Danuuc.com

Home of Heather & Dave

June 12, 2009

We can't believe it's been one year ago today that we had to evacuate our house due to the rising river water!! What a difference a year makes!

Our apologies that we haven't posted an update since early February, but we've had a few things we've been working on since then!! :o)


So first and foremost, we moved back to Bowling Street on March 1st!!! It is SOOOO good to be home again!! We were flooded but not drowned!! It's still sort of surreal though (just like the flood). We didn't realize how much we missed being here! It is good to be back in the neighborhood. About 3/4 of the neighbors on our block are back in their homes so it's good to see so many back in their houses.. It's nice to be just 3 blocks away from the market again (Hy-Vee). However, if you go a block and a half past our house (toward the river), it looks like the flood happened last week!


We currently have temporary occupancy until we get some tasks completed for final inspection. Those tasks include getting the banister to the upper level complete, install a hand railing by the back door (this wasn't there before but now city code requires it), and some light fixtures and fans to get hooked up. We also hope to do siding sometime this summer. We've decided to go with gray siding. It will be nice not to have the Tyvek blowing around all the time!!


In our hurried, busy culture, we must take time to reflect on God's goodness and be grateful for what we do have. Our sincere thanks for all those who volunteered and sacrificed their time and energy to help us. We are truly part of a wonderful community.


There is another billboard near downtown which reads as follows:

City of 5 seasons where the 5th season if progress....

178,800 volunteer hours.

81,000 tons of debris removed.

793 homes being repaired.

459 businesses back.

1 master plan for a greater community


The "5th season" used to be the season to enjoy the other 4 but now it stands for progress. What a great sign of community and also the presence of hope!

Let's take this a step further. Heather gave a community support talk at a local retreat the last weekend of February and used the "Mastercard" reference in her talk:

Dozens of volunteers

Hundreds of man hours

Countless blessings

Community support = PRICELESS

On that note, we appreciate your amazing support. It has been felt in more ways than you know!!

With thanks,

Heather and Dave
Image: 
January 25, 2009

Your help is needed on January 31 (and possibly February 1) to paint at Bowling Street.  Many hands make less work!!  Please call or email one of us if you can stop over.  
Heather (573-5751)  heather_atwater@hotmail.com
Dave     (431-5874)  danUUc@danUUc.com


The last few months have been intense as we've been working hard to return home so we haven't had much of an opportunity to get an update posted.  We never thought this day would ever come but this will likely be our last update before we move back!  We plan to move by the end of February!  It will be so good to be home again!!

So here's what's been happening at the house.  Our upstairs bathroom and master bedroom closet addition was completed the week of Thanksgiving.  We are grateful to Heather's brother was able to break away from the farm, his construction business, and his family to get this accomplished.  It has made a huge difference in terms of the real estate upstairs since another room was essentially added.  It's amazing what can be done in 3 days!!  Thanks to those who were there to brave being up on the roof to help!  

We hired someone to reinforce our front porch as that had started pulling away from the house following the flood.  He finished this in early December and also installed our new front door on December 10.  We would always comment when one of our neighbors would get their front door put in, and now it was finally our turn.  We are very happy with the way it turned out.

Much of the month of December was spent prioritizing and coordinating tasks in order to stay on schedule.  All electrical had to be run and framework had to be done before insulation.  This included reinforcing the main floor ceilings as we will be spending more of our time upstairs as that is now where the master bedroom is located.  The electrical was done on December 18.  Bear in mind there was no heat in the house (except for a kerosene heater).  There was no insulation yet and we certainly weren't going to turn on the heat have it all escape into the neighborhood, so dressing in many layers was a necessity!  On the 19th of December, the city inspector came and gave the thumbs up for electrical and framing so insulation and drywall could commence (in that order)!!  We had the foam insulation sprayed in on December 23 which was quite a process to watch.  It essentially fills in all nooks and crannies and makes it very efficient.  The difference was quite noticeable and the heat hadn't even been started yet!

We officially activated the heat on Christmas Eve.  What a great feeling that was!  Drywall was started on December 29.  We had a great crew of friends and family who helped.  Even one of our groomsman who is from Florida was here the week after Christmas!  We don't think it was very easy to leave that nice, warm weather!  The drywall took a few weeks to fully complete (lots of angles and cuts to make) but once it was hung, we had professionals spend a week doing the messy work: mudding, taping and texturing.  This was all done by January 19.  It was finally beginning to seem more like a home again.

Throughout part of December and early January, the contractor for our plumbing was also hard at work.  The plumbing is about 90% installed.  We even got a bathtub purchased on December 31 as we needed to get that large item in before too many walls were in place.  The upstairs bathroom will just be a shower that we're planning to tile ourselves later.  We only need one functional bathroom to move in though, so that's what we're focusing on finishing.  Right now, we do have running water but only in the bathtub as there are no sinks installed at this time.  It will also be nice to get a toilet soon so we don't have to keep running 3 blocks to Hy-Vee just to use the facilities!!

On Saturday, January 24, we completed priming the entire house XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We have also been working with Jumpstart which is a state program designed to help individuals with rebuild (or mortgage assistance if they are not returning to their house).  The funding comes in the form of a forgiveable loan which does not have to be repaid as long as we remain in the house for 10 years.   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In order to move back by the end of next month, there are a few things we'll need to have done like 1 functional bathroom, water to more than just the bathtub, electrical completed (outlet covers and switch plates installed), fire alarms in, and the steps to the 2nd floor solidifed with a railing!  

With the changes we've made, it's a whole different house now -- sometimes hard to remember what it was like before!  Moving home again will be absolutely amazing and will take a little getting used to.  We don't think it will take long to start to get settled again.  The running joke is that after all our hard work and efforts, we will just want to sit at the house and ENJOY!!

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P.S.  Check out the new pictures we've posted as well.