4.14.2010

pagoda 5...

Time for our Wednesday morning Pagoda check-in.  If you are new, go back and read the first 4 Pagoda stories to catch up (every Wednesday in the archives).

Right, last week's post covered some of the demolition on the grounds (ha I don't really have "grounds" but it sounded good no?).  Today, we'll start with a little of the house demo.  As you read through the saga, please keep this in mind............we lived IN the house the entire time all of the following photos were taken.  We just sealed ourselves off in various rooms.  Oh what a carnival ride it was.

When the ground outside your home has been raised and sits above the level of your house, and it rains, this happens...


When that happens outside the front door, this happens inside the living room...


The water must have been coming in under that old yellow shag carpet for years.  We ripped it out before we even slept one night in the house.  So, everytime it rained, we got a little flood in the living room.  Nice.

Now, when it rains that much and you've started a little demo, this also happens...


What you are seeing is the rain water running OVER the top of that door and INTO our house.  As you can also see, it's not a trickle, it's Niagara Falls people!  I've never been to Niagara Falls, but I think it's about like that right?  That blue "X" is tape.  We had to put it there so the dogs would stop running into the glass.  We love them that way.  So, while this is going on, I am saying to Andrew Henry, "We better do something, this is bad, this is very BAD".  AH is a very calm sort of fellow.  He takes his time to react.  Weighs a situation, if you will.  So, in this situation, he got the camera.  "Nothing much we can do" he said.  Then this happend about 1 foot in front of me...


Water is very heavy.  That was the ceiling.  It rained in our house while we were living in it.  I can't believe I am able to type that sentence.


AH was right, what can you do?  Nothing.  He's very practical, I lean towards the dramatic.  I freaked out.  He got the broom.  He cleaned it up and moved the junk pile into our very fancy, well-appointed and obviously designer decorated living room...


Did I mention we were living like that?  I am very aware there are millions of people who would love to just have a roof over their head and would be happy they have only two chairs, a fold out table and a pile of wet drywall and insulation on a piece of 40 year old yellow shag carpet in their living room.  I am a grateful person.  I love my life.  You know, it's just our story, and even then, we were grateful.  Tired and stressed, but grateful.  Okay, back to the story.

We even lived in Pagoda through all of this...





I'm not kidding.  I'm probably somewhere on the other side of that wall, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, or digging through a box to find some tape or possibly my sanity.  I think I may have lost it in my living room...


Still living in it.  We lived in it like this for quite some time.  One could open the door and look at this.  At times, it seemed like a movie set or something.  Unless you were our delighted neighbors, then you could just drive by and see it like this...


It's quite remarkable any of them even speak to us.  I make them fudge. 

Coming up a little later today - another vintage purse, this one is a bit wacky.

13 comments:

Maria said...

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable. I am, however,wondering at this point if there was much of the original house left and if just scraping it and building something new wouldn't have been easier. I look at some of these and wonder how much damaged material there was that AH and the workers had to haul away. But, you, my friend, I know are not always given to the easy way - are you? I love that about you. So this was just one L-O-N-G character building session - your own private (or maybe not so private) version of Survivor - and b/c of it, you and AH know without a shadow of a doubt that there is NO storm (be it rain or otherwise :-D) that you can not weather. This is one story that I am so glad to have known the ending to up front. :-D

Maria said...

OK - I'm back - but only to say this - b/c it is So very appropriate to Pagoda and your adventure.........

"Diligence is the mother of good luck" ~ Benjamin Franklin ~

And knowing the end of the story - I'd say he was right.

jeanette from everton terrace said...

You know how much the daughter and I love quotes - that one is getting written down today.

KR said...

When I was growing up we had houses that looked like that across the street from us...they had been bombed during WW2!

Sunshine said...

I think you are sooo brave reliving this! So looking forward to seeing the end result! Did you say DOGS? You also had to manage dog duties during this time! You both deserve to be featured on a show with an episode entitled 'How not to lose one's sanity (or spouse) during an extreme home remdodel!'

MaiPie said...

Wow, I didn't know how much the rain helped with the demo. At least it doesn't rain much in Phoenix...?

Anonymous said...

the sound of a sledge hammer, music to my ears... it sounded especially good in the purple kitchen, ewa

MJM said...

It is quite a miracle that neither of them lost their sanity. It's also a wonder that the house didn't come toppling down on top of them. That's luck I suppose!

a said...
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Andrew H. said...

Ahhh, those were the good 'ol days.

Bring on Pagoda-2!! (just kidding)

Lisa said...

I will never again complain when we are doing what I now know is a LITTLE fix up in our house. I will just be glad it has never "rained" in our house. That cracked me up!

Megan (Best of Fates) said...

Oh my goodness - I am in awe that you managed to live through that and didn't cave in and leave screaming one day!

Aron said...

Oh my goodness, amazing!