These Are The Days of Our Floods...

That title is because Laurie said this is the best soap opera she's been addicted to.

Today was kitchen demolition and dishwashing day. Sad, but Sher's cherrywood kitchen cabinets...those that touch the ground...had to come out. Fred was going through the house with a sawsall ready to start tearing things out. Sher wants to save the doors and fronts and has talked to the woodmode (brand name) cabinet guy in Pennsylvania about doing that. Fortunately, my cousin Joni showed up before any cabinets were needlessly killed.

Joni has a furniture refinishing business (along with the Pronto she and her husband Mike run and I'm sure there is more).
Here are Fred, Joni, and Bill (Fred's friend) working in the kitchen.















Apparently, in taking this photo, I scared the B-jebus out of Bill. He was holding exposed electrical wires and was pretty sure he had turned off the breaker, but not totally sure. Because of all the fans, they didn't hear me come in and when the camera flashed, Bill jumped and almost poo'd his pants. Joni got a HUGE kick out of this.


If you look carefully here, you can see my cousin Molly (Joni's daughter) and Deb, a person we've never met, washing dishes.















The graniteware got washed the other day. These were Sher's good dishes and tea pots that rode out the flood in a basement cupboard. The cupboard did not collapse, but was filled to the top with poowater. This dried inside the dishes and things. Fred claims that Stan power washed some things with his industrial washer before Sher got home and killed some. Fred's stories have not been entirely reliable and since Stan is the favorite and has a powerwasher, I'm sure if he did break some crap, it's OK with Sher.
Deb is from Elkader (same as Joni and Molly and the other woman you'll meet next) and is on vacation so just came down to help. How cool is that?


This is Sher (in the dark shirt) and Diane Finley (in the red). Diane and Sher have been friends since Sher was about 8 years old. Diane came over from Elkader for the day to help out with clean up.















She brought her friend Deb (see above) along. They did dishes all day, helped tear Sher's favorite recipes out of cookbooks that got poowatered, and generally cheered everyone up. Diane has a foul mouth. I like her.
Diane and Deb also showed up with a full meal. Spaghetti, salad (heavy on the mayo please...that 7 layer salad with bacon bits, mayonaise, peas, and three more things), a jello thing with coolwhip and a cookie/butter crust, AND yellow cake with cherry pie filling in it. Oh, also muffins. People in Elkader had heard she was coming to help Sher and sent food. Someone also sent Christmas decorations because they heard Sher lost hers in the flood (Sher lost a few...but Pam pulled more than a dozen boxes of decorations out of the basement so I think we're set with this new contribution).

Here's the final state of the kitchen (well, the current state).















They did leave the sink and fridge in. But counter space is now officially zero square feet. Before this it was well over 20square feet (seriously).

OH! While we were doing all of this, some guy named Rick showed up in a van and went into the basement. No one said anything and he looked official. Sher said he was a plumber. A few hours later he came out and said, "The water heater is plumbed in. As soon as the electrician puts the timer on and hooks it back up, you have hotwater." Sher said, "What hot water heater?"
Fred had gone to the city yesterday to get a new one and come back to the house empty handed and pissed. (I guess the city power company sells high quality electric water heaters and you get a discount with your redcross water heater money). The OLD water heater had for some mysterious reason been hauled BACK into the basement. I do not know why since they thought it was dead. It had been taken up to the main floor, but then tipped over when the flood got on that floor the waterheater tipped over and was declared dead. If they are wrong, then they have hot water as soon as an electrician can come.
Rick, the plumber added this one parting shot, "Oh, I put a gallon of bleach in there. Shouldn't hurt you." Yeah...unless you have a cut. Thank god no one has needed to rinse out an eye they got bleach in...

And for the final flood treat. Here is the photo Pam wouldn't let me put up yesterday.

You can see the whole dishwashing set up, the front of the house, and the camper as well as the al fresco dining area. Also, note Pam's fashionable headwear. A turban is ALWAYS appropriate. Just ask anyone on Joan Collins.

For supper, the Averys came over with venison stew, fruit salad and fresh bread. It was spectacular!! We had three kinds of cake left for dessert. We are NOT starving.


Also, Pam and Rob bought wii fit today. We look hilarious doing that. Especially Sher. We have not had Fred try it but one can hope.

Tomorrow is more paperwork and maybe shopping for a washing machine. Woohoo...