Hi All, Just thought I'd post a quick update, to tell how we have been doing here lately! This past Monday, I worked all day, picked up Luis Antonio from preschool and came home, to start the clean-up! My parents came over, and they were such an awesome help; Lou stayed upstairs with the little guy, so he wouldn't get into anything, while we tackled the basement, for a couple of hours! We literally cleared out an entire room, taking out old stuff that the previous owners had left for us to take out, before we moved in! What jerks! When I look back at everything now, I think we were really taken advantage of, because we were first-time buyers and we are blind, but that's another story!
We took out old doors, windows, pieces of wood, laminate that we'd bought that was ruined by the water, ceiling tiles that were also ruined, etc. That process took some time. Then, we worked on cleaning the floor. My dad sprayed it down, and my mom and I swept out the water, towards the drain. We mopped and bleached that area, and we were good to go! My dad also worked on our drain because it's currently backing up, when we wash clothes. We don't know if this is because a lot of dirt and stuff has been getting in there, from all the clean-up we've been doing! He used a snake and some other thing, but that didn't work because when I tried washing later that night, the water backed up again, onto the floor! Yippee for me, because we had just cleaned that part of the basement! We sent my son home, with my parents, so we could get an early start on cleaning the next day, since I was off! On Tuesday, Lou and I took other things from downstairs and moved them into our shed, such as picnic tables, chairs, etc. We want the entire basement floor free and clear, so we could do some major sanitizing there! I washed down some shelving units where we have some household goods, and then, I went to my mom's house, for the afternoon, to do laundry because I hate to see it pile up! What a way to spend my birthday; it was a little depressing, but it had to be done! Yesterday, I went to work all day, came home, gave my son a snack, made out shopping lists for today, took the kiddo to taekwondo, came home to give him a bath and dinner and get him ready for bed! I'm working for a few hours this morning, but as you can see, I can't sleep, so we'll see how that goes! After I leave work at 11:30, I'm coming home because we have a company coming out to inspect our basement and give us an estimate on the costs to fix all of this seepage problem! After they leave, I'm going out to lunch with my mom and sister, for a belated B-day girls' afternoon out, and then, we will go shopping, to pick up a bunch of stuff that I need! We had an appliance repairman out to the house yesterday, because I was smelling a chemical smell, coming from the dryer, but he says everything is fine. We recently had some tuckpoint work done, on the walls, so he said that the smell of those chemicals could be emanating from the dryer and they would ease up in time. I wanted to make sure there was no water damage, to either appliance. We also discovered that the hoses to our washer were initially set up incorrectly, so the rinse cycles were always using hot water, even though it should have been cold or warm, depending on the setting, so he also fixed that for us! Today, we have a plumber coming out as well, to hopefully unclog our drain, and I will be happy again, since I won't have to lug laundry over to my parents' house anymore! Lou's nephew has been here everyday, supposedly clearing out his and his mom's stuff, but he's taking his sweet time about it! There is nothing salvageable in that mess, and why can't he just be done with it and toss everything already, without going through it? No, I don't have any sympathy for them, and yes, I admit that I want this done, and I want it done yesterday, because there is no reason why it should have taken something like this, for them to get their junk out of our house! We will think twice about ever letting anyone store anything here again! This guy is a piece of work; he comes over here, assesses what he says he's going to do for the day, leaves to get who knows what, comes back, works for an hour, leaves again, for again who knows what, etc., and the day progresses in this manner! I'm glad I'm not paying for his gas because he's just wasting time! He is a dee-jay, and he has thousands of records in creights here at the house, and he is spending more time focusing on salvaging that crap than working on getting the moldy, mildew boxes out of our basement. I'm so tired of that smell, and I want to do a thorough cleaning already, but I can't do that, until there is nothing on the floor, and they've got a whole room downstairs filled with boxes, records, etc., and the stuff is stacked pretty high! He has thrown a lot out apparently, and that's good, but come on, already. This taking his time attitude is just slowing down our clean-up effort, and we have people offering to help, but they are only available at certain times, so this whole thing is impeding our progress! So, now, I have to work on finding a couple of other companies that deal with seepage and water damage, so I can have them come out and do estimates. Our area has been declared a federal disaster, so we will probably be applying for assistance, from FEMA! I'm not sure what they will do for us, but at this point, we have nothing to lose! So, that is the happiness of my life lately! Hurray! Claudia Join either of my groups; the first is for visually-impaired women, while the other is for people wishing to discuss homemaking issues. [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
