Month in Review

Lots of stuff happened here within the last month, but as you know, we were having a variety of issues on the home front that impacted our ability to communicate it all. Unfortunately, too, we didn't photograph everything that went down effectively, so you'll have to take our word on some of it. That said, here's a quick round-up of the last month:

1. You know about the floors, so those were basically in a state of disrepair until Friday. In the meantime, that also meant that our furniture was all over the place, and our second bedroom/guest room/office was in a state of utter and total chaos. That's been resolved - more on that and the beautiful floors tomorrow.

2. For the weekend of the Fourth of July, we decided that in spite of the state of our home, we had a lot to enjoy here, and why not make use of it?! We had the beach, of course, but we got a surprise when after saying it would not be opened, our building opened its pool - and it's a great pool. So the holiday weekend at the beginning of the month basically involved a steady rotation of friends and family moving between apartment-to-pool-to-beach in some variation of that order. And it was delightful! Here are some shots of the family part of that weekend:

 

Good times.

3. Weather. We've had some weather in the past few weeks. Since we basically spend half the year in crappy winter, it only seems appropriate that Chicago have some of the best summer around! And it's summer-summer here this year, and it's great. With the heat and humidity, though, come the storms, and we have had some hum-dingers. One in particular was so intense that it looked like Armageddon outside when I took Lanie for her morning walk the next day. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but it was intense. It also knocked over some patio furniture on our balcony that ripped the screen door in our bedroom. Dave fixed it.

(torn screen)

(screen repair)

4. The next BIG projects we'll tackle will be the bathrooms. But we're not ready just yet to take them on. Until we are, we had some toilet issues that just had to be handled. In the guest bathroom in particular, the old toilet didn't flush easily and then would run for what seemed like forever. While I was co-hosting the best baby shower ever a few Saturdays ago, Dave decided he'd solve that problem by replacing the toilet. This story gets gruesome in a minute, and though I don't have photo documentation on this one, I'll still give those of you with weak stomachs the opportunity to step away from the computer. You gone? Okay, good. Let's continue. I'll spare you the worst of the details, but long story short (and I promise you this is the short version of the story!), Dave successfully uninstalled the old toilet and then went and bought a new one. After a series of incidents led to Dave's realizing that he had to redo the install on the new toilet, a crack in the base of the new toilet led to splintering porcelain, and the slicing of Dave's finger. It was... horribly bloody. But he was determined! So he put a Band-aid, a paper towel, and some electrical tape around his finger (it was the only way to keep it from bleeding out - seriously), and headed back to the store to buy another toilet. He got it home and apparently the box wasn't packaged well, and it fell out the bottom into our driveway where it shattered. You can imagine how well that went over. Back again, and they gave him the third toilet of the day for free. He got it home and was mostly finished putting it in when I got home, though I was distracted from noticing or appreciating that fact by the blood all over our home. Not a joke. After he completed the project (finally), and our after our bathtub was filled with toilets (I am kicking myself that we don't have a photo of our tub-o-toilets), the adrenaline wore off, and Dave realized both that he didn't feel so well and that his finger was still bleeding profusely (several hours later). We eventually made our way to the ER, where we were seated in the waiting area and told that it'd likely be at least six hours before we'd be seen. An hour and a half or so later, when Dave still hadn't been triaged even, and he realized his finger appeared to have stopped bleeding, we decided to leave. Silly us. The bleeder popped open again in the car, so we made our way to the next closest ER (that's a great thing about living in the city - ERs on every corner!), where we were next in line and Dave got six stitches in the "laceration" on the tip of his index finger. It was a long day/night. The take-away, though, is that for those of you who want to/will be coming to visit, you now will have a brand spankin' new toilet that works -- and you'd better appreciate it!

5. And for the last notes on this one, two lovely evenings on our beach. One for the celebration of our good friend KH's birthday... just because you're in Chicago and not California does not mean you can't toast your birthday on the beach, girl! Here's a shaky shot of what was really a beautiful moon-rising that night, which we enjoyed with a great group of friends, and a picnic of snacks and drinks on our little beach:

And last night, relieved to be home again, and have things looking like they might start moving in the right direction again at the ol' homestead, Dave and Lanie and I grabbed the blanket and stepped out back onto the beach to watch the light of day make way for night on the beach again... There was another huge storm last night and we could see the lightning in a big cloud over downtown while we were out there. I tried to get video, but the light was terrible, so believe me. Here's Lanie's pretty face from last night, though (who can resist this face?!):

And on that beautiful note, I'll bid you g'night. More tomorrow with photos -- I promise -- of the floor do-over and the massive organization overhaul that took place here today. This house feels once again like a home... yay!
 

