Independence Day, July 4, 2012

Independence Day 2012 found us still moving into our new home. I wanted to spend the day at the beach, but we put together the swing set and trampoline for the kids instead.

Our new backyard

The yard already had this fabulous sand box in it that Princess & Baby enjoyed immediately.

 In the evening we headed to the city firework show. We were pleasantly surprised at the crowd size. It was a good sized crowd and yet it was not crazy busy like we were expecting. Adjusting to living in a smaller town is going to take us some time.

Baby found a better way to get around at the firework show

I guess the flash was too bright.

I have quite a few pictures where everything is in focus but her face. She has last minute moving skills I guess.

Flash too bright again?

Overall the kids enjoyed the fireworks set to music by the city orchestra. Riding the buses to and from our car may have been more exciting for them. Dinoguy and I had some interesting discussions about building and living in deep underground places while waiting for the bus.

When your ceiling falls in

When your roof is replaced by the owners/property managers...

Make sure they completely cover the roof before leaving for the night. Even the small trim piece areas.

Because there might be a freak rainstorm in your neighborhood. Despite the drought in the area and the fact that it was not forecast to rain.

Then you might have water start dripping in from the ceiling, light fixtures and down the walls. You might have the ceiling fall in your house. And wet insulation spread all over your house. At 1 AM.

Despite being funny in a "I can't believe this is really happening to us" kind of way, it is not funny at all when it comes to dealing with the aftermath. Which is still going on.

We got to live in hotels for 17 days. In case you thought that would be fun with 4 kids, well hmm, not so much.

The clean up of such a mess involves making a much larger mess first and drying the house out. None of our stuff was ruined though all of our clothes in the master closet had to be professionally cleaned to remove insulation.

The ceiling had to be completely replaced in the master bedroom, master bathroom and dining room. There were also holes in the ceiling and walls through out the house that were made to help dry things out that had to be repaired.

Well here are some pictures of the mess. Most of October seemed to be lost to this disaster.

My only advice is to just contact your insurance from the beginning if this happens. It is exactly why you have insurance. Instead of agreeing to let the roofer take care of it by paying cash for everything. He ended up filing with his insurance anyway. They were very nice but we're still waiting for some reimbursement and a few minor fixes.

Bulging wet bedroom ceiling we propped up to keep it from falling on our bed.

Dining room ceiling

Dining room floor

After more pieces fell