It has been three weeks since our last flood posting to this blog. In many ways those weeks are a blur with much activity and little visible results. Yet, we do make forward progress. Flooding and surviving brings on hoops to jump through unknown previously. We call these interruptions shoes that drop.



We are currently riding to Burlington, VT for an FMCA rally where Charles has been ask to direct the Frustrated Maestros in rehearsals and performances at the Essex Junction, VT Expo Center. He accepted this opportunity “BF”…before flood and we are so happy to be out on the road…briefly. We left June 23 and will return to our driveway about mid July. Then we are home until October. What a weird experience for us.

To date we have had our plumber in to do invisible things like remove old lead pipes and reroute some plumbing. Poor friendly guy got to be under the house. He got to do this in the intense heat wave of 95+ degrees that has besieged middle TN.


We have done a walk through with our electrician and clarified where his work will be. With him we learned of many codes compliances. We must have 5 smoke alarms hard wired in, outlets each 12 feet, updated dryer plug, front and back porch lights, and any wiring that was flooded replaced. Likely this work will be completed next week. And….codes will come to inspect! Another “Mother May I…” step. Our builder says we will likely loose 2 weeks due to all of the codes inspections.


As we drove away on June 23 the duct work for the new furnace was going under the house on a 95 degree day.


Meanwhile we have shopped for tubs that are in boxes in our den, lavatories, all faucets, toilets, tile, cabinets and hardwood flooring. We have also selected interior and exterior doors. The only selection process at this on point is the paint color and that color book is with us on this trip.


But the shoes are still dropping. FEMA did a good and not so good job with our estimate. Our adjuster failed to include enough for the dry out company that used some heaters, and removed floor. So that company has sent their fees of $19.000 with instructions to send that on to our adjuster. The dry out company signed an agreement with us to work for what FEMA will pay. That was well below the $19,000. So…I guess that FEMA and the dry out company will duke it out.


But the shoes continued to drop. Our Mortgage is with Bank of America because they bought Countrywide Mortgage group. Not a choice of ours. The FEMA check was written to us and the bank. Said check had to be overnighted to them in California at our expense of $32, Fed Ex. Add more frustration to the fact that they are holding about $20,000 beyond what we owe them getting to collect that interest!! Now we are learning that we get out money in increments or draws only after each rebuild phase has passed their inspector on site.


But…we were not done with shoes! The motor home inverter failed on June 21 about dinner time leaving us with no way to have electricity in 96+ weather. We quickly packed, clarified arrangements for watching our house with the neighbors who took us in, and strung an electric cord for a lamp to the MH. We got up at 3:00 AM on June 22 and left at 4:30 AM for a three hour trip to Red Bay, AL and our motor home factory. By 8:30 AM a satellite operation had us purring with a new inverter. By noon we were through filing insurance claims and turtled back to our driveway in Franklin via the Natchez Trace Parkway. We then left for this trip to northern VT the very next day.

Our emotional closet is getting full of dropped shoes and we just expect more. We suppose that it will be nice to have a “new house” inside our home of 43 years but we were perfectly happy with it before the May 1 flood.


As always we love to hear from you to our regular E mail addy in your letter of invite to this blog. Finally there is a
little more time to reply to you!

Since our last blog update we have done a lot of hurry up and wait! We accidentally found out about a city mayor and alderman meeting two weeks ago and within 3 hours many from our street were in attendance to ask questions. Percentages of damage were told by the Codes Director after the meeting. At that time we learned that our house was placed at 62%. That is above the 50% stipulated by FEMA. In the same breath the Codes Director quipped, “that’s not right!” Exactly what we were thinking.



This caused another delay to have Codes return and assess. Dryness did pass and one of the codes men said he had done the original inspection and that he would not have put it more than 50%. To add to our unsettled feeling several houses on our 32 home street are slated for demolition. This sent us into survival mode of storing our furniture and moving to FL! But…the next day we went to Codes and the damage was placed at 42%. Rebuild was then our expectation.


In the meantime we interviewed several contractors of a variety of backgrounds. One couple wanted to tear out our solid 12” plank sub floor and put in a French drain. All other contractors felt the sub floor was good and drying and shrinking back to normal. We have had a parade of plumbers, electricians, painters, and carpenters march through. But we did choose our builder and have very good feelings about this non pressured person who builds beautiful houses. He will be rebuilding our home and the two beyond us.


We have spent the last month parked at our neighbor’s home. This generous couple has allowed us electricity and water and use of their bath and laundry. While the house has had no more tear out and dry out crews we have sifted and sorted in our yard. Charles built his man cave in our barn and even put in a discarded house door and his AC in plywood, removable section. I don’t have a picture of this invention, yet.


We are in Red Bay, AL at our motor home factory for our yearly appointment. When we return home we will turtle into our driveway and plug into a new 50 amp electrical service. The old service was under water…about 4+ feet!


We have gone to choose our cabinets, and look at flooring, tubs, and toilets. We will look at counter tops and more flooring. Sounds like we are building a new house. Way down the line is getting our antique furniture cleaned up and some of it restored. Of course, we have to shop for a washer, dryer, refrigerator and decide about replacing the deep freeze. And…there is nothing soft to sit on in the house. Fears of mold forced us to throw out chairs and couches.

So…the house stands on June 2, 2010 as it has for the past 3 wks….no counters, no cabinets, not bathroom fixtures..and bare studs showing.


We think we are making progress!! Many thanks for your E mails. We really do appreciate the support that we feel.