before and after Harvey

This past holiday weekend marks one year since this little town was flooded to the point of being completely cut off for a few days. One year ago last Friday we got to the house for the first time to find there was still about 6” of water inside and in the yard. A year ago Saturday we emptied the half of the house onto the driveway. 

and the sweeping and hosing out

A year ago Sunday we started the demolition, hauling out wheelbarrow fulls of wet sheetrock and insulation and flooring and paneling and a busted up tile shower and bucketfulls of wet stinky dirt and gravel from the planters inside and the bottom two feet of siding on the outside of the whole house. 

and the spraying of the structure with vinegar and bleach and then waiting while the wood dried out before any kind of restoration could be started.

A year. And it's only been about a month that the inside of the house has been finished and I am lucky at that since my neighbor is a contractor and he focused on helping his neighbors repair their homes.

The change in how it looked to how it looks is amazing. Where before the part of the house that flooded was my least favorite part of the house with its ugly paneling, styrofoam ceiling tiles, linoleum tile or sheet vinyl floors, the tiny bathroom with brown tile and funky wallboard, the back bedroom with the one small window is now my favorite part of the house. The indoor planters and brick wall and hideous paneling in the big room are gone along with the styrofoam ceiling tiles, the room remodeled from ceiling to floor, 

before (can't see the big brick wall on the left or the planters which are behind the plants brought in for the winter)

the water is just starting to come in the house

the new workroom

everything in the tiny bathroom gone except the upper sheetrock and the built-in cabinet above the toilet, 

only 'before' picture I can find which is after the flood but before demolition

after demolition

the new bathroom

end wall of built in shelves in the back bedroom gone as well as the closet that made up the far wall and replaced with some of our etched glass which really opened up that room which before was reminiscent of a cave, cut off from the rest of the house. It had originally been painted a very pale blue/white but grandgirl Jade and I painted it in 2015 so it was better than originally.

before

rebuilding the end wall where the closet was

the new back bedroom