Tag: help

Nov 29

Blessing Bags

Ok, you guys know that the holidays are coming up, and with that? Cold weather. I know I’m excited about knee boots and tights and the smell of fall, but the changing temperatures mean something totally different to those without homes.

I know I personally don’t have a problem giving cash to the homeless (though I rarely have any on me anyway); I figure that I’m not going to spend that $5 any more wisely than they will – maybe a soda and candy. I know that a lot of people don’t feel this way, though, and are stuck in a position where they want to help, but don’t know how to without enabling.

Pondering this, I came across Blessing Bags on Facebook, which talked about things to put in Ziplock bags to keep in your car; such things included a bottle of water, bar of soap (wrap that a few times or it’s going to permeate everything else in the bag), granola bars, juice box, tissues, antibacterial wipes, bandages, packets of Tylenol, toothbrushes/toothpaste, etc. Hubbin got me like 40 handwarmers as a joke one Christmas, so I throw a couple in there, along with sanitary items for women.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Aug 21

A Bathroom Reno, in GIFs

Contractor Extraordinaire Daniel refuses to to acknowledge his awesomeness, but I came home last night and our bathroom was pretty much done. To put that into perspective, our toilet was in the living room two days before this picture was taken.

b2014.5

It’s time to cut the modesty, Daniel! His sidekick Tyler also has put in ridiculous hours (I know they worked long shifts while we were gone, and I know at least one of the days they were there from 8AM until 10:30PM. Complete and utter insanity. And I like to follow up complete and utter insanity with gif stories.

I’d give you details, but the bathroom isn’t done and still needs finishing touches. There is an inch of dust over everything (I am not even lying, I mopped the walls last night), and there’s remaining grout work that was curing behind that shower curtain, which will also soon reveal one of the major changes in the bathroom, too. In fact, during that first “Houston” phone call and hearing the words “black mold” and “the standing water under the floor was deep enough to splash”, Daniel adding “but you get your [surprise]” was the only thing that kept me from throwing myself off the mountain.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Aug 18

I hate this bathroom.

burn-it-down

I wish

Ok, so we stayed on vacation an extra day because the contractor let us know that the bathroom wouldn’t be done in time. This was expected for a few reasons, one being that the “little bathroom renovation” turned into like…rebuilding a house. The floors were saturated in “things that had leaked” which is what I will term it because just trust me. The walls behind the shower surround were crumbling and covered in black mold. It had to be completely rebuilt. In fact, it was in such bad shape that it was almost a downstairs bathroom.

We had a great trip back, to be honest, especially considering we had Grumpy Toddler in the car. It’s amazing what two iPads, a dual screen DVD player with 12 DVDs to choose from, books, crayons, a big sister, barbies, baby dolls, and a Daddy that will sit like a pretzel just to hold a toddler’s hand will do. Whatever, it worked and I should probably be ashamed but I am not because we all got back alive and really, that’s my job as their mom.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Aug 15

The Bathroom That Wouldn’t Die

One of my friends said it seemed like Love it or List it and that’s pretty accurate, except Daniel is way smarter than Hillary, thank The Lord.

We were on our vacation paradise when I saw a missed call at 11AM from Daniel, our contractor, which is like…never a good sign when they know you are on vacation on a mountain paradise. I called back, only to hear the words “black mold” (SCREEN YOUR CALLS, READERS) and I almost hit the bricks. It was more involved and luckily we trust him and he’s wonderful, so we put it in his hands. Also, we are six hours from home and that’s the only real option.

He sends me these pictures because I have asked for the worst and he obliged with these:

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At nearly 4PM on Thursday, I get a text that says

Your entire sub floor is saturated with water. Have to pull it all up and replace. The mildew smell is horrible. Trying to ventilate the house as much as possible. Oh remodels…never as easy as you think.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!