Quick Update

Blogger is causing image-posting problems (I'm researching options, and may be moving this blog to another host soon... will keep you posted), and on top of that our Internet's been finicky for the past three weeks, so I apologize for the absence of posts and am here to provide a quick update on the goings-on at the HSS. Certainly, with the drama that unfolded last month on our beautiful new floors, you can imagine there's been plenty happening that would, under normal Internet/blogging circumstances, have provided lots of posting fodder. It's true, there's been lots of frustration, rearranging, planning, interacting, shopping, and other activity. We'll give a good ol' summary once everything's finished and back to "normal," we promise.

In the meantime, though, we're here to report that our place has been "packed in" by professionals, and floors should go back down starting tomorrow! Hooray! Unfortunately, the turmoil of all of this means it will be challenging to live at home, so we're packing ourselves out and will be enjoying a brief staycation at the Other Home Sweet Schwab (Dave's parents' place) for at least the next few days. Supposedly we'll be back home by the weekend.

What this also means is that I won't be home tomorrow to record and post our eleventh Twentieth in our home. Can't believe we're so-quickly approaching our first full year! You'll have to forgive the fake-20th post again, which I'll take and post our first day back home. Every day's the same right now, anyway (read: hot/humid/sunny/beach-vacation-y), so it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, right?!

We'll be back soon!

Living in Limbo

As you already know, we had some damage to our floors thanks to a leaking hose, and that they had to be professionally dried out prior to the insurance being able to determine our next steps (while this was happening, we lived at the Marriott downtown). Well, today was the "next step" in the long list of next steps.

I am working from home today and was therefore able to meet our insurance adjuster and the flooring restoration folks who will help fix our mess. They came and took lots of photos and scribbled a billion notes and then gave me some papers to sign and we're on our way to recovery. I first want to say that both our insurance guy and the folks from Universal Restoration Services were incredibly kind, helpful, and utterly reassuring. While I am/we are still totally overwhelmed by everything going on, I genuinely feel a bit more hopeful after today's appointment. We'll know, likely within the next week, what the timeline for the project will be. We will cover our deductible and that's about it. Which is a huge relief. (That last sentence is a huge understatement.) They will need to replace *all* of the flooring - not just the damaged portions. And actually, we can change our mind on color/type/etc., if we want, and if it's within the priced-out retail cost they get for the replacement of what we had. So... what do you think? Should we go with the same? or make a change? When it all starts, they'll move our furniture and cover all our cabinets, shelves, walls, etc. so nothing gets dirty from the dust and work. If we need to, our insurance will send us back to a hotel while it's all going on. Suddenly, everything feels like it'll be fixed. It's still depressing and upsetting, but I think I can see just the hint of a glimmer of the light at the end of this long tunnel. It'll still probably be at least a month before it's all over and done with, but we're on our way. More updates when we know what happens next. This is why you pay for insurance!

In the meantime, here's our temporary state of affairs:

(storage room)

(suitcases - just unpacked, ready to be packed again if necessary)

Floor Update

We'll file this one under trials and tribulations! Here's the quick update. Thanks to a great suggestion from Dad (why didn't we think of this ourselves? because we've never done this before!), we called our homeowner's insurance. And they jumped on board! Over the past few days Dave has been in touch with our claims adjuster who's instructed our every move. Today, an insurance-directed floor company came over to assess the damage and pull up the flooring so that the drying process can begin before the adjuster himself can come next Tuesday.

Remember these floors?

I have to say, it truly never occurred to me that we'd be seeing them again... or so soon!

They pulled up the warped flooring (as you can see, it was a good portion of the dining room and front hall) to reveal mold already growing on the subfloor beneath the damage. They sprayed anti-fungal stuff over the affected area, and set up several large fans and a giant industrial dehumidifier (that's it in the second picture above)...

(Lanie just does not understand what's going on!)

We're not allowed to open the windows at all, or to turn any of the equipment off. Also, there's a large drainage tube running from the industrial dehumidifier to our kitchen sink:

Clearly this presents a challenge to our routine and comfortable living... so what're we to do? As of tonight, we'll be housed, thanks to our insurance company, at the Marriott downtown (less than a block from my office, as it turns out), until Tuesday. Lanie will be comfortably living at her second home with Dave's parents'. Since we won't be back here until Tuesday, and since nothing can really be done until everything's dry and the insurance adjuster comes to look at it and give us further instructions, we won't be able to provide a next update until next week. So... that's where things stand for now. We'll post what we know as soon as we know it! (Happy Anniversary to us!)

I'm off to pack my bags...