Home Sweet Home? NOT

I mentioned in my last post that we had a disaster at Casa Espinoza.  Well, I was not exaggerating.  The day after Christmas our alarm system went off at the house.   The alarm company called us and said they detected "motion in the living room." The police came out, and it was reported that there was "no disturbance." Great. 

Later that night we were concerned that maybe a burglar got in through the upstairs so we had our neighbor go peak in the windows.  

What did he see?  Not a burglar, but a fallen ceiling.  

Yikes! Yes, part of the living room ceiling collapsed and was saturated with water.  As were the hardwood floors.  The master bath toilet [upstairs] apparently clogged and ran over......for 3 days.  Nice. 

Our insurance company wanted to send in a restoration company right away to prevent any further damage and dry the place out before mold had time to form.  All this, mind you, while we were out of town.  One week and $9,000+ later, our house is almost completely dry. 

So with out further ado, here is the wreckage.  Sorry for the horrible phone pics, but these are the ones I received myself when I was still in Ohio.

{master bath- where it all began}

{outside master bath in bedroom}

{living room}

{dining room}

{kitchen}

{our sad, dead xmas tree amongst the bags of debris}

{the open ceilings}

This looks horiible doesn't it?  Well, it is.  Luckily my dad came down a few days before me and was able to clean up best he could and try to make the place safe for Mateo.  He emailed me this photo and said..."comfy, come home!"

 There were a lot of random nails and staples on the floor and dirt/dust everywhere.  Mateo wanted to go over anything that grandpa had missed once we arrived.

As you can see in the below photo, there are some rugs rolled up by the door.  The restoration co. took them to be cleaned (bonus!) and now we have a couple [I won't be using in the "new" house] out on top of the plywood so Mateo does have some soft/clean area to play.

It feels so strange here now, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  In fact, it is a bright light and the end of a relatively short tunnel!  Our insurance is covering all of the damage (minus our $1000 deductible) so we are getting new hardwoods (which we will extend into the kitchen), new tile in bath and laundry room, new drywall and a professional paint job for the the whole downstairs.  PLUS, a new master bath and carpet throughout the upstairs!!! I am meeting with the renovation contractor tomorrow to pick everything out.

Needless to say my mind has been racing.  We really don't have much time for thinking as they are going to get started in less than two weeks.

We are heading out west  (Albuquerque and San Diego) for a few weeks on the 15th, so they are going to do all the work while we aren't even home!  It will be like that show While you were out....except all my furnishings will be the same.  None of our furniture was ruined.

Overall, I am pretty excited!  I never did like the color of our hardwoods, nor the tile selection anywhere in the house.  The carpet was fine, but is worn in spots.  Also I painted the whole house in flat paint (big mistake!) so it will be nice to have someone else fix that for us.  That is a lot of painting!

Let me just stop you right here.  No, I didn't clog the toilet! I wasn't in town and I can prove it. 

Updates on my choices/options coming up this week after I meet with the contractor.

PS. My poor little Mexi-can contracted Roseola somewhere and was not feeling well all week.  I had never even heard of this virus.  I looked it up after my mom and Dr. Aunt Margie suggested that was what it was, and he had textbook symptoms.  High fever, with no other symptoms for 3 days, followed by a rash on his body.  "Your child may be irritable, clingy and whiny."

There is no treatment for this virus, although I did give him some Baby Tylenol.  If you notice a fever followed by a rash like this......(notice his chest) it could be Roseola.

It was a tough week, but he is finally back to normal. 

PSS.  I forgot to show you my score during my extended stay in Ohio.  I got this beautiful rabbit fur coat for $13.01 at Goodwill. Yeah!