Hurricane Recovery

It's hard to stay in touch when we are dependent on brief hot spots for Internet and sometimes are without electricity. We are moving forward, but slowly. A group from our church came out and helped clear our yard, so a month and a week after the hurricane, we have that one little semblance of normality.

Insurance only wants to give us money to repair our roof and ceilings, but with all the mold we'd have to tear everything out. And with a manufactured home, that basically means rebuilding it. So we'd rather just start over somewhere else in a house on a foundation and out of the flood zone. 

We looked at a house that would be perfect, but we hadn't moved fast enough and it was already under contract. That was beyond heartbreaking. Our realtor should have found out if it was still available before showing it to us. It would have been perfect for us. Five bedrooms, large family room and living room. Kitchen large enough to hold a table so the dining room could have been a game area. Six foot fence around a half acre of land for the dogs. It had no damage and was move in ready. Probably the only house in the whole city that was! 

We went to look at a second house that might have been just as good. It has a little apartment attached that would have been nice for Tyler. It has so much damage it will be at least six months before it is ready.

Sigh.

The problem with moving is that unless we can get enough money to pay off the old house, we'd have to be able to make payments on two houses, and I don't think is possible. Kind of wish a tree had fallen on the house.

Not sure what will happen at this point. All the rooms are filled with our stuff from our shop, plus we have three storage units. We are trying to sell down online. In the meantime, the inside of our house is difficult to navigate!

We were going to skip Thanksgiving, but Jessica has decided to hold Thanksgiving at her house. Honestly, though, spirits are low.

A friend said she is setting up a Go Fund Me, and I'm not sure how that will work out. I know we need about $10,000 up front if we do get a house. I have some of that in savings but it is supposed to be for Jasmine's graduation trip to NYC and summer trip to Mexico with teen missions. She has not gone since she was 11, and this is the first year she has wanted to do it, so I had wanted to make it happen.

Keep us in your thoughts as we try to figure out our new normal. It includes four extra cats, at least one of whom is pregnant. Anyone want a cat?  

Hanging Out in Georgia

After staying with Felicia (some of you read her blog Stare if You Must) for many days, we headed back home, but we stopped at my son Adam's house in Georgia on the way. Since it's "all about the journey" with us, we also stopped in Augusta, GA, and I previously posted about that.

We were really excited to swim in Adam's pool because we figured it would be much warmer than Felicia's. Swimming did not happen!

Both of Adam's houses were hit. The one in Panama City by Michael at Category 5 winds and the one in Albany, GA by Category 3 winds. He had to leave for Norway before he had time to deal with it.

We drove to the Zoo, but it was closed due to hurricane damage, so we went to the Riverquarium instead. I don't have pictures because it was mostly tanks of fish that live in the river.

Ray Charles plaza was nearby.

The next day we went to Pirate's Cove Nature Trails, but it was more like an obstacle course.

The following day we went to a small science museum.

Then it was time to go home and face real life.

This is what real life looks like now:

House

Side of the house

Two of three of our sheds survived.

Our back yard
These pictures don't really show the damage well, but in some areas there are too many trees blocking the way.I also think some of my pictures are on my newer computer that is getting some work done on it.

The flea market where our shop was at.

And this is what it looks like in general down here. But these are right after the hurricane. It still looks like this, but imagine mountains of trees and furniture piled so high along the road that you no longer know where you are, and you can't even see the entrances to the smaller side roads.

Most of the students here have been out of school since October 8th.Jessica started back in her nursing program today. My twins started back at their own middle school starting today. Jasmine starts next Tuesday. Her high school will meet at a middle school from 7-12 and the middle school students from that school will go 1-6. It's not ideal, but it will work for now.

We are looking at housing option. We are having issues with the insurance company. They want us to fix a double wide with holes in the roof, siding off and black mold everywhere. I want a real house on a foundation not in a flood area. I had wanted to live on the water, but housing is in short supply now and people can charge whatever they want. We looked at the "perfect" house for us yesterday, but competition is strong. I don't know if we can finance it.

I hope I'll have happier news in my next post.

South Carolina Fun

After many days of no water, no electricity, no plumbing etc, I finally took three of the kids and headed to a friend's house in South Carolina. Here are some photos of the things we've done. The last pumpkin photo and a few of the zoo photos are ones she took on her phone.

 Pumpkin fun

Pool fun

Zoo Fun

More on Hurricane Michael

I didn't get back to posting as soon as I wanted to.

The hurricane hit Wednesday. We lost all power, water etc. First thing I did Thursday was go check on my shop. I knew I wouldn't be able to get to our house.

This was my first sight of the flea market.

Needless to say, we were all heartbroken. The outer shops had walls ripped off, and some were buried under piles of concrete blocks. For me, my wreaths hanging in the hall were splattered with mud. When I closed Sunday, we were only expecting a tropical storm, so I didn't close up as tightly as I would have had I known it would develop into a Category five hurricane that would hit us head on. I would have put the wreaths in plastic bags in my shop. I had a lot of water on the floor in the shop, so anything on the floor was soaked. New in box toys are no longer new in box. My funko pops were knocked off the shelf into water, so about 30 funkos lost their boxes.

When we did go to the house, we had to walk a block,climbing over trees and downed lines.

Our house has damage to the roof, so the ceilings are wet. The siding is ripped off. And it was blazing hot. 

Heat combined with no electricity or water does not make for happy people. LOL. It's hard when it gets dark at 6 p.m. and there's nothing to do.

Here's what we look like right now.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I worked at packing up my shop, and Rick drove the loads home and unloaded them in our house. We were so hot, plus almost out of gas and clean clothes, so Tyler, Jasmine and I headed out and drove over an hour to do laundry and farther for electricity. Then Monday we were back at the shop packing up. Tuesday noon I couldn't take it anymore. It was over 90F in both the house and shop. I decided it was time to take off and go see a friend. 

Rick had to stay behind and try to find out about his job.

I had all four kids packed, but Kaleb decided to have a probation violation and was not allowed to come.

So the house is full of boxes. Rick and Kaleb are working hard on closing the shop, and we are feeding not only our own dogs, who can't run in the yard anymore because the fence is down, and our cat, but also four abandoned cats -- a mom and three kittens about 2-3 months old.

And now I am in an amazing place. Anyone guess who I am staying with?