Lots of Annoying Stuff

It has been a while. Mainly because I have nothing of interest to chat about. J has been doing great, but we have not had many fun adventures lately. I will try to keep my whining to a minimum (another reason why I have purposely not blogged). But, our house is coming apart, at the dormers. We have one leak over one dormer that showed itself a few weeks ago, and every storm the damage gets worse. We can only sit and watch because we are waiting for insurance to come and ok the work before we can proceed. Since there is no quick fix to hold off the water in the meantime, we literally just watch the water leak in our house during each storm. And, if you have been watching the news you will know that we have had record storm after record storm in New England over the past few weeks.

Well, now that we have been watching this, the leak has turned into a small bucket of water collecting in the basement and some wall damage, to floors bubbling up in our hallways, dining room, kitchen, and entry way. We are told we will need to rip out the tile flooring in the upstairs bath and in the mudroom as well. A new leak has started (another dormer) which has ruined the walls in our guest room, and we will need to get new carpet in there as well. Awesome. This house is three years old.

When they fix the flooring, they will need to sand the entire portion of the floor to blend the new with the old. This means pretty much all the hardwood in the upstairs, and most in the downstairs too - with the exception of the family room, which is ironically the room that actually needs the sanding... How are we supposed to do this? I will have to pack up all of my china and crystal, where do we put the furniture? Will insurance cover all of this?

There has been many a tear shed by me, which is sad I know. Much worse could have happened. But it just seems like there is always something major wrong with this house. So, I am bummed. Tomorrow the adjuster, builder and mold guy will all be here so hopefully we will come up with a plan, and they can fix and stop the leaks once and for all. Then, it will be just dealing with the aftermath.

Through all of this I have been juggling trying to pay attention to J with all the phone calls, visits from contractors, drying machines, etc. I was to go away to HHI so I was also trying to prepare for that, buy new fat clothes so I have something to wear down there, make lists and lists and lists - things we send ahead of time, things we bring on the plane, things Joel drives separately, things we will need for our ride back. But, how can I leave now when all of this work needs to be done on the house?

Fast forward to my poor little guy who is just as happy as can be. He was sick a few weeks back, but got over it. I knew something was still wrong so we had him checked and sure enough it was an ear infection. We gave him his medicine - but I still noticed that my happy little man was tugging at his ear. I thought, lets just bring him in to get him checked one last time before we go. Sure enough, he has a double ear infection. Seeing as last time we went to Hilton Head Joel doubled over in pain from the effects of take off in the little puddle jumper on his tooth - I was not going to take my poor little man on that plane knowing both his ears are clogged. The Dr. mentioned risk of burst ear drum and that was all I needed to hear. Secretly, I hate the flight to Hilton Head more than a 12 hour straight flight somewhere (the layover is brutal and I have a significant history of being stuck in airports for 6-8 hours each time I go down). Plus, I wanted to be here for house issues tomorrow. So, we cancelled our flight. Seemed like the best option yesterday but today I am thinking by now we would be rolling into the airport. I know the little guy really will enjoy seeing his Nana and Pa too! Poor Nana and Pa have been waiting for his visit for so long, and now this.

So, as I continued to pack up the wet stuff (all of his clothes were laid out in the guest room that is now wet)... as the phone rang five more times being all of these contractors, as we worry about what insurance will cover and what money we will have to invest out of pocket again... And think about the fact that the little guy was supposed to see the Easter Bunny on Saturday but now will not... I look at the little man, and despite having a double ear infection and three more teeth poking through, he is smiling and happy. I guess I need to take a lesson from him.

New plan, so help us, is to all drive down on Saturday. This is probably the worst idea I have ever had, but at least we will all get to go down and see Nana and Pa and enjoy some time away. If we leave right after lunch, he can entertain himself for an hour and then hopefully go into afternoon nap. He wakes up and then for the next two hours it will be torture for sure (we are used to three hour trips to Maine...) We have some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and a bunch of toys and we will just keep it going for as long as we can stand it. Then, stop for dinner and stretch. Get him out, get him fed, and get him in Pjs. Put him "to bed" in the carseat and pray he sleeps through the night while Mom and Dad take driving shifts. He wakes up, and we are there. Is this crazy? We have put him to bed plenty of times in his car seat... We just usually get there within 2-3 hours... Any thoughts?