A Major Change in Plans

     Late Spring (end of May) brought massive rains and subsequent flooding in southeast Texas. It culminated in a 17+ inch overnight downpour near Austin. This fell on already saturated ground and started a swift trek southwards towards the Gulf. The Trinity River spilled beyond its banks and The Preserve was in the center of its sights. The waters came up and our place looked like it was standing in the middle of a lake. As the waters receded and our place could be reached, the folks at The Preserve (at our request and permission) went into the buildings. They sent us some pictures and gave us their assessment of the damage. After consulting with Matt, the property manager at The Preserve, we called a flood restoration company in Houston to schedule a repair and restoration effort. After an initial quote of several thousand dollars, we had problems getting them to commit to the repairs. We had troubles getting any information and their customer service was severely lacking. After a couple of weeks of runaround, Barb and I decided that we would interrupt our summer plans and do something that we swore we would never do... head to Houston in the middle of the summer!!

     We packed up and headed south to The Preserve to do the repairs ourselves. At first glance, it was overwhelming! Thanks to Matt and his crew, along with our friends Paul and Teresa Broussard (full time residents at The Preserve), most of the stuff that sat on the floor was either removed or put up on the countertops. The soggy rugs and soaked sofa had to be trashed. Anything that sat on the floor was pretty much ruined. Pressed wood acts like a sponge when soaked in water and when it dries it falls apart. That meant that the cabinets, vanity, end tables, and entertainment center were all destroyed. Especially disheartening was the damage to our Murphy Bed. What looked like hardwood was just covered pressed wood. Murphy had to leave the building!

The waterline is evident as is the damage to the Murphy Bed

Entertainment Center

Drawers and shelves came apart

Residue on the floor and damaged end table

     The good news/bad news was the A/C units. The unit in the Casita worked well but the one in the Spa was fried. Attempts to find someone to repair it resulted in us discovering that no one serviced our particular brand. We finally found a local A/C repair company that agreed to try to fix it. Long story short, it was going to be six weeks to get a new circuit board (and even then we didn't know if that would fix the problem). We made a decision to upgrade the Casita's A/C to a bigger unit and move the old unit to the Spa. In the meantime, repairs to the Spa had to be made sans A/C. (Remember, this is Texas in the summer. Heat indexes easily topped 100 degrees by 10:00 am!)

     After removing all of the damaged furniture and cabinets we cut the wallboard about 3' above the floor and removed it. We discovered the insulation was wet about 6" up but things were dry from there. We removed the insulation and let the walls dry out. After a thorough sanitization we replaced the insulation.

   The wallboard was replaced and painted. We added a 4" trim wainscot. We replaced the cabinets and countertop. We also decided to keep things off the floor as much as possible on the off chance that this should EVER occur again. So the Entertainment center was now attached to the wall.

     The Spa was a little tricky (besides having no A/C).  The shower unit could not be taken out to get behind the wall, so we had to just move it around and work in sections.

     We repainted the floor in the Spa but decided to upgrade and install a wood grain vinyl laminate in the Casita. I was a little apprehensive at first but the results turned out great!

Laminate beginning to go down

About half done

All done. Just add trim!

     We found a nice sofa that sat above the floor and an area rug similar to the one we used to have in the room. Trim was added to the floor and corners and the room was better than before.

     The biggest casualty of the flood was Barb's embroidery machine. Unfortunately it was sitting on the floor during the flood and suffered irreparable damage. We plan on replacing it but this time, we got a rolling cabinet to put it on, thus keeping it off the floor in the future.

New Sewing Table but old machine

     After some work on the plumbing in the Spa, we replaced the vanity and put everything back in order there. The washing machine was damaged and had to be repaired but it soon was working as good as new. A/C units were installed and now both buildings were inhabitable again.

    All in all it took us 3 weeks to rebuild. In the end, we feel that things are better than before and we will be better able to withstand water damage. We took the opportunity to fix some things that had been done less than perfect and also to do some upgrading that we had originally planned for some time in the future. After literally expending blood, sweat, and tears, we have restored our place and successfully recovered from the big flood of 2016!