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I see MANY new people have been visiting and checking out Life with the Hoff's!  So, if you're a visitor, go ahead and hit the follow button.  You'll be able to receive updates as to when there is a new post and will also be able to find us easier =)  So, go ahead, follow along as we enter this new chapter in our lives.

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{the game plan..thus far}

The company we hired to finish up the upstairs and basement started this morning.  The guy seemed pretty optimistic he could get the upstairs finished by tonight or tomorrow afternoon (esp since he had to plastic the windows and it is raining again here!).  I will post pictures of the process as we can get them.  Hopefully it'll go smooth and nothing bad will surface as far as the foundation goes. 

The water has stayed constant in the basement (about 2 feet) since the last pump out and rain.  It's clear so it should just be ground water.  We are hoping that a sump pump should fix this so that we can keep the basement water free.  We are not going to finish it this year, and maybe not next year.  We will just have to wait and see what happens!

The game plan for the main level: finish clean out and dry out, new windows and doors throughout the house and garage, get electircal and any plumbing done, spray the buffalo board with kilz (and the other boards in the house except the floor), insulate and plastic walls, drywall the ceiling and OUTSIDE walls only and then insulate the attic, and finally a  Complete overhaul of the HVAC system as well and new water heater (is that part of HVAC??).  All of this we would like to be completed by the beginning/middle of October--if it's sooner, great, but this is the time frame we feel is comfortbale especially with the amount of help we may or may not have.  AFTER all of that is completed we will tackle the ENTIRE bathroom, once complete the ENTIRE Kitchen, and then our bedroom.  After that we can MOVE BACK INTO OUR HOME! 

We are hoping to hear back from SBA this week or next about any loan we can get as the FEMA grant money will only cover the first phase of our project, and that's okay.  We are very fortunate to have a strong foundation (to the best of our knowledge) and a roof over our heads right now (the camper).  We appreciate all the help we have received thus far and thank them very much.  We are doing the best we can with what we have right now.  Have to make sure the house can keep in the warmth before buying other things such as flooring and cabinets. 

I will post some pictures if there is any progress made at the house today (which there should be!). 

Welcome to our open house

Welcome to our flooded, molded home!

Come on in! You can find the flooded picture followed by the gutted picture for most of the rooms in our home. 

The floors are not that dark.....thats..um..poo...

 Hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom

 hall closet

Our bedroom

Spare Bedroom

 ^ that thing in the middle of the floor....part of the kitchen counter top

Bathroom....

looking at the bathroom from the dining room

Kitchen

 The counter tops WERE black before....

 looking into kitchen from dining room

where the countertop and sink were

 dining room

entering the home (gosh I should have put this first up there, oh well)

 garage

And the basement

 This little dresser was pushed up and is stuck in the vice that was on the work bench

 the downstairs bath, they had to rip the shower up to try and plug the drain there

 downstairs bedroom

clean up time

Attempting to post from my phone...we will see how this goes.

We were able to see the house finally on Saturday. We went down to our neighborhood on Thursday afternoon but there was way too much water still, but apparently we could have gotten in Friday because the eater had receded that much. Oh well. So we stopped down in the a.m. and chad did a walk through with Rob the neighbor and they opened Windows and doors. Chad and I had a few things to pick up and went back later in the day to spray the mold down to try and get on top of it. Yesterday Chads coworkers Tim and curt from here and Morgan (it guy from bismarck) were over helping gut out the house. They got the laminate flooring up to find carpet, got the carpet up to find original hardwoods, got the original flooring up to find the sub floor (which we may get a little surprise and find another layer of flooring under that). Morgan and Tim got most of the kitchen out also. The windows have all been removed except for the huge one out front and the newer one in the kitchen. They got the flooring in the bathroom up, the toilet and sink out (going to try and reuse those) and the vanity out. They also pumped 2-3 feet of water out of the basement yesterday. The water had actually gone down quite a bit by itself after we had opened the Windows and doors. I have some pictures but because I'm posting off my phone I can't add them, sorry. It's moldy, muddy, wet, and stinky draw yourself a mental picture haha.

If you can see those random symbols and letters sorry, its me trying to add formatting marks because when I post from the phone it doesn't format the text. Anyhow. Our neighbors had a cinder block basement.and it collapsed, there are actually quite a few in our neighborhood of Green Valley that basements collapsed, so far ours isn't one of them! Today Nick and Sarah are headed up for the day to help. Today's project will be tearing out the walls that aren't sheetrock or plaster...some type of cement board or something. Also, I think they are going to try and get the ceiling down too, since Morgan is here. Waiting on the call from our fema inspector so ee can get them in to look at the house, same with the other three billion inspectors we have to have. Next time I have internet access on the computer I will post some pictures for you.

On Hiatus

Thank you for bearing with me as I have been hiatus for the last few weeks.  The next few weeks will be the same. 

Trying to decide the best option for our little family right now, tough stuff, but has to be done.

I hope to get back here soon to share with you the struggles and triumphs we have been going through.

Thank you.

...BIA...

Yep, Back In Action. 

Had a groovy garage sale on Friday and Saturday.  Most of my sales happened on Friday and only a FEW on Saturday.  No big deal.  Chad was not feeling it, so he spent most of the day inside and away helping a few friends.    Made enough cash to buy a screen door though! YEAH!  Everything that didn't sell is curently boxed up awaiting pickup.  Only a few select items made it back into the house.

hmm, what else.  I got bit by a bug on Saturday and have a huge welt on my foot, which itches like crazy...not even benedryl is kickin it!  Grad school is proving to be pretty laid back right now.  Great discussions are being had and very interesting material is being presented. 

We are still in the house, thankfully, for now.  My dad brought up his camper for us to stay in while we were evacuated and we cannot thank him enough!  That was definetly an experience for us!  The river is up high and will be high for the next month or so.  If it rains a lot, like A LOT in a short period of time we will probably be evacuated again.  So, pray for no rain or if it has to rain, just light showers.

I'm working on a few projects.  One is an order for a friend, another is a project that was an epic fail--I've revamped how to put it together so we will see if that works or not, and I will be starting my dresser renovation soon too!  I'm a little nervous about that however, since I've never done it before.  I have an end table I'm going to redo also. 

Chad hasn't been up to much lately.  Can't golf because the courses are flooded, can't play softball due to his back.  He's been enjoying lawn work now that he has a working mower however...he looks like he's enjoying it any how!  His back is getting better and he can walk on his heels now without much effort, so that's a MAJOR plus.  His visits are down to once a week now. 

I have been rehired back on at my school, teaching Kindergarten again.  I'm excited to get back into my classroom and get it cleaned back up since we had to "evacute" that also.  Most of my stuff is put up on shelves and it's a little chaotic mess right now! 

That's all I've got for tonight!

...MIA...

I have been MIA the last week sorry...floods....evacuations...rain...been a little busy.  When I get the internet back up and running at the house I will update on all the things that have happened in the last week or so. 

We currently have everything moved back into the upper/main level of our house and will start putting that area back together in the next few days.  We'll move the basement stuff back down when it quits raining!!! 

PS, if we miss your birthday this month (why the heck is June so popular for birthdays!?!) we appologize and right now I'm giving you the giant shout out HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ok? If your anniversary is in June HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Ok.

Have a great day.