Awesome news

With all the donations and gift cards we have received and some awesome news from Christian aid ministries we will start work on my home in the second week of January. That is the best Christmas gift I could ever receive. The love and support from others feels like home to me.

~Becky

p.s. Still working on all the financial details, but I have enough to get started.

So thankful

I wanted to share that a team of people who I do not know and who do not know me came and spent about 4 days doing demo in my home at the end of Nov. They were so kind and cheerful. They ripped out all my carpets, laminate, tile, and subfloors. They removed all insulation under my house. They removed all the ductwork under the home as well. They neatly stacked all garbage on the curb. They also mold treated shed and under the house twice. Then they reinstalled a vapor barrier under my house, and removed all storm debris and leaves from my yard. That was amazing.

I got a chance to chat with some of the guys on the first day and they were all volunteers who paid their own way to get to NJ. They were sleeping on the floor of a church while they were here.

I started to cry the first day as they began to demo my house (I am very sensitive), and I apologized to the group of men, yet one guy said, "No, you need to cry, this is a big deal." How loving this was, that he didn't make me feel ashamed or embarrassed for my tears.

I can never thank them enough. This was a huge help and also mitigated any further damage caused by the storm.

~Becky

A little celebration

Yesterday was Jason's 15th birthday, so we had some cake and he had lots of video game time.
                                                            And life goes on.

                    This picture is from this summer, when we celebrated Jason graduating 8th grade

I can finally write a post as we have not had internet where we were staying, but now we do. We have gone to my brother's apartment for now (he is staying with friends.) I am so thankful for my amazing brother who is sacrificing his apartment so the boys, our dog, and I can be together. It was extremely difficult for me over the past 2 weeks to have one son at one house, us at another, and our dog at yet another.

We got to put up my brother's tree the other night and also got to all have a meal at his kitchen table. These things feel like home to me.

My home is currently in limbo, sitting lonely and empty without any floors or heat. We are waiting for insurance to give us an amount, so we can begin to make decisions. These are the things that need to be done to it so far:

cut out sheetrock in some walls, as we discovered wet insulation in some
replace all floor joists (including perimeter they sit on and center support of floor) $8,000
replace all heating and cooling duct work, furnace, and ac unit $8,000
replace all subfloors $1,500
replace all floors
resheetrock walls
inspect all electrical, have electrician install furnace and ac unit
have plumber update improper water shut offs
replace kitchen cabinets
replace bathroom vanity
replace tub, and toilet (need plumber to do so)
replace tile on shower walls

I do not have estimates on everything, but believe it will be over $30,000. I am still meeting with people to get estimates, while I wait for the insurance settlement. The biggest stressor (besides not being home) is that some of the above damage is not Sandy related but old house related, yet still needs to be updated. The floor joists all need to be replaced, but most likely will not be covered by insurance since the damage is not flood related. But no one will just slap new subfloors on them as it would be unsafe.

So we continue to wait.

~Becky