Water, Water, Water

On Saturday we had a crew of people show up to help get rid of our little water problem that has been sitting in the basement for over a week now. We were on four different flood restoration lists and everyone had at least a one week wait. They came out and cut three inches of drywall, checked for mold and put four fans and a dehumidifier downstairs. They will come back on Wednesday to pick up the fans as far as everything else we get to fix it all now. We're trying to decide if we should put carpet back down there. I say yes and Nick says no. First things first is re-insulating the walls, putting up drywall, painting with mold inhibitor paint and then deciding what to put down on the floor. I'm just happy that we decided to add the correct sewer water coverage to our home owners policy. Two of our neighbors did not have this on their policy and are not getting any money. We got paid out the max and will begin the clean up now. The good part is we wanted to redo the basement we just didn't know when we would. Well guess what it's time.
The above pictures are of our sump pump, the walls that had to be cut and some of the water logged carpet that was still there after four days. Nick cut a lot of carpet and Nicolas and I did the rest since he had to then go out of town.

Getting used to being a stay at home.

I've spoken to a few of you already, but I am having a hard time dealing with what to do with myself as a stay at home mom. There's plenty to do when Nicolas is not at school, and I know I will be very busy when our little girl arrives. In the meantime I am going insane. I am SSOO bored. Of course there's always laundry to do but I'm don't want to be stuck in a laundry room all day either. I've been watching HGTV and the food network to see how I can update our wall space and get some recipes. I've been to the library a few times and I joined the YMCA so I could work out. I'm very used to getting dressed up and getting ready everyday. If anyone has ideas let me know. I need to try to keep my sanity in this new city with no "friends" to talk to in my neighborhood and my husband out of town all the time. I've also come to terms with not being able to go shopping all the time since I don't have a job. So what does relax really mean? Everyone says to just stay home and relax while I can. I just don't know what that means. I feel like I'm just being plain lazy.

Hi there,
I know I haven't written to so many of you after all of your questions and thoughts. For that I am so sorry. I feel like I now have a little time to sit and write to you all.
I arrived in Chicago on August 6th. Nick was already here and had been here since July 13th and Nicolas was making the trip across the US with Winston, the dog, and my Dad. Once in IL. we stayed at a Residence Inn until our furniture was delivered. Nick and I, being excited first time homeowners, came to our new house and painted the three bedrooms in one night. We didn't finish until 3:00 in the morning. We finished so that the wooden floors could be refinished in the morning. Although I will say that we would not be painting the rest of the house on our own. We sought out a painter to finish the living room, entry way, the kitchen the staircase, the upstairs bathroom and the hallway down to the basement. Nick had already pulled up the carpet in the bedrooms and pulled down all of the awful blinds in each bedroom before I arrived. Needless to say we were the new neighbors that had a TON of garbage out for our first garbage pickup. We've had a ton of garbage out every Wednesday since moving in. Our first weekend here it rained, but not too hard, and we had our first basement and water issue. We got it cleaned up but it was our welcome to IL. People wanted to know if our sump pump was working. This was all greek to a bunch of west coast kids. We found the sump pump and thought we had it working.
Nicolas started school on September 2nd and was very nervous although he wouldn't admit to that. He did not want us to walk with him to school. We let him know he could walk in front of us but we were going to school with him on the first day. The night before school two neighbors came over to let us know of the going's on in the area. At 8:00 am they would be taking pictures with all of the kids before school. We live on a cul-de-sac so all the kids on our cul-de-sac were taking pictures at 8 sharp. Another neighbor came by and asked if I would want to go to the back to school party. I said that would be fun and what time after school would it be, thinking it was for kids. She laughed and informed me it was an adult only back to school party. There would be alcohol and the Mom's were celebrating the kids were back in school and out of their hair. I of course said yes. So picture time came and went,
The 28th of August there was an ice cream social at the school. They had a DJ, ice cream sundae bar, popcorn, cake walk, face painting, snow cones and the PTA sign ups.
So far very typical suburb. Meanwhile Nicolas informed me he wanted to come home from school for lunch. I thought he was out of his mind. I didn't get to eat of campus for lunch until my sophomore year so why would they let third graders come home for lunch. Sure enough his school allows student to go home for the hour lunch. I was shocked!! I encouraged Nicolas that coming home for lunch wouldn't be fun. he would have a lot more fun at school and get to play with friends at lunch recess. So far so good he hasn't asked about it again.
Nicolas is loving this neighborhood. He's got boys to go outside and play with all around him. They are also teaching Nicolas that he can't get what he wants all the time and he can't maneuver the games so he wins every time. He loves getting to go outside and not relying on high school kids to give him attention or his parents/neighbors. In the mean time Nick is traveling a lot for his job. If he isn't in a hotel he's in the basement working. So what have I been up to. I've been trying to apply for jobs. What's so great is overqualified candidates are passed faster then under-qualified applicants. Yes I have a bachelors degree, yes I have a teaching credential but no I just want to work part-time at a local office as an admin assistant. It's shocking to people and had no luck in that department. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise because I've been having a heck of a time trying to get into to see an OB/GYN. The last one I saw was July 31st in CA. I've seen two different doctors and for various reasons they've been unable to care for me. I am now having contractions throughout the day. This has been happening for over two weeks. I finally found a doctor that will take me but they are 20 minutes away. It's killer for me because we live less than a mile away from a hospital but I can't go there because they aren't capable of taking care of me or the baby. SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO
this weekend the Chicago area got the most rain it's seen in 137 years. 5 people died from the flooding. We were hit as well. It rained nonstop for two days straight. That run off is was started seeping through floors, windows, up into bathtubs, through drains in laundry rooms. Our neighbors, none of whom have sump pumps, had three feet of water in their basement and crawl space. We were at home depot at 9:45 am and they were already running low on
wet/dry vacs and sump pumps. One neighbor had four wet/dry vacs at their house running non stop. Everyone was trying to pump water out faster then it was pouring in. By 3:00 on Saturday we figured out why our sump pump wasn't detecting water. As soon as that was fixed our water started pumping out but by then our carpet was pretty saturated as were the walls. By Sunday the basement carpet was already turning black in areas from mold. We had tried calling Saturday and Sunday to start the claim process for insurance, but the call center was, "experiencing a high volume of calls," and was unable to speak with us. So we had to wait until Monday to file a claim and unfortunately every place I've called has a waiting list for work to be done. In the midst of it all a few neighbors came over to see if we were okay. They then invited us to a pizza and beer night at their house. It was nice to see everyone coming together and supporting one another.
So needless to say we've been very busy but we really like this suburb and the town. Elmhurst has been in magazines for number one suburb to live in. The schools are very highly rated and so far the people have been great. I appreciate everyone thinking of us and writing to see how we're doing.
Our new address is,