Nashville Flood 2010

So where in the world have I been?

Well... did you hear about the Nashville Flood on May 1st?

Well... we had some damage from the flood.

We live in a 1970's Split Level home.

So our lower level is partially underground. 

It is our office space/my craft area/Josephine's future play room.

We have a step outside our back door and from all the rain, the water was just standing about 6" in that step area & it started coming through our back door slowly when we noticed it at about 10am. 

So we immediately started taking everything we could upstairs. 

Computer equipment, client information, camera gear, (which was all set up right by the back door) scrapbooking stuff, all of it.

Then Josh started to notice that is started to come through the walls & was spreading through the carpet throughout the whole room. 

So he went outside to take a bucket & try to drain the step area outside the door.

All the while it is pouring outside. 

By the time he comes back in 5 mins later, the water is starting to pool up on the carpet. 

So we get a shop vac & start shop vaccing. 

Then we see that it's getting pretty uncontainable so we call Josh's dad & he called our neighbors & church pastor & several men/women from our church came over immediately to help w/several shop vacs.

So we had about 4 shop vacs going to soak up the water so we didn't get any standing water down there. 

Then out in our yard, we have a grinder for our sewer system or something & the warning light for that came on, which meant it was full or overflowing or something.

So we determined it was b/c the ground was so oversaturated w/water that it was telling the system that it was overflowing. So the men dug trenches to direct the water away from our grinder thing in the ground so that it would divert water away from standing over it. 

All the while, several men are in the house shop vaccing up the water that is coming it. 

There was about 10 people here all day I think. 

Totally overwhelming. 

Once the rain slowed down that evening, the men left & it was just Josh, me & Josephine. 

Josh continued to shop vac til about 10pm. 

12 hours of it.

Our carpet was still soaking wet.

So the next day, the carpet was torn out & we also got some water in our garage so we had to take everything that was in our garage out into the driveway to sort it all. 

TONS of it was Josh's grandmothers things since we are living in her home.

All of Josh's mom's things from when she was a lil girl & her sister's things.

Old chests w/their dolls, their clothes & special hats. 

Their old baby things.

Some things were saved. 

Some were not. 

So for a week, our driveway was full of everything from our garage while we let fans run in our den & garage to air out the water so we could then start the rebuilding process. 

We covered the tables of memorabilia with tarps at night.

Then started up the next morning with sorting & making trips w/trucks to the dump. 

Then we had to paint the lower portion of the walls in the garage & in the den w/Kilz to stop any mold from growing. 

They had to completely gut the bathroom, the closets & take out the paneled walls.

So we were left w/just concrete walls & tiled floors. 

This is an image I took from my phone the day it was gutted. This is one side of the room that our office was set up on. That back door is where the water began to creep in through. 

 Then we made a trip to Lowe's & picked up LOTS of white bead board for the walls. 

It will be NICE & BRIGHT down there now!

It was walled in 1970's paneling that we were going to be painting in a few weeks anyway.

So... jump to the present...

The white bead board has been installed. 

We just have to caulk the seams. 

The crown molding should be cut & installed this week. 

Then they have to put the bathroom & bathroom closet back together.

Then the carpet will be installed.

Then then baseboards & corner molding & doorframes will be installed. 

Then... we will be able to move back down there.

For now...

we are processing all of our client sessions out of our guestroom which is piled high full of things that should be downstairs in our den. 

So we are basically working in total chaos. 

All the while singing praises to Jesus for our safety in this tragic flood that slammed Nashville.

We were very very fortunate.

We know several people personally that were not so fortunate.

Losing everything they own except the clothes on their backs. 

So we are blessed. 

So that is where were have been this past month. 

Sorry for the lack of blogging.

Will be back shortly w/images from our Mother's Day & other fun things we've been doing this past month. 

xo