Friday, December 9, 2011

Just in Case You Need to Feel Better about Your Life

I give you mine:

The day of Chuck's surgery we had a rainstorm which dropped more than 2" of rain at our house; that night, we headed for bed as per our usual old, lazy selves. I was feeding Ollie because Chuck is not really supposed to lift anything, plus he was in a considerable amount of pain (but happily no leg pain!). Chuck walked into the bedroom to find his feet squishing in the carpet. Not what you want to happen on a dark, cold, rainy night. After surgery. With a baby at home. Let's be honest: you never want this to happen.

What did I do? What do you think I did? Cried! Ha. Then, because I had no choice, I finished feeding Ollie, put both Chuck and Ollie to bed, and got dressed in rain clothes and boots to go bail out the window well, which had filled with 8" of water during the storm. For 30 minutes I bailed. All the while, I composed my pithy Facebook status update. Chuck and I knew there wasn't much either of us could do about the floor until morning.

Morning came and we borrowed Chuck's parents' wet vac to help get up the water on the carpet. Unfortunately the wet vac put almost all of the water I vacuumed back onto the carpet due to a leak. Out with you, wet vac! Thank goodness it was trash day. It was then that we knew we needed outside help. We called a friend who happens to be a student with classes mostly at night, who easily and quickly came to our aid. (Many, many thanks be given to the Merrills!) Jon and I (mostly Jon) moved all the furniture, disassembled the bed (which won't come out of the room until it's completely broken down), and then pulled up the carpet, and the soaking wet pad. The one fun surprise was some green tile underneath everything! What a treat! Jon cut out the carpet padding and at this very moment, it's drying on my car. (But I must mention how the carpet pad came to be outside.  Soaking wet, the thing weighed a LOT and was very drippy.  So instead of haul it through the entirety of my house, we opted to shove it through the window well, which was now dry.  Fun times.)  The carpet downstairs is drying with a blower I rented from Home Depot. And all of the stuff from our bedroom (minus our two dressers) is sitting all amok in the basement. I want you to guess how this makes me feel. (A mess that I can't clean up? I dare you; take a guess.)







See? Aren't you glad you're not me? Thank goodness I have three of the sweetest boys on earth in this crazy house. Strike that. I have two sweet boys and one smart, funny, cynical man whom I love very much. You know, I think I still want to be me even through all of this. So, sorry, but no, you can't have my life. Now, now, there, there. Don't cry too hard.



However, be very glad you're not Chuck. While his surgery was a total success and his leg pain is completely gone, he's suffering now because, well, someone cut open his back and did stuff. With knives and other sharp objects. He's in a lot of pain and does not like feeling useless. Hopefully this pain will resolve itself quickly so that he can enjoy such things as putting on socks! Lifting his boys! Cleaning the bathrooms! Jogging with me and pushing the double stroller! (Yep, it's all about me.)

P.S. Has anyone ever paid for a cleaning service? Since my parents left, I feel like I haven't been able to really clean and it's starting to drive me crazy. And with Chuck out of commission, I don't see it happening any time soon. I think if I see a deal come up on Groupon, I might just take it.

7 comments:

  1. So sorry! Sounds like a wreck. I actually have used a cleaning service when I was so sick and prego with Carmen. I am kind of OCD about messes sometimes and a clean house made me way less stressed. I used the cleaning Authority just because my neighbors were using them and I thought they were great. They do a preliminary clean which is about $60/hour (It took them about 3 hours) and then each clean after that for our house was $98. They can come weekly or bi weekly. Here is their site if you are interested: http://www.thecleaningauthority.com/

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  2. What. A. Nightmare. I am so so sorry to hear about how bad this "window draining" actually was. I hope that all will be restored back to normal- and that includes Chuck's ability to assist you in all of your needs :)

    Also I've never hired a cleaning service but in this case I FULLY support your decision. Do it :)

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  3. For your carpet problem- Did you try a dehumidifier? When living in England I had a similar flooding situation and working for a carpet company I had some hook ups in this area. I didn't have to remove anything, my company told me to run a dehumidifier for about a week (never had to remove any carpet or pad) and then my installer friend came in and re- stretched and attached the carpet/pad since sometimes flooding can cause shrinkage.

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  4. Either way I'd run a dehumidifier just in case the water got beyond the pad to your home structure. The last thing you want is it to turn to mold! A fan will circulate the air but the water will be in the air. A dehumidifier will actually extract water.

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  5. Oh my! That is a lot for one lady all in one day. Glad you had a helper! We have a shop vac (I pray you never need it again) and it does not have a leak :)

    Kathy Gardner has a regular cleaning lady that she loves, it may be worth seeing if she could do a deep clean for you. I think Jennifer Jensen may have one, as well.

    Check with your insurance company as they may cover flood damages. Good luck, keep your chin up and all that stuff.

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  6. AHHHHHHH I am SO SO SO SORRY. What a nightmare.....I HOPE that the worst of it is OVER, and um yes, CALL THE CLEANING LADY, what are you waiting for??? ;)

    Hang in there.

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