Lily Lane

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http://lilylanecustompendants.blogspot.com/

or lilylane.com

It's Raining, It's Pouring, The Pipes are Bursting

Torrential rains pound the Southland.

I bet the weather people are loving this storm. We so rarely have weather . . .now there's something for them to do.

Yes, water is falling out of the sky, and has been for four days now. At times it was very, very heavy. However, everyday it clears up right after school, then starts up again when school starts the next morning.

Today it was no different. It poured and poured.

I noticed water dripping in the middle of the garage today around noon when I was leaving to brave the storm and run errands. I found out that the problem was coming from the balcony above the garage: the gutters were clogged, thus flooding the balcony. I found a trusty handy-dandy Sesame Street allen wrench (I needed something long and straight and the kids' room was closest) cleared the debris from the drains and the water then freely emptied from the balcony. Problem solved! I'm feeling good. I can solve problems when John is out of the country!

Then when I got home from the pick-up and drop-off routine of the afternoon, I noticed water spots on my family room ceiling.

NOT GOOD!!

Now from where is this coming?

The ceiling is saturated, my couch is saturated, my mood is becoming saturated.

I check upstairs - my bathroom is directly overhead. Nothing. Ceilings are fine.

This has happened before when rain comes in sideways and goes up under the eaves of the house and finds its way to one of my ceilings or walls - but this doesn't appear to be the case this time.

We Skype John, who is in Lisbon, and it is after midnight for him. Using video conferencing and the laptop, I show him what's going on and he suggests to look under the sink (my new sink in my new bathroom).

** B I N G O! **

There is a large puddle under my sink and inside my new cupboards are becoming warped. I quickly mop it up and try to discover the source. Looks like the trap.

Then I look under the other sink.

That TOO has a puddle, only the drips are coming from the wall, which is now soft and gooey. It appears to be the connector from the copper water line to the sink line. That's better than the leak being somewhere behind the wall.

Then, with barely touching the connector, the hose breaks free and water is spewing full force like a fire hydrant right at me into my new bathroom!!!!

Meanwhile, John is still on video conferencing - set up so he can see under the sink and now all he sees is water coming at him and me screaming at the top of my lungs to get towels.

I run downstairs, out to the front yard to turn off the water main. When I came back, Madison had a huge beach towel held over the water, trying to stop it, while in a shear-panic cry.

Brooke comes up with armloads of beach towels and had emptied out the linen cupboard full of towels. The bathroom is flooded with an inch of water covering the entire floor and the cupboard is overflowing. I am frantically trying to mop up the water and can only imagine the damage that is occurring as more water is going down the interior walls and how will we ever recover from this.

Will I have to contact my insurance company?

Will this be thousands of dollars worth of repairs?

What's the extent of the damage?

Is my second floor going to fall down onto the first floor?

John is still on video.

I go to him. His face is ashen. All he can say is that he is so sorry he's not there.

At this point, the adrenaline and anxiety have apexed. I am completely soaked from head to toe and to the bone and I start to cry.

He consoles me over the computer.

He lets me know that it's going to be OK. The water was shooting straight out, not completely down the wall (he should know, he was watching it!). It will dry. We won't have to get new walls.

We need fans. I need to have upstairs and downstairs to get dry. I only have one fan.

I also need this pipe fixed!

I run out front to see if my neighbor is home. Just as luck would have it, my next-door neighbor, Don, is just pulling in from work. I approach him before he's even out of his car and ask him if I could borrow a fan. I think he could tell by my appearance and my about-to-cry expression that something was dreadfully wrong. He goes to get me a fan and says he'll be right over to see if he can help.

Then my across-the-street neighbor, John, comes outside and I ask him if he has a fan I can borrow. He also rushes to help and says he used to be a plumber. Tender Mercies!!!!!!

Next thing you know, I have 3 fans, a heater, and two very nice neighbors in my bathroom helping to fix the problems.

Don asks me if it would be a problem if I didn't use my sink for a while. Problem? No - no problem. I've only had it for 5 days. I'm used to not using it!

I am thankful for awesome neighbors and my children who were trying so hard to help.

When I came back downstairs, Madison was holding a towel up to the ceiling to stop the drips and she looked like a statue. She said her arm was getting really tired. They had gotten more towels and mopped up the mess downstairs. There was more water dripping down the walls and even coming out of the recessed light. Brooke told me that Ashlyn was so scared that she ran into the garage to hide.

That was quite enough for one afternoon.

However, there are things for which to be thankful.

