Home is where the heart is

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our home. Things are moving along, but at a snails pace. We've been out since the first week of December and look to have about 6 weeks left. I know what the saying is (the tittle to my post...), but honestly, I prefer to quote Dorthy today. "There's no place like home."This picture was taken after the water was cleaned up and we were trying to dry things out with fans and dehumidifiers. At this point, I still thought the bulk of the damage had occurred downstairs. Eyes can be deceiving, however. Water is a tricky and cleaver destroyer. Unknown to me was the extent to which the water had soaked the walls behind the cabinets. Over the next week the bad news continued to trickle in. Cabinets must come out.....part of island must be removed....substructure to island ruined...entire island must come out... Finally the tear out stopped and reconstruction began.

In the process of taking out the cabinets, my countertops and backsplash were ruined. That meant the opportunity to get new stuff. While this stinks on one hand...on the other, I get a finished product that will be more reflective of my current taste and style. There are a couple of silver linings to this ordeal. I'm getting granite countertops and tile backsplashes. It will be beautiful!

This is what things currently look like. Insulation, sheet rock, tape and mud are complete. Next will come the primer and paint. The original paint was oil, so we are putting a nice, high quality latex on in a wonderful color. I love color. Go big or go home, I say. The original home owners painted the entire house in the SAME NEUTRAL color. Over the last 9 years we've lived here, I've little by little put some great colors on the walls. I'm excited to see this room come together. We spend most of our time in this kitchen/great room and I want it to be awesome and incredibly comfortable.

Here's the fireplace directly below the origin of the flood. It was soaked. We had to rip everything out. The ceiling were warped and water was running from every light went we went downstairs for the first time. We even dumped over 2 cups of water out of the projector. Not good.

While the basement ceiling was torn apart, we replace the dome lights running down the middle of the room with 10 can lights evenly spaced and insulated the ceiling and storage shed on the other side of the long west wall. Even without carpet, the space is 15 degrees warmer and solid. You can't hear people walking around upstairs like you could before. We also took the step out from under the fireplace and replaced some faulty plumbing in the kitchenette. We are going to put slate on the fireplace and thresh hold and paint the walls a warm wheat color. This place is going to be super cozy.

One evening while coming back to the house, there was a stunning sunset that captivated my attention and put into perspective everything going on in my life. It was a little tender mercy and a gift that I felt was especially for me. I snapped a picture from my deck as soon as I got home. The sunset repeated itself for the next three days. WOW!