Flood Saga: Almost the End

There has been A LOT going on lately. There was the flood of course. The saga didn't end when the water stopped pouring through the basement ceiling.

I worked with the insurance agents and was able to get everything settled.
There was all new carpet put in the basement:

You might not be able to tell but it's a light brownish frieze and it was installed in all of the basement, basement hall, on the stairs and the garage entry. It's so lovely on my feet! So much better than the white berber and the gray super heavy duty but super stained carpet that was down there before.
They also replaced the linoleum in the laundry, upstairs hall and basement bath. I just realized I didn't have any pictures of that...so pretend they're right here.

(right here)

They look really nice and I'll be able to show you them when I talk about those 3 rooms being completely done, which the laundry room mostly is it is just a catch all for the junk that's been displaced at the moment.
Allstate also sent me a check to pay for a replacement door for the basement bath, a dry wall repair in the upstairs bath, new ceiling tile and other random things.
Somewhere along the way Dad and I decided that since we have to replace the toilet and some of the drywall in the upstairs bath why don't we just redo the entire bath. So I did.
First we removed everything from the bathroom and demo'd the drywall. I learned an important lesson; the stuff on the other side of the stud is the wall of the hallway and bedroom and should NOT be hit with a hammer or it will crack. Whoops. Repair please!

The same weekend we demo'd the drywall we thought it would be a good idea to buy ceiling tile, so we did that too. Again, no pictures...pretend it's right here:

(right here)

Finally, the bathroom was empty and ready for drywall, well at least once the shower head was raised and the plumbing/electrical issues were addressed:

I went to Lowe's a week or so later with Pete and a budget of $1000 or less in mind.
I barely made it:

I bought the sink, vanity, mirror, exhaust, drywall, drywall mud, screws, tape, and I think that's it. I also bought 2 doors, door handles and more stuff I can't think of, oh and I rented a huge truck to drive it all home in.

Also, by barely I mean $7 under budget. Well, at least I was under budget until these guys made me go back to Home Depot and get 2X4's and other random things. The nerve! Pete was in town for the weekend and he was cutting the ceiling tile and getting it all into place while I organized and purged. He also went on a seemingly hopeless hunt for a 10" rough in toilet. (Which I found at a specialty store a block from my office).

That same weekend Charlie (the kneeling fella in the picture above) came over and helped to install all the drywall in my bathroom. Only apparently I took to much drywall off and didn't leave any to support the tile surround. So Charlie had to basically build a secondary frame around my bathroom to fix the error, hence the 2X4's.

These guys were my heroes that day. I would have been in the fetal position crying long before I did had they not been there to help.

I told them not to worry about the living room/dining room carpet since it was getting ripped up anyway. They sure listened to me!

But finally the bathroom was drywalled and it was time to tape, mud, and sand the drywall. So I put on my uniform:

Then Pete and I got it done:

After that weekend when I worked Pete to death (and I might have cried a lot more than needed about a house renovation) we decided we had earned ourselves some Acapulco. So Sunday night we headed towards a mexicoma. I asked the waiter for a Dos Equis and he asked, short or tall. I asked him what size was what and he said short was 12oz and tall was well....tall.

So, thinking the tall was 22oz maybe I ordered that. It was not 22oz, maybe 40oz, but not 22:

The same weekend that Pete was here we took a break from working on the house and went to Quaker Steak with his friend Dave on Friday (the same day we drywalled) and drank copious amounts of beer and sat for 5 hours people watching and chatting. Then Saturday afternoon we went to the Freedom Center with Dan and Sarah followed by dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery. Where I had a sampler platter...of beer.

So to recap, a LOT has happened to my house in the last few months and I drank copious amounts of beer in one weekend. This week I'm living in La Quinta (Spanish for I stay in hotels with cats and have awkward interactions with night desk managers) while they rip out the upstairs carpet and re-finish my hardwood floors. Oh, and the insurance is paying for that, huzzah!

Stay tuned for Flood Saga: The End. Hopefully coming soon to a blog near you.