Just before the explosion, I put the laptop on a little portable wire shelf so it wasn't on the tile floor. Because of that, it wasn't sitting in an inch of water and thus is spared. The funny thing (looking back) is that while we were running around screaming, John was saying "pick me up! Somebody move the computer!" All he sees is water shooting towards him. When I came back upstairs, Brooke had the computer in my bedroom and I can hear him asking her if it's wet. She says yes and he's telling her to turn it off immediately! I'm so glad I had put it on that little shelf! It only got splashed.

Another tender mercy is that I had my cupboards lined with a thick waterproof material so the bottoms are mostly spared and just the walls are warped.

I'm also glad that I removed the pictures from the family room wall when I first noticed the leak because after the eruption, they too might have been damaged.

So I'm thinking that this bathroom remodel might not ever get done - since now the time is going to be spent repairing the damage. Oh well. At least there's no more carpet in there!

And I'm grateful that my washer and dryer are functioning right now as I have three extra-large-capacity-sized full loads of towels. Nice.

It's funny that when the pipe burst, Madison was downstairs doing homework and she heard the screaming. She thought it must have been because of a spider. Then she thought, wow! Thats a lot of screaming - it must be a tarantula!

Planning a Birthday Party

Christian is turning 6 on the 31st and wants an Indiana Jones birthday party.

That should be fun, right? 10 little boys running around on archaeological adventures. We'll see. So far, we've come up with an invitation, but still have much to figure out. If anyone has any helpful tips, we're all ears!

All it Takes is Desire

We've tried to get Christian to ride is bike, but he had no desire. He always said he'd do it when he's 6.

Part of hiring someone to finish the tile in the bathroom was so John could spend more time with the family - so that's what he did. Yesterday he invited Christian to "work" on his bike. Christian didn't want to because he thought he'd be made to practice riding. I told him Dad was home and just wanted to spend time with him, so go work on your bike together! He agreed and before I knew it, Christian was running in the house saying he was riding his bike. John said he was really just practicing with John holding the bike the whole time, but did a little better than he had in the past. Christian had it in his mind that he would try again on Saturday. So, after lunch he raced outside ready to start riding again. I barely had time to get the video camera as within 10 minutes he was up and riding all on his own!

We are so proud of him! Good job buddy!

No matter much coaxing or prodding we do, it was just all up to him. All it takes is desire!

The Longest Project - The Master Bath Remodel

I love my contractor.

He's handsome, reliable, sexy, talented, accurate, particularly detail oriented, neat, a Jack-of-all-Trades, and just an all-around good guy.

And hot.

I can say that because he's mine.

There is one teensy weensy little problem. My contractor is a terribly busy guy. He has a habit of fleeing the country every now and then which poses a problem when certain projects need to be completed.

He totally gutted and remodeled my kitchen in less than three months. We know the caliber of his talent. But back then he had a bit more time on his hands (read: unemployed). We thought that a bathroom is a fraction of a kitchen. Right? Shouldn't take too, too long.

Wrong. You have to actually be in the same state, city, er, HOUSE in order to work on a project that involves said house.

Little by little we are fixing up the house. We started when we moved in over 9 years ago (but our plan was to only be here five). Being thirty years old, it is showing it's age. Remodeling the master bathroom has been on the "list" for some time, but other things have been ahead of it: install wood floor in the living room (the wood is here - ready and waiting - for a year now!), replace the patio cover that is termite infested and an eye-sore, fix the exterior woodwork that has suffered termite damage and dry rot, replace the well-worn carpet on the stairs along with the out-dated bannister, get a new gate and fence, re-do the garage, replace the curbside mailbox that's dilapidated, update the hearth . . . The List goes on and on.

When we moved in, all the bathrooms were carpeted. That's not something I've understood. My grandma had carpet in her bathrooms and I remember as a child going to her beautiful and immaculate Huntington Beach home to stay for the week; she would remove the carpet in our 'kids' bathroom in case we did something to it, like made the toilet overflow. It's been my experience that toilets have been known to overflow. It's true. It happens. It's also been my experience that a well-cleaned bathroom is one that has been disinfected thoroughly which includes around the base of the toilet. I've cleaned enough bathroom floors in my day to know what builds up on tile or linoleum - and that's in 'clean' houses. So can you imagine what lurks in carpet? Carpet cannot be routinely wiped down with a sponge doused in Lysol or bleach, I don't think.

