My House!!!

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:00 am

Hey ya'll!
Frank suggested that I post up pictures of my house.
So, I'll be updating this thread with pictures of before, during and after "renovations".

I had originally used the attachment mod, but I wanted to do it a different way. (no offense, Joe).

This was taken at Mike's sister's house Monday, August 29, 2005. It was about 9:00 in the morning, and we had lost power 2 hours earlier.

This was about an hour later. The person in the yellow rainsuit is the idiot I married. He was originally checking on his mom's trailer, to make sure it was anchored securely. He decided to check the deep freezer for ice cream.

This was taken on Tuesday, August 30, 2005. My nephew was looking outside looking for my sister-in-law so he could go out into the pool. Monday was nice and breezy(duh, hurricane !), so we were comfortable. Tuesday was sheer HELL.

Here are a few pictures from Bush, LA where Mike and his brothers-in-law had to cut trees down and away from the roads and houses so we could make our escape the next day to Alexandria, LA

Here are the pictures that I took as I was going down my street for the first time since the storm, October 3, 2005.

My house

My house (taken from across the street)

Side yard & next door neighbor's tree.

Backyard. The tree that's down by the swingset, just missed the shed by mere inches.

More backyard. The grass was at least 2 feet high, as we haven't been home! It took about another 2 weeks before we could attempt to cut the grass.

Tree in corner of yard. Lifted up some of the chain link fence.

Ripped off some of the gutter.

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 2:39 am

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the house.

The black mold spot on the ceiling is a result of the roof leaking from the fallen tree that hit the roof.

Living room. Lovely mold on the wall.

You can tell where the water line was by the mold on the wall and on the door.

Someone must have been watching over this table; the pictures were not damaged at all.

Funny how mold grows!

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:05 am

The backyard has shaped up pretty nicely since then:

Jake_E_Lee · Post by **Jake_E_Lee** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:04 am

those floods hit you bad

any idea on how much damage has been estimated at?

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 3:48 am

No, Jake, I'm not sure, but it's got to be in the millions.
Where I am, it wasn't as bad as the people who lived where the levees "breached", or in the the lower part of Louisiana.

GUITARIDOL5682 · Post by **GUITARIDOL5682** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:53 am

Gina,when you seen the trashed houses for the first time driving home did you think that your house would be the same.I think youve been lucky how the trees have narrowly missed the house.Your neighbours house looking up the street looked trashed.I just hope that the season doesn't bring more bad weather and bad storms fingers crossed for you..

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:08 am

Shaun, I kinda had a feeling how the house would look. We were kinda "late" in getting the crap out of the house. By late, I mean, that the others had been back earlier, and had almost all of the damaged crap out on the street. You had to watch where you parked the car, as there were LOTS of nails just about everywhere. It took about a week for me to clean out the house. Mike helped out on the weekend, and the girls never saw inside of the house.
We got lucky; the second weekend that we were working on the house, Abby's school had people coming to the school with donated items for people in need. They people were volunteers from all over, and a couple of them were contractors. They came to my house the next day, at 9:00 a.m. 18 people gutted my house completely in 4 hours. NO CHARGE.
I couldn't believe it, and I was a blubbering idiot for what they had done! It was so overwhelming! Here we were, wondering how long it was going to take us, the 2 of us, or a few friends, to gut the house, and these wonderful people took care of it for us.
Sorry for droning on.
I'm hoping that it will not be an active season like they are predicting.
I will be plenty PO'ed if after all of this, it happens again. Who knows where I'll end up next?
Any takers if I have to evacuate?????

frank · Post by **frank** » Tue May 01, 2007 3:13 am

uh.....

