Well, we are now officially officially rebuilding. While we wait to see what additional help we may get, we have received our FEMA grant. That money must be used to rebuild the house, so we feel confident in spending that money on the house while we decide on our long-term plans.
This last weekend, my dad Paul and my uncle Jim came down to help with a little remodeling project. We successfully moved some walls around to create a back hallway closet (perfect for coats and boots in the winter) and a laundry room big enough to add doors to. It’s a nice simple little upgrade. We also turned a wall in the bathroom into a half wall to open it up and sheetrocked our utility closet so that we could fill it with goodies (furnaces and water heaters and the like).
Those projects went as planned with only a few little hiccups (I now know how to cut tile…and how NOT to cut tile). The plumber came yesterday and put in a new water heater, set up a new washing machine hookup, and raised the shower (now suitable for a 6 foot man, thank goodness!).
I’ll add some photos later on.
Our story was also featured on the SmartyPIg blog. They thought it was great that we could use their tool to help us raise money for rebuilding. We do too. Here’s the link to the post: http://blog.smartypig.com/read/friends-and-family-catching-on
Finally, we’re off for a much-needed vacation in Glacier National Park. The crisp mountain air and time away from all this stuff should serve us well. We’ll update the blog when we get back with vacation photos and house updates. Thanks again for all your thoughts.
