A Living Room Ruined

Life just keeps getting better and better. We had the men out yesterday to remove our ice dam. A couple of guys who did not speak English. It's unfortunate that I was at work, because I would have loved to see Ruanita trying to communicate with them in her Dukes-of-Hazard-twinged broken Spanish. As a matter of fact, I think she only knows how to say Spanish curse words. Would have been an interesting conversation.

After the gigantic ice dam had been removed, a technician from a different company came out to assess the level of water damage in our living room and to begin the repair process. He marked the wet spots on the wall and ceiling with blue painters' tape. He then set up two industrial fans in our living room aimed at the wet walls and ceilings. He also hooked up an industrial strength dehumidifier in the living room with a drain tube that runs to my bath tub. He left, stating that the equipment would be there for 2-4 days. The plan is to try to dry and salvage as much of the wall as possible. What is unable to be completely dried out will have to be cut out and replaced.

I realize that the fans and dehumifier are a necessary evil. And evil they most certainly are. Not only are the fans and dehumidifier cumbersome, but they are LOUD. Extremely LOUD. It is impossible to watch television in my living room. And when I try, I feel as though I am in the midst of a storm. Hurricane force winds are blowing through my living room. The noise and the wind and the sheer amount of space the equipment occupies in my living room is a pain in the rear end. However, the absolute worst part of it all is that I had to take down my Christmas cards that I lovingly arrange on the wall above the fireplace AND I had to take down my kids' Christmas stockings. There are no stockings hung by my chimney with care. No...the stockings are now stuffed in the coat closet in the living room. We have a Christmas tree. We have a nativity scene. We have wreaths and lights and decorations. But without stockings, it just doesn't feel right. Of course, before Christmas Eve, the stockings WILL be re-hung. However, for the time being, my living room just feels wrong. So very wrong.