Working on the Walls

It seems like there is nothing going on in the house.  The crews are being moved to J4's other jobs.  I am waiting for them to clean up the dust from the drywall installation and then paint.  The paint has been sitting here forever.  Forever!

I had to push back the delivery of both the bed and the appliances for the kitchen.  According to their time frame, we should have been painted already.  So many houses needing work pulls the crews from one to the others.

We did get the fireplace finished finally.  The stack is tall, tall, tall.  And totally shiny.  It looks out of place actually.  Most people have brick chimney tops, but not us!

Frank and I spent the weekend taking the siding off the house and cleaning it with the Odoban.  Mold inhibitor was sprayed on next.  Then we replaced the tar paper underlayment and put the siding back up.



It was like putting a puzzle together, all the pieces of siding shuffled around in the cleaning stage. And of course, what comes down NEVER goes back the same.  So we are having to adjust some of the window cutouts and add a larger strip across the very top.



And there were several times when we disagreed on how to proceed.  For me, it was like cutting up fabric pieces and putting them all back together again, ending up with a flat quilt top. A  For Frank, it was " how to do this by picking up a piece willy nilly and cutting it to fit".

We finally got it done, and didn't kill each other.

Tomorrow I have the appointment to finalize the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  I am hoping to get them ordered by midweek.  But before they close up the sheetrock totally, I wanted to show you this gem.

The house was built in 1982, there is an inscription in the cement on the front porch.  But the drywall was made on August 5,1981 at 6:23 PM.  Amazing, right?




When I was at the River City Quilt meeting on Thursday, they were giving pillows and pillowcases to those of us who flooded.  I chose two cases that go with the quilt I have in the camper.  It was nice to sleep pillows that were a bit above the ones in the camper!  Such simple things make such a huge impact.



Talking about simple things, I bought these necessities for the kitchen.  Cooking has been difficult, to say the least.  And I do so miss my beautiful kitchen.  I had so many things -- herb scissors, Wustoff knives, beautiful pots and tons of delicious spices!  I miss them all!

And to make matters worse, FEMA saw fit to "gift" a neighbor with this trailer in their driveway.  FEMA workers tied it into the sewer system, set up the electricity and furnished it for them.  They are living in the house on Section 8 housing, meaning they got the house through a minorities program run by the government and they get food stamps and obviously qualify for a brand  new FEMA trailer.  None of the 7 adults in the house work, but all of the kids get picked up by a schoolbus in front of my house each morning.  They were staying in one of their "other" houses up till this week.  And they did not have flood insurance so FEMA is paying for crews to repair their house.  I know this because my contractor is working on their house and getting paid by FEMA.

It cost us $689 to get the electricity run to the camper.  We are paying rent to the owner of the camper, loaned to us by one of Frank's co-workers.  We would have had to buy one if not for his generosity.  No telling what I will get from the insurance we have paid for the last 32 years.  But I do know for sure it will not pay replacement value even though we have what they call replacement valuation.  Or make my antiques whole again. 

I guess I need to be glad the kids are going to school at least.