Anyway, I think my point of view is made. Our downstairs and kids bathroom carpet was removed and tile installed very early on. We've always wanted to tile the master bath, but wanted to remodel it as well, so it was put on the back burner, or further down on The List. Then the toilet overflowed when nobody was there to stop it. And it wasn't just water. You just can't sanitize that properly! That was the straw that broke this camel's back - or got it to the #1 position on The List.

The. carpet. has. GOT. to. go.

Of course one thing leads to another and if you're going to replace the flooring, you might as well replace the tub/shower that you've always wanted to do. And the cabinets need to go and so forth. The faucets leak and the sinks are cracked anyway. The plans are made, the designs set and we decide to start on a major master bathroom remodel right when the kids get out of school so as not to disrupt our schedule too much. That way it will be done before school starts up again.

In order to do the remodel in a most functional way, it is decided that it needs to be completed in phases, since this is going to take some time.

Phase 1: Remove the small closet and remodel the vanity/sink portion of the bathroom.

Phase 2: Remodel the bath/shower area. This will entail custom building a Japanese-inspired soaker tub and making a walk-in spacious shower. Good thing I have an excellent contractor!

Another element that goes along with this is replacing the carpet in our bedroom. It needs it and it is essentially a part of the bathroom. Also the linen cupboards just outside our bedroom door, at the top of the stairs need attention. So in order to replace the carpet, the hallway and stairs need to be replaced, too. Then that means the bannister needs to be replaced and the bottom landing built out, which ends up in the entry way and living room, where the wood floor needs to be installed anyway, but not before the hearth and fireplace are redone.

Pretty soon a toilet overflowing upstairs has reached all the way down to the front door - and it makes my head spin. No wonder it has been delayed so long.

So here we go, ready to start!!

The night before school got out, June 11, 2009, John and the kids ripped out the closet. They had fun doing it and now there is a big hole, with electrical hanging from the ceiling. Also removed is the lovely rough-hewn dark wood box around the oh-so flattering fluorescent light.

Everything that was in the medicine cabinet is now on the counter since it got demolished along with the wall.

We tested many paint colors.

Scraped the ceiling in the bathroom and the walk-in closet.

This is looking into the "phase 2" portion of the bathroom: the shower/toilet room.

The lovely, lovely carpeted room.

Here is where I plugged in my blow dryer for several weeks.

June 27, 2009

The recessed lighting is installed.

The sinks arrive! We love the shape and form of them.

September 28, 2009

The wall gets repaired You'd never know it had a gaping hole.

John was so sweet to put the mirror back up and make it somewhat functional. We did however use the Shop-Vac as a table for quite some time. The counter also got chopped in half to make room to access the plumbing. We used a half of counter and a sink for a while.

November 4, 2009

The old cabinets are officially gone and John is redoing the second plumbing - it needs to be moved a bit in order to line up with the new cupboard and sink.

November 12, 2009

The new cabinets are in!!!!!!!!!

Before one of his long trips, John temporarily put in the new sink and faucet just so I can have running water.

December 30, 2009

After over six months, and news that John will be out of the state and country from January 4 through practically the middle of February, we finally decide to let someone come in and finish this up. That's the best Christmas present I could have asked for. Especially since this was supposed to be done before the kids started school again. The carpet is removed, walls are painted and progress is being made.

Good bye forever carpet. We will not miss you.

I think a Hazmat suit should be worn when handling this.

Here are the linen cupboards at the top of the stairs -directly outside my bedroom door - that are also getting a new top - the same travertine that is being used for the bathroom counter. These cupboards will have new doors, be sanded down and stained dark.

January 4, 2010

Happy New Year! Rick Gillard is here making many, many trips up and down the stairs completing the bathroom - all while John is relaxing in Palm Beach. haha.

The best part about this is that John was able to spend time with his family (us!) over Christmas whereas we wouldn't have seen him outside this bathroom the entire time.

Rick is not only good at tile, he even kills giant spiders for me, which comes in handy when John's not here.

Coming Soon: AFTER pictures! I can't wait!

Hopefully coming really soon!!

Now I need a designer to come over and help me pick out carpet. I have a dozen different colors and textures spread down the hallway. It's so hard to choose!! Anyone want to help???

Happy New Year!

Nothing sends out an old year and brings in a New like a brand new, super cute, healthy, beautiful baby!

Taylor Leigh was born December 30th and is our 32nd niece/cousin.

Born to my sister Andrea (and her husband Adam), she is perfect and tiny and so much fun to hold.

I can't get enough of holding her!