Be careful what you pray for!

The past few weeks I've been praying for motivation to dejunk and organize the basement.  It's a daunting task that is easily procrastinated.  We simply have too much stuff and it makes it hard to keep bedrooms clean and be organized, so I know that I need to go through it all.  But life keeps me plenty busy without tasks like this waiting in the wings.

Several months ago I bought a used fridge off ksl.com because I hate having a side by side refrigerator. Matt and I agreed it would be on a trial test to see if we both liked this one, if not we'd put the side by side back.  In the meantime, it's in the garage.  The "new" fridge has the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top and has an ice maker in the freezer.

Last Wednesday morning I got up at 6am to get Zack out the door for drum line practice and I heard a funny noise coming from the kitchen.  When I walked into the kitchen to see what it was, I found the floor sopping wet and could hear the sound of water running in the freezer, like when it fills up the little ice tray.  The confusing part is that I had the bar up, which signifies the ice tray is off and won't make ice.  For some reason the water turned on during the night and didn't shut off.  It ran all night.  I opened the freezer door and water gushed out everywhere, just in case it wasn't everywhere already.

I woke up Matt and had him shut off the water line to the freezer and in the process of grabbing a ton of towels, woke up Zack to have him get ready to leave.  Thank goodness he is self sufficient, even though he is not a morning person, he got himself ready to go while the rest of the family got up to help deal with the damage.  I sopped up water in the kitchen while Matt and the kids hauled laundry baskets and toy bins out to the back patio from Joshua's room.  The basement bathroom, the hallway, and part of Josh's room were soaked as well.

Never a dull moment at our house.  Once I figured out who our insurance was through and got a claim made, restoration people were out here like white on rice.  They tore out walls, ceilings, and floors, pulled the carpets back and brought in at least a dozen industrial fans as well as two huge dehumidifiers.  The house was suddenly very loud.  After three days of fans running, the fans disappeared and the adjuster came to assess the damage.

The basement has probably the ugliest carpet I've ever seen.  The owner three owners ago had a flood apparently shortly after finishing the basement so they pulled the carpet out, dried it on the driveway, and put it back in.  Well...the carpet shrunk and they never had it stretched back into place.  So, several years later, all the areas where the carpet is supposed to be joined together are shredded and frayed.  The adjuster sees this in the hallway where the water damage was and says it needs to be replaced.  And since it is "continuous" meaning same carpet throughout the basement, it all must be replaced.

HURRAY!  Insert happy dance here.  BUT...since the bedroom door can close, it is not considered "continuous" so they might leave it, even though it was sopping wet.  I strongly mentioned that we have serious allergies and one with asthma and it would not be a good idea to leave a carpet with mold spores.  He searched to see if he could find a spot where the carpet is fraying or coming apart.  Of course it's not, it's in excellent condition.  Just my luck.  I do not yet know the final decision but even if the insurance company won't replace the carpet, we'll tear it out anyway.

In the meantime, I'M GETTING NEW CARPET!  And somebody else is paying for it.  Yes, we paid for the insurance, but we're talking about thousands of dollars that we don't have to do these kind of upgrades on our own dime.  Anyway, this means (grand pause) that everything in the basement has to be removed in order for the carpet to go in.  It looks like I have my work cut out for me, and I think new carpet is a great motivation to get the basement organized.  And since everything has to be moved out, it also has to be moved back.  Well, not everything.  We'll be getting rid of as much as I can.  So once we get everything back into place, it should be nice and neat and organized like a home should be!

If you've ever seen my basement, we have a wall of bookcases creating a "room" for one of the kids.  We figure if we do some of the work ourselves and contract out what we can't do, we might even be able to put up a couple walls so that Elijah can have a real bedroom.  Novel concept, huh?  I haven't heard back from the adjuster yet to find out the break down of money, but I'm a farely frugal person and figure I can make that money stretch to accomplish more than they would have done.  We shall see how it all pans out, but I know I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Moral of the story, be careful what you pray for.  The Lord just might find a way to accomplish what you ask for and it might not be how you expected.  While I dread the months of reconstruction and chaos in my home, I recognize this as a huge blessing and I am excited for the finished product!  In the meantime, I'll keep you posted.