I smell fresh wood...hmmmm...smells good!!

Mom and I worked today at the house cleaning up the yard. We scooped up the left over trash from the piles of stuff. Davidson County Sheriff's department came out again this week to get the last pile of debris. There were swarms of flies all over. It was pretty nasty. What was worse was the ac ducts were piled in the yard. When they were brought out of the house they were full of...well...bile to put in nicely. We also picked up tile from the yard that had been removed from the bathroom. It is kind of funny that the entire house is gutted except for the guest bathroom in the middle of the house. To get to it you have to walk carefully along the beams, but it does work. Mom also cleaned the bathroom today. The front porch is swept and the barn is clean now. That should last for about a week.

We currently have a crew in the house during the week rebuilding. Right now they are replacing floor joist. Hopefully when they are finished with those it will go a little faster. It is nice to smell fresh wood!

This week we apparently had our first looters. On Wednesday morning my dad said two of our gates were open. Someone hopped the entrance gate and made there way through our yard leaving two gates open. They took the halters off of the three horses. They are about $20 a piece, and we had just bought them after the flood. They didn't get into the house, and we aren't sure if anything is missing in the barn. We really aren't sure what is where at the moment. Things are being stored in various locations. So it is hard to know what is gone unless we are looking for it to use. The halters were easy to notice they were missing because mom leaves them on the horses. It is really sad that someone knowingly steals from someone who has lost almost all their possessions. Hopefully that will be all the looting we get through this process. I am sure if that is the only thing taken then we are doing better than most who have dealt with looting. It was still frustrating.

Slide Show House Demolition

I usually make movies with Microsoft movie maker. This one is the first I have made on iMovie with my mac. I am still trying to figure the program out so I apologize. I am going ahead and loading it as is because there have been a lot of request for newer pictures. Enjoy!

The gutting is just about complete.

I am spending the evening lazy on the couch. It has been a long 20 days. Today we got majority of the sub flooring out. Mr. Baxter from my school and two guys from his church came out in the morning along with my dad and brother, Casey. They removed the sub flooring in 3 bedrooms and the living/dining room. Mom grilled burgers on our charcoal grill donated to us from LifeChurch.tv. After lunch Baxter and his guys left and the Raglands showed up. Bryce is one of my students and he came with his parents, Jill and Danny, and his brother, Brandon. The guys helped finish the sub flooring and Jill helped me pick up glass in the yard. Bryce continued to help my dad in the house. At one point I looked in on them and all I could see was Bryce from waste up. He decided it was easier to work standing in the crawl space. Casey, Brandon, and Danny moved the temporary gate back to its original spot so the horses have more room. The horses are healing and now can get in the barn. They are doing wonderful.

The last thing we have left to do before starting back rebuilding is removing the plastic and duct work in the crawl space. It should be easy since the house is gutted and there are no floors. However, it will be the nastiest job. I am still working on finding volunteers for that one. I don't even want to do it.

There is free standing water all around the yard and fields. It is starting to stink really bad. Lily at one point today was helping Jill and me find glass and asked who pooped in their pants. Don't worry she wasn't touching the glass. She was telling us where the glass was and taking worms to Granny while saying "Granny I found a snake."

Tomorrow mom goes back to Texas to work for the first time since the flood. She isn't looking forward to it. I am glad we are far enough along she doesn't feel like she should be here working. She is working on floor plans for the house. She is making the best of the flood and rebuilding it back how she has wished her house to look. That is a positive to having to gut and rebuild your house. If there is something you didn't like now is the time to change it. She will have a bigger bathroom and closet when finished. Something every woman wants for their house. Another part being designed into the house is a laundary room.

Thank you again for all the prayers and support. Also a big thank you to the Homedepot manager. Mom went in to ask about the washer and dryer that were still under warranty. She is trying to get either her warranty back or have someone come out and fix them. Her blower was also new and under warranty. They told her to contact the manufactor for the washer and dryer. The manager ended up coming to find her in the store and had a brand new blower for her. He said he felt bad he couldn't do more for her. Thank you for the new blower Homedepot. It is one less thing she has to replace.

Going to start removing the sub flooring on Saturday

We had a group from Recovery Community come to the house again today. Ralph Carrano that works with mom flew in from DFW for the day to work. Also my dad went over to help. Since I was at work I am not sure who did what, but the list of things to do was complete! They raked the hay in piles and burned them. Someone walked the fences and fixed the fallen posts. There was small pieces of dry wall above the windows and someone took care of it. The tile in the master bathroom was removed. Also, my dad removed a portion of the sub flooring. When I arrived Mom, Ralph, and I pampered the horses. Ralph gave them feed. I talked sweet and stayed beside them so they wouldn't move. Mom had the job of putting ointment on their wounds. Two of the horses have wounds on one of their back legs. They are getting easier to deal with in applying the medication.

This Saturday we are going to finish removing the sub flooring. Anyone that would like to help is always welcome. We have a limited amount of tools, so you might need to bring your own. However, I am not the person to ask which tools those are. We could also use people to help take the wood to the piles as they are removed, and broken glass picked up in the yard.

I haven't caught the full story on the news, but I saw something last night about investigating the flooding caused by the damns being released. Apparently some of the waterways were low and the Corp of Engineers let an area get as high as it could before releasing it. They are saying it should have been released a lot sooner. If they had it would have kept the water ways level and could have prevented the flooding of homes that were flooded due to the damn release. That would include my moms home.

