Updates on the house

Did you think that I went off the deep end? Well, almost....

The asbestos abatement team came in on Thursday and I almost lost my mind! I had to get everything out of the kitchen (only some of the cupboards) and my bathroom and set up a little kitchen in the family room so that they could seal off the kitchen, laundry room and master bathroom to remove the old linoleum that had been put down with a glue that contained asbestos. They put up plastic walls and even created a de-contamination room going out the back door. Two rooms and a shower! It was quite the process.

This is the three room "de-contamination" chamber coming out of our back door, with shower in the middle, I jokingly (sort of) asked if I could take a hot shower in there! It looks like E.T.!!

Here is the kitchen getting sealed off, they then put up big plastic walls between this room and the rest of the house. Here is my little kitchen area in the corner of the family room. Here is what it would be like if our house was much smaller.. all the furniture crammed into one room. There are piles in the living room and on the patio, too.
Friday, the plastic came down and we got to see what our floor looked like. All of the subflooring is gone and there are only the boards left! We had Master-Serve (This company rocks!) come out and re-pipe our entire house, install a tankless hot water heater and an electronic water softener. We got all new faucets and they finished up the job on Saturday. We now, have hot water! We can shower and we can run the dishwasher (until the flooring is in, we will not have a washer and dryer.) Today, the city inspector will come and sign off on the re-pipe and then, the contractor will come and help us to figure out what to do next. We are going to look at flooring tonight and get some more information about the products available. The water abatement team came today and there is no more moisture in the walls, floor or ground underneath the house (no more than "normal" anyway). They have removed all of the fans and de-humidifiers and it is eerily quiet in the house.

This is where my new valves and drain for the washer are going in...

Here is the new tankless water heater, installed outside on the side of the house (kitchen wall) This is my bedroom wall, behind the shower. It looks like this inside my craft closet and below both toilets and the kitchen sink as well. The re-pipe company will be patching tomorrow.

I am still hopeful that we will have flooring in time for the big birthday party that we have planned for the 7th of February and I think that it will happen. Today, feel stuck because there is really nothing for me to "do" about all of this, I just have to wait. I can't even put things back in cupboards because the walls still need to be patched. I am flitting around, unpacking and just trying to feel like I have my head on straight. I plan to go to the gym and to shop for new trashcans. Not very exciting, but much more peaceful than I have felt in the last two weeks.

I am really excited that we are going to have new flooring, but boy... this was quite the way to get it. We are tired of being off schedule and feeling out of sorts and look forward to returning to normalcy. The hot water helps, as does the quiet... and we will eat at home tonight - although I do think that it will be take out!