Chloe vs. The Washing Machine.

About 6 weeks ago the carpet was wet in a random place & my first thought was that Chloe peed on the floor. I assumed Chloe because Gabbi was in her crate all day & Anderson usually lets us know if he has an accident. As far as I know, everyone else in our house is potty trained. Anyway, I cleaned it up, but did not really get mad at her because even though she is seriously exhausting with her needs, she does not pee on the floor so I felt that it must have been a true emergency. A few days later, the spot was wet again! This was the night I had Lily & Anderson with me, so I enlisted their help in moving the furniture so that I could really clean deep to prevent it from happening again. I might have been a little angrier at that point. Fast forward to  when Brandon returned home from a trip and he is frantically texting me while I was at  PHS football game telling me to call him. The washing machine had been leaking and pooling water which leaked under the floorboards into multiple rooms. Oh. Poor Chloe :( So, here is a detailed explanation on how we "restored" our house/floors/sanity.

 Step 1: Giant fans dried everything & got rid of the mold.  *Since there was mold, we had to stay at my parents' house for a bit. Sleepover with Noni & Bop!

 Step 2: (this is really the worst one) NO laundry services for awhile. I am SO lucky to have 2 sets of parents close by with free access to their laundry rooms! Thank you! But, it is still not quite as convenient as walking down the hall. I did not have a washing machine for almost 6 weeks. I am a laundry kind of girl, our basket is never really overflowing & I wash all sheets/towels at least once a week, of course. I was going crazy.

 Step 3: Our house was totally shifted for about a month. This was the best of the arrangements because we could access the kitchen.

We made it work and it was actually rather cozy. (Do not let my attempt and being positive here deceive you. I was a nightmare to live with during these few weeks. )

Step 4: Removal of the floors. The no living room/no TV situation was a little scary, but we made it.

Step 5:Gross.  The removal of the floors and the fans made our house one giant dust/dog hair/dirt storm. This was our filter that was only a week old before all of this. Good thing I was able to get all of the laundry done since dirt settled on everything. Oh, wait...

Step 6: We provided Bug with some fun memories/conversation/field trips to tile/carpet/paint stores. (Our childhood home was sinking at one point. I had no idea what that meant, but I know to me it meant that our floors were dug up and giant boards were laid so we could walk from room to room. We had so much fun during that time, I had no idea what my poor mother was probably dealing with)

I was very unprepared for everything in each cabinet becoming covered in dust. What on earth. I also had to throw away most of the food in our cabinets. I am a hoarder and things like this do not bode well with me.

You can see the dirt!!

That is my dishwasher in the living room. We also had a toilet in the garage and a washing machine in the hallway for about 2 weeks.

Our garage/living room/kitchen/bathroom 

We decided to go ahead & have the carpet replaced while this was going on, since we have been really cheap and ignoring giant holes like this one for 4 years or so. I posed with my foot next to it because it looked smallish when it was just the hole in the pic. 

Step 7:  My mom broke her ankle! She has been my saving grace during the last 3 months (31 years?) and this was scary. But, she, of course, continued to let us (and my 2 dogs) stay with her, raise my kid and calm me down when I was psycho* She is in a new boot and we are thinking no surgery at this point, so that is good news!

*PSYCHO: To say I had even a trace of sanity by this point would be a lie. Over the last 3 months I started a new job (new career, really) and gave up everything/everyone I had known for the past decade, Brandon started a new job (within KPD), I was in my first trimester of pregnancy, I did not have a washing machine/dishwasher/over/floor/tv/house. Throw in 2 high needs dogs and a patched 2 year old who doesn't require sleep and I was even crazier.  Break.downs. all over the place. Probably the 2 biggest ones were Halloween night when we were eating cold take out freezing on our porch because we did not have any furniture and a Thursday night about 2 weeks into the construction when my clothes/shoes/towels/everything from my closet was all over my bedroom and I could not find my belly band. I was alone getting clothes to take to my Mom's, thankfully. This is what I sounded like, "I JUST WANT MY BELLY BAND SO I CAN WEAR PANTS TOMORROW BECAUSE I HAVE TO STAND IN THE FREEZING COLD FOR YET ANOTHER PLAYOFF GAME AND I CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE AND I DON'T HAVE A WASHING MACHINE AND I AM SO TIRED AND I SHOULD NOT BE COMPLAINING BUT WHY CAN'T I JUST BE A NORMAL PREGNANT, WORKING MOM WITH A 2 YEAR OLD INSTEAD OF GOING CRAZY BECAUSE I CAN'T FIND IT, oh, there it is." It was rough times. There was one more breakdown in my closet on the phone with the Sears Washing Machine tech when he told me he was not coming to my house. Hysterics. 

Anyway, enough on the pyscho bit because now I am incredibly normal. My husband is awesome & took charge (and about 5 days off work), my parents are awesome & let us move in and put up with my craziness and sat at our house waiting for random tile guys/painters to show up on numerous occasions. My in-laws are awesome because they did quite a bit of sitting at our house, too (I say "sitting", but really there was no furniture to sit on.)Also, Toni helped with laundry, Bug and dinners. I fully realize I should not have been psycho, but, whatever, I was. 

A few pics of the finished products!

Honestly, as much of an inconvenience as the last 6 weeks has been, it literally had nothing on the skunk.