GUITARIDOL5682 · Post by **GUITARIDOL5682** » Tue May 01, 2007 6:01 pm

Sarab wrote:Shaun, I kinda had a feeling how the house would look. We were kinda "late" in getting the crap out of the house. By late, I mean, that the others had been back earlier, and had almost all of the damaged crap out on the street. You had to watch where you parked the car, as there were LOTS of nails just about everywhere. It took about a week for me to clean out the house. Mike helped out on the weekend, and the girls never saw inside of the house.
We got lucky; the second weekend that we were working on the house, Abby's school had people coming to the school with donated items for people in need. They people were volunteers from all over, and a couple of them were contractors. They came to my house the next day, at 9:00 a.m. 18 people gutted my house completely in 4 hours. NO CHARGE.
I couldn't believe it, and I was a blubbering idiot for what they had done! It was so overwhelming! Here we were, wondering how long it was going to take us, the 2 of us, or a few friends, to gut the house, and these wonderful people took care of it for us.
Sorry for droning on.
I'm hoping that it will not be an active season like they are predicting.
I will be plenty PO'ed if after all of this, it happens again. Who knows where I'll end up next?
Any takers if I have to evacuate?????

Just do what Dorothy done in the Wizzard of Oz click you heals three times and utter those words "Their's no place like Home" Hopefully you'll not have to..

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Wed May 02, 2007 12:30 am

Darin, it's funny that you should ask that.
We, being my family, haven't had any breathing problems, but I
had problems with my ears! When you're gutting the houses, you are told to wear respirators to protect your lungs, but they don't say anything about your ears! I had a big-time ear-ache, and went to the ENT. He told me that I had MOLD in my ears due to cleaning out my house. The mold spores that were "flying" around, had gotten into my ears. NICE.

The recovery is getting better in the hard hit areas. It will take a long time, and I hope that it will be just as good if not better than it was before the storm.

Shaun, I'm leaving it to you to send me the ruby slippers, just in case.
Size 5 or 5 1/2.

frank · Post by **frank** » Wed May 02, 2007 12:58 am

Sarab wrote:Darin, it's funny that you should ask that.
We, being my family, haven't had any breathing problems, but I
had problems with my ears! When you're gutting the houses, you are told to wear respirators to protect your lungs, but they don't say anything about your ears! I had a big-time ear-ache, and went to the ENT. He told me that I had MOLD in my ears due to cleaning out my house. The mold spores that were "flying" around, had gotten into my ears. NICE.

The recovery is getting better in the hard hit areas. It will take a long time, and I hope that it will be just as good if not better than it was before the storm.

Shaun, I'm leaving it to you to send me the ruby slippers, just in case.
Size 5 or 5 1/2.

in womens shoes?

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:17 am

frank wrote:
Sarab wrote:Darin, it's funny that you should ask that.
We, being my family, haven't had any breathing problems, but I
had problems with my ears! When you're gutting the houses, you are told to wear respirators to protect your lungs, but they don't say anything about your ears! I had a big-time ear-ache, and went to the ENT. He told me that I had MOLD in my ears due to cleaning out my house. The mold spores that were "flying" around, had gotten into my ears. NICE.

The recovery is getting better in the hard hit areas. It will take a long time, and I hope that it will be just as good if not better than it was before the storm.

Shaun, I'm leaving it to you to send me the ruby slippers, just in case.
Size 5 or 5 1/2.
in womens shoes?

ummm, yeah. I can also wear 4 in kids. Size 3 in boys, but I doubt if they'd have ruby slippers in boys shoes. Unless we are in San Fransico, then it's a whole different talk show...

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:55 am

OK, ya'll, here are pictures of the house after it was gutted.

The den:

Kitchen (taken from den):

Kitchen & den (taken from the diningroom):

Livingroom (on left) & Kitchen (on right) taken from diningroom:

Sarah's room:

Master bedroom:

Livingroom (with what was salvageable & partially salvageable):

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:08 am

The house after the sheetrock (drywall) got installed:

office where the roof leaked:

Den:

kitchen:

Livingroom:

master bathroom. We took out the stand-alone shower out, knocked out a hall closet & Abby's closet so the we could have the jacuzzi tub:

Sarab · Post by **Sarab** » Tue May 08, 2007 2:02 am

Here are the rooms after they were painted:
Den:

Kitchen:

Livingroom. The furniture is our next door neighbors. They were having a party, and needed the extra space.

Sarah's room. It's called "Polly Green". We call it Kermit the frog green.

The master bathroom:

Diningroom: