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Harvey +15, Saturday September 9, 2017

OK, OK, so I missed doing an update last night – sue me.  If you win, you can get my house and I get yours. Deal?  OMG – I crack myself up. Quick shout out to my family in Miami.  My aunt, who lives in Miami Beach was initially not going to evacuate and when questioned on her safety and the possible surge her answer was “Don’t worry, I have a floatie” (seriously that is what she said).  After that the Vegas Odds were 3:2 – my aunt vs Irma although eventually she saw reason and is now staying with her brother.   Just a little aside, as I thought you want to know that my family is as crazy as me. Regarding Houston, we finalized our approach to getting the house back together.  On Monday/Tuesday of next week our contractor will finish up the more complicated demo, Wednesday we will have a water remediation crew in, and then about 3-4 days later we will do a final mold treatment.  Once we complete this process we can start the actual rebuilding.  For those that are unfamiliar (li
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Harvey +13, Thursday September 7, 2017

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Today I thought I would have a shorter update and post videos.  (Videos are at the bottom) One of the awesome things that happened today was our generator arrived .   THANK YOU NetSuite!  (see pic)   Lisa and I are very thankful and grateful for this gift and while I know many people were involved in this I want to give a special shout out to Matt DeLauro and Brenee Staples. As for the day, it was a pretty straight forward Harvey recovery day.  I got back into work while Lisa began to organize our belongings (no small task once you see the video).  In addition, we reviewed our first contractor bid, received a bid on water remediation, and took Lisa's car to the shop (it runs but has more lights \on the dashboard than a Christmas tree) in addition to having taken on water.  We are learning a lot about the process while also trying to navigate insurance, FEMA, and the different stages of rebuilding.  More on this in the next few days. With regard to the videos, I have
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Harvey +12, Wednesday September 6, 2017

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Well, what can I say…Lisa stole the show today.  This morning Lisa and I drove together for her yearly check-up at MD Andersen. (Quick background - in March of 2007 Lisa was diagnosed with Stage 3c breast cancer and after surgery, chemo, radiation, and more chemo she has been cancer free.)  Today for her appointment she was told, for the first time since she had been diagnosed, she would be able to stop taking a cancer prevention medication.  This is a HUGE milestone and awesome news.  For a while, there was no Harvey, no damaged house, no flooded streets…there was just Lisa.  It is a terrific feeling. After the appointed we decided to celebrate by having lunch at one of our favorite places, Torchy’s Tacos, which is about 2 miles or a 10 minute drive from our house.  This is where Harvey stepped back into the picture as it took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to go the two miles from lunch to our house.  CRAZY! To explain, look at the map below and you can see that after rush ho
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Harvey +11, Tuesday September 5, 2017

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Today was another long day of working in the house doing the remediation (aka demo).  Lisa and I arrived at the house around 9:00 and our crew came over around 10:00 (pic below) and worked until 5:30.  I thought I would try describe the drive into our neighborhood and to our home.  There are multiple pics attached as I think someone once said a picture is worth a 1,000 words.  As I take the first left into the neighborhood I see a squad car (DriveIn1) because a squad car is posted at each entrance, there are 4 of them, to our subdivision.  The police are there to reduce the traffic and in the evening you need an ID as there have been looters.  (I too agree that there is a special place in heck for looters).  After I pass the police car I go through a sign (DriveIn2) that is there to let people know you cannot exit through the back of the neighborhood (people are looking for shortcuts b/c of flooding).  Then I pass a sign (DriveIn3) that tells me where to go for high water to la
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Harvey +10, Monday September 4, 2017

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What a day, what a day!  Again, today was a day where we really took the bull by the horns and put ourselves on the road to recovery and rebuilding.  We spent the day, again, working on clearing the house, getting our belongings aggregated, and preparing for the next stage.  Given our situation it is easy to look at the negative but having so many friends around and being grateful for what we have vs what we lost has kept us on the lighter side.  Yes, there are down moments but not often.  Especially when we had another awesome crew show up to help out – see pics below (two different teams today). An example of the lighter side - I woke up this morning and was complaining to Charlie (my friend of 20 years  and with whom we are staying) that my back was killing me and complained that I wasn’t built for this and Charlie’s response – “Are you kidding me, your people built the pyramids!”  It was just what I needed in the morning, a good laugh to start the day.  For me, it is the
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Harvey +9, Sunday September 4, 2017

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Well, my friends, yesterday and today we beat the snot out of Harvey and stood strong. Yesterday we got electricity back, the water final receded from the house, we moved into a friend's house, and we could actually drive up our driveway.  It was quite the day.  I think Friday was a real low point for me and I needed a solid day like Saturday to get me back on track.  Yes, if Friday was like getting a gut punch, Saturday was like getting your favorite dessert and you actually have the room to eat all of it.  It was a lot of change and all of it worked together to make us laugh, smile, and stress in a good way.  The electricity enabled us to turn on AC, start the dehumidifiers, and get the last remaining water out with a Wet Vac.  (Can you guess the last time I used a Wet Vac?  If you guessed was the 5th of never, you are correct).  It was awesome to put myself into something that was productive and working towards the path of rebuilding.  (The generator will make a huge d
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Harvey +8, Saturday September 3, 2017

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(See Guest Post Below) Doug  Love it!!!  Amazing story about the ho gs and thanks for sending out the blog today. For those that don't know, Doug is a machine about giving to others and supporting his community.  This is a small glimpse into the source of strength he has been for many, many people in Houston, including me.  As for That Guy, he beat the snot out of Harvey today. Talk tomorrow. Nat Sent from my iPhone Guest Post from a Friend So Nat has been providing all of you an interesting view into the mind of a Middle Age Jewish Guy, I thought I might hijack the blog with a perspective from the Older "but more fit" suburban white guy that didn't get flooded. It's actually pretty difficult to sit in you dry house that still has power and internet and watch your friends and family struggling with the aftermath of this storm. Any for many it's now a race against time. How fast can you get back into your house and tear it up in
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