Back to square one.

Subfloor? Gone.

Slab? Cleaned...for the most part.....

All in the name of trying to de-stinkify.

Just About All the Holiday Spirit I Could Muster

Around the corner...

An artistic rendering of the storm?

Flood Recovery, Step 1:

Remove everything.

And don't forget to take insurance photos! (for when they claim you coulda just kept and sanded the floors)

Electric Black-Out Care Package

From Leppy in R.I.....everything you need for a blackout, includes:
Votives, matches, chandelier crystals, wire (and extra wire), thread and tacks (to hang said crystals)...2 bracelet/key-chains with lobsters, and his and hers chap-sticks (for candle light smooching????)

I'm amazed it made it through the post office...am I the only one who thinks it resembles a bomb making kit?
Thank you Leppy!

Polski

I think it's funny that FEMA thinks I speak Polish.

Although it makes about as much sense to me as their regular flyers.

Back to Reno

I haven't really been able to blog about the hurricane, mostly because I haven't had internet at home until today, but also because I'm just sick of thinking about it. The previous posts give some visuals of what happened.... By now the moldings have totally popped off the walls and the floors have buckled and warped irreparably.
Todd has begun to rip out sheetrock this week...worried about the mold that has already coating the insides of the walls and wood beams, while we look for a contractor....

Brave People

Luckily we had some friends drop by...Doug and Vanessa, not scared of the sludge (or the smell)-- and helped us clean up. (They also fed us several times, and let us shower at their place which was much needed)

Flood Mayhem and Clean-up

In the morning most of the water had gone down leaving mud and slime behind. We had to pull everything out to the yard and sort through what we thought could be saved, and what needed to be disposed of.

Yeah, that's a couch that got totally up-ended...

Volunteer Central

The volunteer turn out was amazing, including a giant pizza oven planted in the middle of Van Brunt St giving away small thin crust pies.

Storm By-Products

Cats meet air mattress

 And we discover fire-light shadow puppets

Ok, ok, we didn't have power for nearly 2 weeks, what do you want from us???

Disaster Tourism

A term that's new to me, but something we're seeing too much of....

The Morning After

When the rain slowed we took a walk around to survey the damage and gossip with the neighbors.

 Fences and trees down, and a boat washed up to the sidewalk.

The waters by Valentino pier still high and choppy

 And a bit of a pep talk from Fort Defiance

Hurricane Sandy...Waters Rising...

This is the night of the storm, after we ran up and down trying to save as much as we could. The waters still rising, but before we lost power.

Looking down to the lower floor, that's a 5 gallon bucket of paint floating around.

Leaning over the bannister...our bed is on the move....

And out back. 

The Queen Mary

Todd just happened to notice that someone dumped a load of sand down at the end of our street..and hey! And we needed sand...sooooo....

Between the cruise ship, abandoned sand, and the necessity to bag yourselves in during a storm...Red Hook is quite an experience.

Today while I was parked at Lowes...

Garrrrr.
Well, at least they left a note....

Reassembled!

The siding and painting was finished this past Monday. I was waiting for a sunny day to take the photo...but lost patience. The color is a much nicer grey...

The sills are now NORMAL and actually attached with more than one nail apiece

And the gobs of caulk have been removed from the cornice and it no longer has black stains all over it!

yay!
Done by Long Island Siding Systems...If anyone needs their info, just let me know!

And So It Begins

Feral Cat Rescue #1
We've seen Momma and Shrimpy around the neighborhood-- Shrimpy was one of 5...now down to....one. We're worried that the raccoons got the rest of them, and watched Momma drag him by the scruff at full gallop to our end of the block and eventually into our backyard. The raccoons are vicious, and after 2 nights of having to chase them away, we finally caught the cats and brought them to the emergency vet. They're both FIV and Leukemia negative thank goodness, but Shrimpy is very malnourished and had to be de-wormed.
Right now they are living in an upstairs room, quarantined from our other cats. We plan to get Momma neutered and release her, and hopefully Shrimpy can get well and be adopted...
Any takers???

We're going to try to join the trap-neuter-release group because the cat population here is out of control.
Then at least they can lend us cages and we'll have a place to take them to be fixed.....

Getting ready for winter

All the original wood siding is being taken off, tons of insulation shoved in the walls, plywood sheets put up, then tyvek....and eventually...new siding!
It seems that these guys really know what they're doing. Isn't that refreshing?

Moonflower

We have...one.

Why now, and why just one...I have no idea.

During the tomato lull

I've started to pay attention to the rest of the vegetables. The butternut squash vines have left the raised bed and are taking over the yard:

The latest count has reached 20--all I can say is thank goodness they can be stored.

And so far...7 melons! This one should be ready this week, and our first:

Isn't it cute?

The things that worked

Our first sunflower just popped up

Meanwhile we've got lime colored zinnias,

mixed color zinnias...

And more hibiscus!

"Pink Swirl" Hibiscus

Our first hibiscus...and the only plants that I started from seed in the house that actually took to being planted outside.

As happy as I am I don't think I'll be repeating that experiment. From hereon out, it's direct sow!

Yeah, I know

More vegetables...but these are just from today!

Scrap Planter

Made of bits and pieces...and preventing people from falling over the edge into the garbage area.