Kitchen Update

Well, the time is finally here for the great kitchen repair. It has been a long time coming - since October 29 when we had the kitchen flood. I have seen huge improvements each day and wanted to share them with you.



These are all made Monday morning with the cabinets cleaned out and waiting for work to start.

Here is what it looked like when I got home from work on Monday evening:

And now - Tuesday evening. The biggest change is not something that is visible to the camera. While they had the hole in the floor (where the new wood is now) they went under my big kitchen and put supports under it so that the floor is perfectly level. For anybody who lives in an old house, especially a mill house, you know -- there is nothing level in the entire house. Well now, my kitchen floor is level. I felt like a drunk walking across it the first time...I guess I was used to the topography of the land and had been adjusting to it for the past 5 years.

And finally...here is what it looked like Wednesday night. It's another big change, but the best is yet to come.

How do you like the fridge in the pool room door? There is a new solid floor with sealant on it. Today, the vinyl floor will go down and then all that's left is putting the cabinets back...ha!ha! I made that sound easy. The ceiling cabinet and floor cabinet won't be that much trouble...I don't think. However, the floor-to-ceiling cabinet where the oven is built in and the pantry is may be more of a problem...did I mention they jacked up the floor??? Now they will have to shave off the top and bottom of the cabinet that is meant to fit snug to make it fit. The jigsaw puzzle part of this should be interesting.....Stay tuned for more updates.

New countdown timer

If you look at the bottom of my page, you will see that I have added a new element to my blog. The reason for this in part has to do with why I haven't blogged much lately -- I absolutely HATE this time change in the fall. I have still not fully adapted to leaving work in what looks like the middle of the night. Don't get me wrong, I love this season of the year - I just hate the time change being sprung on me and the fact that it looks like bedtime at 5:30 in the afternoon. Oh well, it won't be too much longer before the days start getting longer. I can't wait.

Water, Water EVERYWHERE!!!!

Some of you know and some of you don't...but you're about to...what a wet week it has been on Upland Street. Wednesday started off just like any other day except for some reason I decided to shower before getting anything to drink or taking Nick out - which meant that I was already clean that day...and that was a good thing. That is where the day started going south--in a big hurry. I threw on clothes after my shower so that I could take Nick out and while standing on the back porch I looked down to see wet footprints on the porch..."Why are my feet wet?" I asked. As soon as Nick was ready to go inside, the answer to my question was evident - My kitchen floor was covered in water. This was the start of a very long day. Once we got the leak stopped and my kitchen flooring seemingly dry, this is what it looked like. The dark water stains on the cabinets didn't use to be there.

This is the edge of the cabinets where the water was coming from. For anyone who doesn't know, it is on the opposite end of the cabinets from the where the hot water heater was. Also, this was made several hours after the hot water heater had been removed from the house...

it was constant water seeping out - UNTIL - the insurance company insisted on sending out ServiceMaster to take care of the water cleanup and evacuation. They found water in places I wouldn't have thought it could get to. This is what my kitchen looks like now---AFTER SERVICEMASTER.

There are 4 of these big fans plus a dehumidifier in my kitchen making it a wind tunnel. The white areas of the floor are what are wet and the dark is what was dry to begin with...the dark is where there was glue, dirt, etc. I will update more when I have something positive to report.

Nick

Saturday was my sweet little Nick's 5th birthday - my baby is getting so old...that's 35 in dog years. In honor of his birthday, I have uploaded some pictures of him doing various things throughout the last year.

Nick is the smallest Gamecock Fan in the house, but he loves to show his support of the team any time possible. Here are some photos of him demonstrating his love for the Gamecocks.

And here is my sweet boy last year looking out the front door for little ghosts and goblins on Halloween.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!!!!!!

Camping in the Mountains

Danny, Nick, and I went camping in the mountains this weekend...or rather Friday night. We had intended to stay the weekend, but several things were against us. First the weather did not cooperate. It was not supposed to rain this weekend, but at our campground it did. That brings us to #2...the campground that Danny has stayed at before and wanted to go to this weekend was full, so we had to find another one, and it was not nearly as nice as Davidson River. So, we decided to come home early as the camper was soaking wet and will take a while to dry out. I do have pictures from the trip though. On a positive note, Nick seemed to like camping a lot.

PICTURES

Here is the camper all set up on Saturday...This picture was made about noon when we decided to come home. As you can see, we didn't have space to set up the screen room. The picture was made from our campsite designated picnic/fire area which you will be able to see more of on the next picture.

The picnic/fire area was behind the camper and up just a little hill (there was only 1 step, some campsites had STAIRS to climb to get to the picnic area. There was a fire pit/grill on the other side of the picnic table and a nice little clearing if the weather had been better.

So here we are on our walk before we left. Doesn't Nick look cute in his little hoodie? Keep in mind that all these pictures on our nature walk were made at around noon on Saturday...it's not raining now, but the fog is like pea soup.

Nick seemed to feel right at home on the camper bed.

Here is Nick watching me fix supper Friday night very carefully hoping that I will offer him something to eat or drop something.

Here is the last shot of Nick watching Danny load up the back of the truck while I finish packing up the inside so we can head for home.