Here we go again with Restoration #2

I've been kind of quiet around here because I've been preoccupied. Stressed out and preoccupied.  You may remember a little over a year ago, we went through a huge restoration when we had a tiny water leak that affected our entire first floor.  I blogged about it here, here, and here.

After the restoration was complete, everything looked great until about two months after we moved in.  I started noticing the floors weren't "right".  For a YEAR, I went back and forth with the the restoration company who kept telling me everything was fine and I kept insisting it wasn't. My gut told me things weren't right.  I'd wait a couple months and call them back again, over and over.  I finally got two outside opinions and each contractor told me at a minimum we needed to have the floors refinished.

We finally got the original contractor to agree to refinish the floors and were getting ready to schedule a date when I found the source of the problem.  The plumber who installed the toilet in the 1/2 bath didn't install it correctly and it had been leaking under the floors for the past year.  YEP.  Guess I was right.

So that means the ENTIRE job gets to be done again. Not only that, but since it is a 3rd party liability claim, I had to go round and round with everyone to get this project scheduled. I had to deal with the contractor, the adjuster, and the 3rd party insurer.  It took over a month and multiple, draining phone calls to finally get this project underway.

So, the mess gets bigger as they pack us up once again. How do you decide what you need for the next five weeks and what you can live without?

It makes my stomach turn to see our home be upended this way once again.  It's a violation for people to be pawing over our stuff. And the dogs were beside themselves with all these people in our home, packing up our things.

Ugh. So empty.

We really have to do this all again???  If you blow up the picture big enough, you will see the granite countertops on the back porch next to the toilet sitting out there too.  I'm sure the neighbors think we are total white trash.  I don't care.  I'm over it.

Today the demolition finally began and it's a mix of feeling sick to my stomach over what is happening to my home, and a mix of relief that we are finally moving forward and that much closer to getting it all back to normal.

I'm sure the neighbors like seeing all this crap in the garage along with the giant dumpster and pod parked in the driveway, and construction vehicles clogging our quiet little street.

It gets worse before it gets better, right?

Last renovation, we were stupid enough to live in the guest bedroom with the four dogs while all this went on.  This time, I couldn't face all that and started stressing out about going to a hotel with the dogs.  I kept praying about what we were going to do and stressing how I was going to handle it all.  God had a plan and I didn't need to worry about a thing!

We didn't end up in a hotel.  THIS is where we are staying:

 It's a 20 acre property that used to be a mini horse farm.  Our friends own this beautiful place and it has been sitting empty so they allowed us to rent it for the time we need AND it's  no problem to have the dogs here!

The grounds are beautiful!  We're calling it our country manor. ;)
Below is the barn where the mini horses used to sleep. It has cute living quarters on the second level.

The house itself is way bigger than what we need for a rental but we are enjoying our time here.  There is a large room at one end of the house that we think was at one time a home office.  When we saw the windows with this amazing view of the back yard, we decided to camp out in there.  So we wake up to this beautiful view. 

It's aggravating, stressful and just a big pain in the neck to be going through this for a second time but I just Thank God for all the wonderful things in our lives.  I really shouldn't complain because nobody is hurt, nobody is sick, we didn't lose anything, and the house is being repaired.  Plus, look at this place we get to stay!