one was held in a lake, which is another challenge - you can't see and there's no lanes dividing you from the other swimmers. Now that I managed to do it though, I'd really like to get better at swimming. I'm sure there will be a day when other sports are too rough on the joints and swimming may be all that's left for exercise. I don't know if I'd say I enjoy it yet, but I'm getting there.
Katherine swam on a team as a youngster, and watching the triathlon gave her the swimming bug a little bit, so we went together for a swim tonight. I found it so much more fun with someone else, and it was really neat to see how good of a swimmer she is, even after all these years. It's really fun to learn something new about your spouse after eight years of marriage.
The other part of the triathlon that was new to me is the transitions. Your bike is placed on a rack and you have a small area around it which has all the gear you need throughout the race - bike shoes and helmet, socks, running shoes, gatorade, and a bunch of small stuff. In order to minimize the transition time, all the gear is laid out very carefully in the order it will be needed. Katherine made fun of my running shoes with their special elastic laces, but those laces saved me 10-15 seconds! Of the various running and biking events I've done the past few years, I'd have to say the triathlon is the most fun. The others have their rewards, but it's just so neat to combine the different sports into one race. I'm definitely looking forward to doing this again!

Here are some pictures from the event. This is before the race, getting ready for the swim with friends.

The start is done in waves based on gender and age. Here are the over-40 men about to go.

This is the transition area. That's me in the red shirt all the way on the other side.

Here I am coming out of transition to start the run portion. I had just seen my cheering family, hence the big smile.

It was awesome to have Katherine and Ben there for cheering support. They came with our housemates, Randy and Babette and their daughter Megan. Babette also competed, and was actually competitive! She placed second in her age group.