Harvey +11, Tuesday September 5, 2017

September 05, 2017

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 launch a boat. I go past the boat launch and pass two (DriveIn4/5) other signs that are intended to help reduce congestion. Finally, at the last corner (3 houses down from us) I pass the ‘Corner Store’ (DriveIn6). This house has, at NO COST to anyone (take a deep breath as this is long list, zoom in on the pic) – drinks (water, beer, Gatorade, soda), canoes, chainsaws, ShopVacs, Bleach, hand packed lunches, masks, containers, pales, paddles, first aid stuff, snacks of all kinds, gasoline, hammers, crowbars, and 100 other items. In addition, our corner store has a list of people who need various types of assistance such as demo or a high water flat-bed truck to get belongings – they do all of this for free.

Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast…the folks who came over today to help were friends from my former company and Todd Jurek (Ethan’s step dad) who has been an unbelievable help throughout. During the course of the 8 or so hours we pulled all the cabinets, shelves, closets out of the house, and finished spraying for mold - which, needless to say, was a terrific amount of work. After today we are done with all the demo that us amateurs can do – although we have done a TON! (see pic of our pile in front of house).

The ‘pile’ (see pic) in front of the house is so large because if the foundation of a cabinets has been in water you have to remove the whole thing. If the top and the bottom cabinets are separate you can save the top section but most times (since these are custom) the sides and foundation are combined, thus you have to throw out the whole thing. We are trying to salvage what we can but that process is very time consuming. For example, as noted yesterday we did save all the hardware and knobs. Tomorrow I will look to see what other sections we can salvage – the issue is just that we don’t have an endless amount of time.

Now, the impact of clearing out the house is that we have to move everything – all the clothes in the bureaus that are on the lawn, the clothes in the shelves, the food in the pantry, the plates and glasses in the cabinets, and all the knick knacks in closets. ALL this has to be packed like you are moving and in a sense, you are, you are just not going where your belongings are going. Think about the last time you moved, you thought about it, prepped, and packed each room in an organized fashion (OK, most of you are probably like me and are not nearly as organized as this but let’s just pretend). Now imagine you are trying to pack while people are tearing your house down around you so that mold and rot don’t take hold. And THEN throw in that YOU are being asked 101 questions because no one wants to do the wrong thing and everyone is packing your stuff and moving it to the second floor and out of the way for when rebuilding starts. This is how we packed our house in 16 hours. Yes, we had time to move the big stuff but as we all know, the devil is in the details.

Please understand I am incredibly fortunate to have had all this amazing help and don’t mean to sound ungrateful, as I am NOT – I am incredibly grateful. I am only trying to paint the picture of the chaos that has enabled us to get where we are – safe, in a house that (fingers crossed) will be mold free, ready for the pros, and packed. Over the next 2-3 days we will try to organize and get ready to live in someone else’s home as we will likely be out of home for 5-6 months. (I know, I went holy sh*t too and said No Way, but…way). We are excited about the work we have accomplished and continue to feel that we are lucky to have insurance (only 15% of people who flooded will have insurance), friends, family, and co-workers who are relentless and loving in their support.

As Lisa and I will be in Palo Alto for a few weeks coming up and people have asked where they could send a card – the address is 344 Leland Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94306.

Have a great tomorrow!

Nat