Thanks so much!

To anyone and everyone who made a donation (time, cash, a gift, or a gift card) for us for Christmas and / or for the house, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
I am trying to send everyone a thank you card, but some addresses I do not have and some donations were anonymous.
If you know someone who gave to us please express our gratitude!!!

~Becky

Progress

I just got an advance in the mail today from my flood insurance company for $5,000.
This is a huge deal and now we can buy supplies needed to start rebuilding!

This is awesome news.

~Becky

Not really an update

I have not blogged much on here as nothing has changed with our houses. No work was done at all in either house in Dec. We are all still waiting on the insurance money.

I do have a crew ready to begin work on Monday and I have about $2,500 (all from donations from amazing people like you) to get started. Plus I paid $3,400 (of my own money) to the HVAC guy to buy the furnace, ac unit, and duct work we need to replace all that was ruined. (I still owe him another $4,000 when the job is done.)

I will say that Christmas was amazing and we were blessed by family, friends, and strangers helping to make our Christmas so special. I still am in awe of the love and support we have gotten from so many.

My boys and I are still at my brothers apartment. He is still staying with friends. My sister and nephew are still at my mom's. Yet I know how blessed we are as others we are now are still on couches and in crappy hotel rooms or hotel rooms that are over an hour away. We get to try and have some sort of normal while our homes get repaired.

Today we are going to try and resume school (we homeschool) and also clean up some of the Christmas mess. I also will watch my nephew at 3. (I have watched him for over a year while my sister works.) I also was watching other children, as I was running an in home daycare. I, of course, am unable to do that now with a home that is floorless and heatless. But at least I can still watch my nephew. I watch him at my brother's or my mom's.

Once we go home again I hope to reopen my in home daycare.

Hopefully next week I will have more news about the houses as we get the crew in to see what supplies are needed and what we can and can not do and so on. I am super excited to know myself.

Happy New Year!

~Becky

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