So we went to bed at our regular time on New Year’s Eve. We did wake up at midnight when someone shot off fireworks. New Year’s Day was cold. It had snowed before we got up but just a tiny bit. We had a couple of flakes throughout the day but it turned to rain and melted the snow. Many things were closed today so we didn’t leave the house. It was a nice quiet day.
The quiet didn’t last long. The morning of the 3rd Bill woke up and heard s noise while in the living room. He walked down the hallway to the office and walked into water. In the guest bathroom there was a lot of standing water. He opened up the door on the vanity and got a shower. One of the water lines had broken and had been spraying water for hours. The bathroom was flooded, the guest bedrooms carpet was wet about a foot in, the office had standing water throughout. We started mopping up and called Nick. He brought over his big wet vac and they got out over 10 gallons of water. I called Servpro, they came and looked and said I should call the insurance company as the water had seeped up the walls. They also found the wall behind the office, which is my kitchen, was wet. So they started the cleanup and we now have these big, noisy fans blowing and a big dehumidifier going. The insurance company called a construction company to come check things out. They will be back on Monday or Tuesday to give an estimate. The fans are so loud we are wearing earplugs and headphones. They ran all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Thursday night. We can only talk to each other if we go in the bedroom and close the door. On top of this, I woke up Thursday morning with a winter head cold. All of the baseboards have been removed, the vinyl flooring in the bathroom, and about 2 feet of the drywall in the rooms. There is stuff all over the house as we had to empty those rooms. Fortunately I still have my refrigerator and my stove so I can cook.
We had some snow Friday night so when we went out to go to Rory’s basketball game on Saturday morning the car slid a bit on the driveway. Our street hadn’t been plowed yet so we took the Suzuki and put it in 4 wheel drive. The kids did win the game. Yeah!
Monday, Jan 8, Servpro came out and removed all the fans and stuff. They say the floor under the coat closet in the hallway is still a bit damp but it will dry by itself. The construction people also came and took pictures and notes so they can send the estimate to the insurance company. We now wait for approval from insurance before work can start. We will be doing a bit of upgrades and paying for those ourselves. The bathroom floor was vinyl and I want to put tile in. I will also upgrade the vanity and toilet.
In a weak moment I agreed to take over the treasurers position for the HOA. The only real work is once a year to do the annual billing. Other than that it is regular bills that I can probably automate. The current treasurer is coming over this afternoon to give me the paperwork and software. We still need to go to the bank and transfer everything. I reviewed the paperwork and was not impressed. There is a lot missing and no standard reports. I will be organizing everything and producing all the appropriate reports. Time to dust off my Excel training. I also got put on the bank account now I need to get the mailing addresses changed on the bills.
We have had a lot of rain, no big snow yet. Next week our temps are supposed to dip down into the teens. Not looking forward to that. I wonder if we will get snow at all this year as it has been warmer than normal.
Rory has had two basketball games so far the team has one win and one loss. Nick is the coach again this year.
We went out to lunch at Outback for Aimee’s birthday. We had a good meal and a nice converstation. We gave her the gifts we got her.
I heard from the insurance company late on Friday. It looks like they approved everything the construction company said needs to be done. I am now waiting on the construction company to come over and go over the choices on carpet, flooring, etc with us. Hopefully that will be early next week and we can get things moving.
The weather has turned cold and windy. It has also snowed a bit off and on. We are in for a week of really low temperatures. Some will be in the single digits. Good thing we don’t have to go out if we don’t want to. There will also be snow and rain off and on, mostly at night. Some days will be too cold to snow.
I got the invoices for the HOA dues printed and the temperatures got up to 18 today so Bill and I bundled up and delivered them to each house. We walked very quickly around the neighborhood but our finger still got really cold. We couldn’t wear gloves and handle the paper. At least that chore is done. I have also created new accounting forms for tracking expenses and deposits and a budget form.
We are going to exercise class still and since it is the first of the year the classes are very full. I wonder how long that will continue. Because of the cold we are currently experiencing we have been walking there too. We are thinking about walking in the mall since we are tired of walking in circles around the track.
The contractor came over and we signed contracts with them. Now they just need to get us on the schedule. We did pick out the carpet for the bedrooms. We decided carpet was best for those rooms. Our bathroom will have tile. We have a bunch leftover from the kitchen remodel and will use that. We ordered a vanity. The room is really small and you have to be careful of the type of doors and drawers to get as they could interfere with the bathroom door. I found one on Wayfair that had a barn door on it so I got that. I don’t particularly like the lights, towel bar, and toilet either so we got those too. I will get paid back from the construction company on part of it but not all of it since it is my decision.
We had our first real snow on the 19th. It was a fluffy snow so it wasn’t hard to remove. It was just cold! We had about a week of freezing and single digit temps. Bill was able to use the leaf blower to remove most of the snow. I helped with the shovel on part. I don’t mind the snow but really don’t like the temps to be in the single digits and then have wind on top of it.
One day we went to the gas station and had trouble opening the door to the gas take due to ice. We had been at Rory’s basketball game when that happened. We didn’t go out a lot but did go to exercise and walked at the gym and the mall. Bill isn’t sure walking the mall is a good idea. When we went there for the first time I found a bracelet at Kay’s that I liked and we bought it. We did get a good sale price and a military discount. Hmm, I wonder what else I can get.
We went to lunch with our camping group at The Old Spaghetti Factory. I love their mizithra cheese. I am in charge of the lunch in February and we are going to Smokey Bones.
I got the books for the HOA straightened out and the bills for this year printed and distributed. Now to see how long it takes people to pay up. Little do they know I will be sending pass due notices if they don’t pay by the due date and adding late fees. I am such a witch. We did get to the bank and got everything changed over to me. I have to change the password to the account as it is too simple and I don’t want others to have it.
We have a new place in town for fast food. It is called Teriyaki Madness. It is similar to the Flame Broiler in Calif. Yeah, something that isn’t wings, pizza and burgers! We went for lunch and enjoyed it.
We are going with the kids to brunch on the 28th we invited Aimee’s parents to join us this time. John made each of the girls a custom cutting board for Christmas and mine is beautiful. He works with wood and does a very good job. He used to do it as a business and made custom staircases and stuff.
So the month ended with our house still a mess. We are waiting on the contractor. At least it gives me time to do some reorganizing.
The lot behind our development is finally getting worked on. They are putting in homes, about 35. They have been moving dirt around for the last week. We did have about 9:days of rain in a row so nothing was done then. It wasn’t heavy rain, just kind of drizzly.
So that was the month of Jan.
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