Harvey +9, Sunday September 4, 2017

September 04, 2017

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 difference as they are gearing up to do rolling black outs in Houston).

As for being able to drive into our driveway, this was HUGE. It created a sense of connection, independence, and normalcy that has evaded us when we were in really high water. The idea that we can now run a small errand or simply get to the house when we want has made a huge change. That said, it is not exactly easy street, we are borrowing a friend's Ford Expedition which has enough clearance to get through the foot or so of water that is remaining on our street. And we consider ourselves lucky as some parts of neighborhood still have 5' of water and the boats are constantly going back and forth.

But wait, it gets better, we had 10 friends show up today at 8:30/9:00 with crowbars, hammers, saws, and awesome attitudes. These folks, pics below, were there to rip out the first four feet of drywall in every room in the house and we got about 75% done. While this is tremendous amount of work it is required to make sure mold doesn't take root and to allow the studs to dry. It was very moving to both of us to have these friends work 6-8 hours to help us out. As my sister-in-law said, it makes you believe in the good in people. In addition, we had folks drop off lunch and Doug brought Sonic Slushies for everyone.

One more terrific bright spot was another friend who showed up to get my car clean and dry by 'gutting and skinning' my car (my term). He took out front and back seats and peeled out and hung up to dry all the carpet in the car. Unbelievable kind as this was a massive effort.

Tomorrow another set of friends will be over to finish up the dry wall, we will continue to document the items lost, review what the Flood Adjusters say (they also stopped by today), meet with our contractor, organize the upstairs where are stuff is, and maybe get a little downtime.

Below are picture from the day - the amazing team that helped, what the demo looks like, and what our front yard looks like. Yep, that is our stuff out there.

I know my last report was a little bleak and I want you to know we are back in the saddle again. I mean I would be wearing and F Harvey shirt now if I had one. We are confident we are on the right track, making major progress, and continue to feel lucky to have the support of everyone. As we go through this experience we are finding an inner resolve that continues to propel us forward and towards each other that makes me more certain than ever that we will be better for this.

Thank you all for the support and talk to you tomorrow!