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I can't believe it is over three weeks since our ice and power outage disaster. I spent most of the time at my son's home...graciously living there while my hubby and a friend slaved away gutting and removing so many items from the water logged basement. I'm allergic to mold and on Day 4---he uncovered some old Black mold that had been treated years ago, but rose again from the dead with the new water source. I had to leave immediately. It was then we needed the professionals.
We hired a removal team to assist in emptying the basement. Four smiling guys who carefully carried every item to safety!
Our removal team managed to remove most of the basement in 6 hours to this 10x10x8 foot tent. All the items here are indestructible type and in covered bins. Lots of the shelving units were put in here, and the team made it a solid mass that a hurricane couldn't move.
[TAG1]They also filled our screen/glassed in porch.
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Most of these items here are fabric, craft supplies, or plastic doll furniture and some odds and ends of furniture/lamps. The area by the windows is the actual porch furniture.
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The remodeled dollhouses were able to be moved upstairs and were in the kitchen for a few weeks, but we moved them today to the porch. I have a kitchen table again.
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The kitchen was tested and declared clean and safe last Friday. The shoe moldings can be put in place again. We have slowly been trying to find a new normal with all the chaos. The counter above has been sterilized but I covered it with plastic tablecloths as all my hanging items from the back hallway are sitting here and have been cleaned. I don't use this area for food prep, just emptying the dishwasher and displaying fun things. NO EASTER PRETTIES this year!
[TAG5]
I sterilized and oiled the island counter and the coffee counter. This table-clothed staging area will be relocated tomorrow and I will finish cleaning and oiling the island and the kitchen will be almost normal.
Every bit of this area was 5-6 feet high with debris which was put in the dumpster or removed by our sanitary company and garbage collectors.
The removal team and pretty much filled up the garage too. The items out there are paints (the garage is heated) and lots of supplies/ and raw materials, also bins of items I will donate or sell.
We also have some things in each of the bedrooms and the living room.
I had made labels, and 99% of the bins were labeled where they would go, besides what was in them. I wish there had been time to make a record of where what is...but it was pretty much a wing it...and go with it system.
Our items were safely packed in bins, but I will have to do some serious sorting, selling and donating for the future. The only things really lost were paper items, some frames, some wood materials and some cardboard packing boxes in my shipping area. Everything else was up on shelving or in waterproof containers. A couple of saturated wood product pieces were retired to the dumpster.
It was then we realized we had to have professional help. Despite the water only being 1-3" on the floor for less than a day, the damage was done.
This is the HUMONGOUS Dumpster filling up 1/3 of our 6 car driveway. And, it is full and will be picked up soon.
The bulk of it is filled with the drywall, solid wood tongue-groove paneling, pegboard, and any damaged materials from all the rooms. Still to leave are all the doors and doorframes, and anything else we find that is water tainted.
Here is the 1000 sq.feet of subfloor ($$$$) 2x2 panels of plastic grid faced with a pressboard flooring. On top of this was the wood/laminate flooring from the main room, the craft/doll room and the big storage room. This is what is recommended to have for a dry/warm floor in basements. Water under isn't a problem, but over---we had just enough water to saturate everything.
It had taken us about 12 years to do all the floors and finishing them off with this, buying a bit at a time. We just finished the last craft storage room 3 years ago.
And, I have Alre adyfilled the car twice to take in for donations.
Here is the power generator...that failed, and the guys couldn't get started, but the damage had already occurred. Ideally we will have a new back-up system for our sump pumps. Plumbers are coming on Thursday to assess the situation.
Ground Zero...our two sump pump pits. This area originally had vinyl tile, which we are trying to chip up. Everything has been treated my professionals and declared safe. The remediation/sanitation team took three days.
This is our canning jar storage area, which had to be completely gutted. There was a ridge between this area and my hubby's office.
Surprisingly the office was relatively dry. The marks on the wood were from mopping the floors and the remediation treatment. We will take them outside and finally seal and paint them.
Behind the doors are all our Christmas and Holiday cooking appliances, decorations along with camping supplies and family treasures. All high and dry! Everything got to just stay here! YAY!
We had seamless vinyl in here and more water went under it than over it, saving the walls, and all the built-in cabinetry. The original tile in this area we can't remember if we even put it down or if it was there when we bought the house in 1984? Anyway it is really stubborn and I think we might just go over it, with vinyl again.
The Main Room was the biggest upheaval. We had bleached the floors immediately during the initial two days of damage. The Remediation team had us move our furniture and big pieces 4 feet from all the walls, so they could work on removing at least 2-3 feet of all the walls that were wet.
This is the big TV Wall, that had two low cabinets and all sorts of shelving. The paneling was tongue and groove and painted when we did the second renovation of the basement about 10 years ago. Here you can see the studs and the floor trim that still has to leave. Visually, whatever we use here to replace the walls will be hidden by cabinetry.
This was the worst area, next to the furnace room and my shipping room. All the 3 foot wood was removed up the wall, and a liquor cabinet that was built-in was removed carefully and will be able to be replaced with new footing boards. All the trim is gone.
My wading through the basement in high boots with a flashlight paid off, as almost everything that was on the ground was put up. Also---all our furniture was on legs or rollers..which can easily be cleaned or replaced. All our electrical is up at waist high.
The Doll/Craft room really lost some walls too. That's my sink wall and desk walls.
Luckily the foam insulation used here is sterile, and all the wood studs have been treated.
Everything in the middle will move to the storage room to get these floors painted.
That's a pipe from my sink that ran under my work desk corner. That system is being reassessed on Thursday also. We will just finish this area off with white pegboard and some vinyl trim. My sink may end up somewhere else.
I didn't want to post unless I had something positive to post. Today we got the shipping room floor cleaned and painted, also in the large storage room.
Yesterday Hubby painted the walls a sand color with concrete paint, and then we cleaned the floor again, and painted them with skid-safe gray. We have neither the money or the energy to finish the floors another way at this time...so clean and sealed is as far as it will go for now.
Tomorrow I will paint the pegboard walls, and hubby is going to make braces for the long counter. We lost the wood cabinets here, as they were a neighbor's throw aways made of particle board that is basically chopped-wood sponges and this area was the last to get emptied and dry. I'm happy to say there is NOW NO MOLD at all, and my breathing is normal.
After this floor is dry/cured, we can move everything in the DOLL Craft room in here and do those floors there and repair the walls. Then move everything back into the doll room, and take all the furniture and items from the main room and move it in here. Then Do that floor and wall repairs in the main room.n I'm really looking forward to unearthing the freezer which is running and full of food...lol, and we aren't sure exactly how deeply buried, that is.
So it will be a few weeks or more before anything is where it is supposed to be, meanwhile, I'll be sorting, donating and shaking my head.
This is a lot for two old GEEZERS!
PS: My ETSY shop will be full when I reopen it. Four generations of collectors will have to give some of this stuff UP...as my kids aren't interested in very much of it. And BARBIE/doll and craft stuff, will definitely find it's way to the ETSY store and FACEBOOK Marketplace, for bigger pieces!
I may even open a second Etsy shop for the dolls, still waffling on that, and there is always EVIL BAY!
LOL...wicked-insane-crazy laugh here......
MRAhahahhahahahahahahahahhhhhhhhh.......
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