We are taking the night off for elections!

I took a couple of days off from blogging. Not that there hasn't been anything going on, but more that it has been crazy the past couple of days. Sunday my Aunt Jackie, Uncle Casey, Kelsey, Mom, and me worked at the house. We didn't have any groups show up, but we were fine with no one coming out. We worked early and had to leave by afternoon to go to my cousin's visitation. Then on Monday was the funeral services. my uncle, mom, and me went to the house afterwards to work. My uncle has started knocking out walls. Caleb showed up along with Casey, Ann, Lily, and Logan that evening. Casey came to fix the water leaks. We now have water again and can use the bathroom. We have left one bathroom in place so we don't have to go behind the barn. We all went to chilis for dinner after he got through. Today mom is taking a break to campaign for our friend David Smith. It is a nice break for her and we all will be going to the Lime Light tonight for the victory party.

We are getting to the point to start taking out the sub flooring and putting in the new sub flooring. We also have found out the ceiling will have to be replaced. It has started to sag and crumble in some spots. The bad part is the flood insurance only pays for the flood damage not things damaged due to the humidity. Even though the humidity is caused from all the water in the house. The good part is it can be covered through her regular home owners insurance. Either way it is more work that has to be done. Also I found out from Ms. Davis at work that there was a story on the news about contaminated hay from the flood. Thank God we were able to get fresh hay from Mr. Evans. At one stable in the Nashville area four horses have died and seven are very ill with ecoli from the hay. We scattered our contaminated hay in some muddy areas in the field, but the horses are being kept in a seperate area. We will have to gather all the hay and get rid of it before the horses get near it.

We have been extremely blessed by so many during this time. We truely are very thankful.

Link to news story on the contaminated hay:
http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=12497513

Recovery Community Rocks!!!

Today we had the hardest working group of young men finish gutting the house. My uncle hooked us up with Recovery Community and they came over with about 12 guys to put in community service. It is a great organization that works with my uncle's drug court. Lyn and Emily headed up the group that came out. They brought breakfast, lunch, and a lot of supplies. They were wonderful. The guys were great and wouldn't let mom or me do any hard work. As soon as we would lift, push, or do anything that required effort one of them were jumping in and taking over. It was much needed since mom's shoulder and back has been hurting. They had no idea she needed a break. We have trouble taking breaks while so many people are working. You just can't sit back while someone is working in your house. It just seems wrong. However, with these guys we seemed in their way. At one point we heard a chain saw and turned around to see one of them cutting up a fallen tree in her field. They truly were a blessing to have out.

Also, three teachers I work with came out and helped. Mrs. Brooks showed up early and helped sort & pack. She talked about helping us replace some of Caleb's books and restoration of the 8 mm film. Mrs. Brooks is the librarian at my school. Ms. Davis came out again to help and brought medicine for the horses. She put the medication on the horses' wounds while mom held the rein and I gave the horses feed. I am sure we were entertaining to anyone watching. Ms. Davis was very courageous to put medication on a horse's back leg. Don't worry she didn't get kicked. Mrs. Ravech brought her husband and they joined in with the guys from Recovery Community and worked so hard. They helped in gutting the garage and tearing out the pine boards in the kitchen.

It is hard for me to stay working on one project when we have a large amount of people. I couldn't tell you how many times someone was hollering my name to ask a question or see what needed to be done next. I am glad I can organize the work but I really know nothing about construction or demolishing a house. I guess as long as I act like I know what I am doing maybe no one will notice. I just listen to what my cousin, Joe, has said needed to be done and gone from there. Luckily no one has asked how to do the things I told them needed to be done. If someone would have asked how to take out the toilet, sinks, or tubs I would have laughed. I have no clue. I just know how to use the toilet, sink, and tubs.

At one point someone broke a pipe and water was going everywhere. The guy was apologizing and felt bad. I laughed and joked about that being nothing compared to the amount of water we had in the house a couple of weeks ago. Casey and another guy took off running to the road to shut of the water. Dad ended up closing the pipe and we tried turning the water back on. We found out someone cut another pipe and had to shut it off again. Dad is going to come out Sunday and fix the water leak. We wouldn't want to get anything wet.

We finished around 1:30 and after everyone left my dad mowed the yard. Mom and me tried to clean-up around the yard. It looks so much better. We were able to come home and clean up to go to the 5 o'clock service at church. I love to go to church on Saturday nights so I can sleep in guilt free on Sunday mornings. Afterwards mom, Caleb, and me went to Kohls to get them some clothes. A manager checked us out and was telling us about one time her home was destroyed in a tornado. She started to tear up talking with us about how much she understood what we were going through. She ended up giving them 30% off their purchase. We stopped by target for a few things then went out to eat. It was a relaxing evening and hopefully everyone will get a good night sleep. I think this house is lacking in that area. If we keep having trouble sleeping we will resort to eating Benadryll for a late night snack.

Another element to the horse story

My uncle told me yesterday that he found out another piece to Cole's journey 14 miles down the Cumberland River. Nashville flooded on Sunday night and the next thing we knew was on Tuesday Melissa Riley had a crew trying to save him. Well we now know how he ended up on the little island. A man by the name of Barry Hobbs found Cole in water up to his chest. He went to get a rope and jumped on his jet ski. Mr. Hobbs tied the rope around Cole and lead him to the island. On Monday the water was still rising so we are very thankful this man took him to higher grounds. Cole's story just keeps getting better.