You’d think after living in central Indiana my entire life I’d be used to our weather. But it never fails to surprise me with tornadoes, thunderstorms, destroyed power lines and overflowing basements.
As Kristy indicated, Indianapolis has recently experienced some bad weather. Last weekend, I came home to knee-high sewage that had backed up into my basement. The next day extension cords ran from my garage to my unlucky neighbor’s refrigerators. Isn’t it funny how one house can be left alone while the next house is without power or totally destroyed? Even the Blue House (the BH) was touched: I guess the storm loosened the power lines and on Tuesday the electric line disconnected from the BH, effectively disrupting our work week. Here’s a pic of us waiting for the utility crew on the front porch:
Personally, I’d rather be without electricity than forced to live in a building where dried sewage still coats the basement walls. The one problem of living without electricity? Living without television. That could force me back into my parents’ house.
How would I watch old A-Team reruns or check out old flicks on Turner Classic Movies?
If my power had been knocked out at home, thus knocking out my television, the biggest loss would be sports: I would’ve missed the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup over the Pittsburgh Penguins. 
But the power outage, this time, helped in a strange way. I’m currently moving into a new place that’s in the middle of being remodeled. I’ve blogged about it before. But getting kicked out of the BH for a few days while our local utility restored power allowed me to complete several tasks. It was a blessing in disguise.
Did you know Americans, on average, dump 56 tons of trash per year? Well, after renting a roll-off container from Ray’s Trash Service, I can report I’ve contributed double that amount already. My garage was filled with trash from several demolition projects, and I was able to empty the garage’s hazardous material.
I was also able to hit the walls with a fresh coat of paint. I decided on a warm, macadamia-colored, Benjamin Moore low-VOC paint. It’s nice.
I jumped into the backyard and removed several shrubs and trimmed a tree, cleaned the soon-to-be mudroom for an eventual painting and sanded some drywall mud in preparation for its first coat of primer.
And the floors. I guess the previous owner of the home had 13 cats, 7 dogs and a goat. Yes, a goat:
I bet their goat wasn’t as good looking as this one. Because of this, my floors originally looked liked every one of those animals had been doing their business anywhere they pleased. After having Brothers Floor Covering sand them, they now look brand new. I just added a layer of Murphy Oil to really bring out the shine.
All of these service providers I found on the List. I thank the remodeling gods I’m a member. Last year I would’ve just pulled out the phone book, closed my eyes and pointed.
The List is so easy to use, and the providers are so thoroughly researched, it helps me avoid procrastination. And the bad weather, though unexpected, allowed me to tackle these several projects that would’ve waited until next year’s Stanley Cup champions were crowned.
Bad weather, it turns out, can be a blessing.
0 Responses to “Bad weather bothering you? Not me…”