The Great Flood (aka. why I haven't been updating)

The last time I updated it was about five days before the Great Flood hit our home in south Louisiana. We got about 6-8 inches in our home. That may not sound like a lot, but water is incredibly damaging and in order to prevent mold you have to rip out all the sheetrock and insulation 12 inches above the water line. so we had about 18 inches of wall exposed throughout the house. Below are some pictures of what our yard looked like right before we evacuated.

The houses in our neighborhood looked like they were sitting in a lake. You couldn't walk in the backyard in rainboots...the water would go over the top it was so deep.

Our life changed pretty drastically once our home was flooded. Everything came to a halt while we focused on ripping our home apart, throwing away what wasn't salvageable and finding a place to store what was. About a week after the flood occurred my son, dog and I left for my hometown in Arkansas to stay with my parents while my husband started repairing our home with the help of friends and family. We weren't sure how long we'd be gone, but it turned out to be about 5 weeks! That is the longest my son and I have been away from my husband. It was hard, but we had a good time visiting family and friends in my home. My husband worked his butt off to get us back as soon as possible. Thankfully he knows construction and knew exactly what had to be done to repair everything. It took about two and a half weeks for the house to dry up enough for construction to begin. With the help of friends and family, he had our house livable again after just 4 weeks! To put that into perspective, we have a few neighbors who are STILL working on their homes.

Now, that doesn't mean our home was completely finished by the time my son and I got to come home. It just meant we had walls, molding and everything was painted and it was cleaned up from the construction. We still didn't have a kitchen or sinks when we first got back. But while I was in Arkansas I did A LOT of shopping. We lost a lot of furniture and had to rip out all our cabinets, so I spent a good amount of time searching in flea markets, thrift stores and furniture stores for what we needed. My grandparents and mother came back down with me and a big moving truck full of what I had collected in Arkansas. A bed for my son, a sofa, vanities for our bathrooms, a dining room table and chairs, book shelves, chest of drawers, and even a bunch of furniture for some friends of ours who lost everything during the flood. Within the first two days of getting back to Louisiana we had unloaded the truck and storage unit with what we had salvaged and pretty much put our home back together! It was amazing what we were able to accomplish.

This experience has really taught me how loving and giving people can be. Our family and friends went above and beyond to help us. And if you came down here, I think almost everyone has the same story. Neighbors, friends, family, even strangers, came out and helped everyone put their lives back together. It was definitely overwhelming at first, but in the end we received so many blessings. Our home is even more beautiful than it was before! How does that happen? We made some improvements since we had to gut everything anyway. We changed up some wall colors, put real wood molding around the walls and put real wood cabinets in our bathrooms and kitchen. Btw, we got our kitchen in the day before Thanksgiving...which we hosted this year. And by that I mean we had our cabinets in a pieces of plywood on top, and no doors. But hey I got I sink and a dishwasher! I was THRILLED. Washing dishes in a bathtub is not easy on your back. Oh and another thing...real wood furniture and cabinets can withstand flooding a lot better than press board. All the furniture and cabinets we had that were glued or not real wood fell apart in the flood. So...we got some solid wood pieces to replace it all. Hopefully we never flood again, but if we do then hopefully we don't have to replace as much.

All in all we are pretty much back to normal. We got cabinet doors in our kitchen last week (the day before my parents came into town. Procrastinate much?). We still have back splashes and granite to get in the kitchen, but that will have to wait for some mistakes to be remedied in the kitchen. But something I have learned from all this is that stuff is just...stuff. It is hard to see your things ruined, but thankfully we were able to save a lot and even though we threw away a lot, it could have been worse. So many people lost EVERYTHING and are still not in their homes. We had much to be thankful for during this experience. I didn't lose any of my books and my piano (my main worry), which we managed to get up on blocks before evacuating, was untouched. This is kind of a long explanation, but it's why I haven't been updating. That and life after we moved back in just got crazy putting everything back together, going on trips, having thanksgiving, etc. I have been reading a lot in the mean time though and I will update with reviews more regularly, though probably not with videos for now.

Thanks for checking in!

Shelby