"Daddy, it raining inside"

So although this is a "family" blog, Jen has become the sole author by default as I have not carried my fair share of the blogging load. So after mentioning at various times that she wanted me to blog more, tonight became the "right" time.

Let me back up. Have you ever had one of those days when you wish you could have a do-over? Today was one of those days, not so much for me as for Jen. On Monday we began renovations to our 2nd floor bathroom -- well not us but a contractor. I've been looking for a 'before' picture, but haven't been able to find one easily.

At the right is the current status of the bathroom, as you can see this is no minor remodel as you can see by the photo. The guys have been knocking out walls and framing in new walls for the past three days. Of course, Jonas has been thrilled at the work being done and often asks to go upstairs to see the walls that went bye-bye. During the days Jen has had to deal with the challenges of how to get two little kids to nap when the house is filled with all kinds of noise.

On top of this, the past week has stolen some sleep from Jen, including last night when she worked until 2 am, only to wake up at 6:30. So today after making it through another long day until I got home, she started frantically cleaning up in preparation for our community group meeting while I ran an errand with the kids. Before I got home, the straw that broke her back came.

She heard what she thought was rain and looked, only to see that it wasn't raining outside, but into the kids play room on the main floor. Yes this is the room directly beneath the upstairs renovations, suggesting something had gone terribly wrong. She promptly turned off the water to the house and noted that it was already pouring down to the basement. By the time I got home 10 minutes later, she had already contacted the contractor and was on the verge of tears, understandably so. She told me that we had 3 floors of flooding and that the play room had looked like a indoor rain forest. CRAZY! So while I began grabbing towels and buckets to clean up the play room and get the toys out of there, Jonas ate dinner. When he was done he happily helped although he was often distracted by the dripping water, repeatedly telling me, "daddy, it raining inside." I tried to tell him it was okay, but who knows what sort of dreams he will have tonight.

The contractor found and fixed the leak, helped us clear out the rest of the room and ripped up the soaked carpet. So now we have one more room in disarray (see photo at the right) and no place for the kids to play. Good thing Jen was home and caught the leak right away, otherwise the damage might have been serious. Now we just need to re-carpet the play room -- something on our wish list, but not a high priority, until this evening.

Hard to believe we're only 3 days into this project and already telling ourselves we can make it through because of how nice it will be once it is finally done! Yes it will be nice, but now we just need some sleep. The good news: it is not raining inside anymore and we were able to joke about how I can't put off getting new carpet downstairs until later.