We came home and saw the damage. The house was freezing, and basically it was gloomy.
We woke up the next morning "ready" to start digging through everything, but we weren't ready emotionally.
I had made several phone calls to flood cleaner people. They couldn't come for at least 3 days, possibly more. So off we went to taking as much crap as possible out to the garbage. Most of the things were easy-ish to take to the trash. Chairs, sofas, papers, all had to be taken out to the trash. But there were certain things we had to think about. What about a sleeping bag? That can be washed... but do you really want to sleep in a poop bag? Nope... so off it went to the garbage.
There were other issues with certain things that were not electronic or fabric that didn't need to be thrown out. Those were just placed in a "to clean" pile.
Then there was the issue of actually taking the sofa outside... first of all, the sofa was 100% waterlogged. It was heavy as all could be, and it was just C and I emptying the basement. So, off we go, to the top of the stairs to get the sofa out of the basement. It was the most difficult thing I think I have ever done, and it was exasperated by the fact that it wouldn't fit through the door. Since we moved in we changed the door to the side yard and neither of us realized that the door was slightly smaller. By an inch or so. And unfortunately that inch meant the leather waterlogged sofa wouldn't fit through the door. So after I had spent a TON of energy pushing the couch up the stairs, and C had spent a TON of energy PULLING the couch up the stairs he told me. "It doesn't fit." Honestly, I wanted to cry. How can this stupid heavy as h*ll couch NOT fit through the door!!
It was the worst words to hear. So we take the couch back the basement and C starts waking it with a crowbar and saw and hammer and whatnot taking it apart. I mean at this point, its not like it needs to stay in one piece. I think C got a lot of aggression out this way. He dismantled 2 full size sofas, 1 loveseat, and 2 chairs.
We had to throw out a lot of emotional things...
Up until this day I had every single ribbon I had ever won while horseback riding. I had every 1st, every last, and everything in between. But when they are covered in poop water, its not something I want to keep anymore.... I threw out the first ribbon I ever won with my first horse. Several first place ribbons. Several national titled ribbons...My horses halter was saturated. The last halter he wore when we had to put him down. That was rough.
C's uncle was in the military and back in the day his cousin and uncle would send him letters, snail mail. Before this flood he kept every single letter they sent him. Those all had to be thrown out. You couldn't even read them anymore. He also had a few external hard drives that had photos on them. Those were waterlogged and had to be thrown out as well.
Those were the hardest things to throw out. The memories. I mean the furniture sucks... we had perfectly usable mini-fridges, enough couches and chairs to sit everyone comfortably, but the memories.... Sucks... To this day, almost a year later, it still brings me to tears.
Anyway, these are the photos. I only managed to take photos of the 1st garbage trip. We had just as much garbage the 2nd day of cleaning.
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