It has been a very, very long road but I am happy (and apprehensive) to say that it has come to an end. Tuesday we had, what are hopefully, the last people come to the house. I’m choosing to believe there are no more issues and my house is mine again. If that doesn’t end up being the case… lord, save me.
I know I shouldn’t be so dramatic. We are healthy and safe and that is really all that matters. But still, give me a cookbook author who is a mother of two and Italian to boot and tell me not having a kitchen since March 6th isn’t complete misery! I almost lost my sense of self. Cooking became a rarity and eating out become normal. My world was upside-down. But now, we can get back on track.
If you aren’t familiar with my situation here is a BRIEF recap (really, I promise I skipped a lot):
1. We had significant water damage on March 6th.
2. Ended up being “category 3” water which equates to sewage water.
3. Entire first floor of home and finished basement (which was only finished in Dec 2016) had to be ripped out and replaced… ALL of it… walls, floors, appliances… etc.
There were lots of stages and setbacks and tears and angst. Below is a pictorial timeline. Is that a thing?
March 6th– It all went down. The firefighters (who I called because all the smoke detectors were going off) squeegeed all the water out of our house for us, moved furniture and removed waterlogged rugs, etc. They were incredible!
March 9th– Trying to find alternative cooking methods. The noodles were ok, the eggs not so much.
March 12th– What was removed from our basement
March 14th– Making Veal Spinach Loaf in a a crock pot. Actually worked quite well.
March 22nd– Kitchen packed up and boxes moved conveniently into our dining room. Didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. “Infected” cabinets finally removed and we treated ourselves to a weekend at grandma’s house. Complete with food for Bunny.
April 16th– My cookbook is published
April 24th– Big gap in dates. Work continued on the basement as the kitchen remained untouched. Until they came to remove the rest of the cabinets…
May 11th– We have walls back in the kitchen!
May 21st– The basement is useable for the first time! This also happened to be my birthday,,, and there was a tornado. The best birthday present I could have gotten was to be able to take my children to the safety of the basement during a tornado threat!
May 23rd– The last day of school!
May 30th– New floors… at this point I am miserable and done and hate being in my house. I’ve got nothing left. But the girls LOVED spending the night in a hotel and getting room service for breakfast before swim team.
June 6th– After the floors were replaced we didn’t have any surfaces on the first floor which lead to making corn on the cob in a crock pot on my mom’s cooler. Awesome.
June 10th– Cabinets are here!
June 12th– Blues win the Stanley Cup!
July 1st– Appliances here! Cabinets still not done.
July 9th– Countertops installed and new lights hung!
July 14th– Appliances installed (not all working but installed nonetheless)! But the house is still in shambles.
July 20th– Cabinet’s finished!
August 13th– Kitchen put back together, with dishes and everything. Touch-ups and punch list complete. I was wrong earlier. I have one more inspection to go and plenty of paperwork to complete but we have our house back!
August 15th– Girls went back to school
I hope none of you ever have to go through this. If you do, here is a tip: keep a “silver linings” list. I started this the first day and it was fun to think of good things that happened during or because of this debacle.
Sorry I have been so absent the last several months. But here is to things getting back to normal and more blogs and exciting announcements coming soon!
Enjoy the rest of the summer! I know I will!