Spontaneous House Remodel

In September we came home from church to find a pipe had broken in the upstairs shower and our living room ceiling had fallen to the floor with water pouring out. We had driven separately so I was not present when Nick walked in on that scene. He may or may not have said a few bad words- first hand accounts vary.

After several hours with a wet-vac we called insurance. They sent a water restoration team immediately within an hour. These photos are after they were done with their part of the process (5 days to dry it out and pack out all our items)and when the contractor first got going.





We spent 6 weeks in a hotel and another 2 at my mom's house. There we got to celebrate Max, Abby and Nick's birthdays as well as Halloween. We still speak fondly of Maria who was the woman in charge of the complimentary breakfast buffet every day and the happy hour appetizers M-Th.







We finally arrived home to piles and piles of boxes to be unpacked and everything covered in dust. We had a little bit of identity crisis as we were unsure quite how to spell our name- variations include Willberb, Wilbert, Wilbury, Wilbub






Our spontaneous renovation included:
new flooring in all bathrooms
new carpet upstairs and down
new drywall main floor and basement


A few extra surprises were:
new roof when we figured out it was rotten in the skylight installation
new wiring throughout (several areas damaged by rodents chewing
new fusebox as it was discovered a plant growth throughout the breaker box

Very few of our items were damaged but we did get a new couch. Note the fashionable 'Belva' placement of our table behind the couch. Nick added a few leaves to make the table larger.





Our basement is still packed with boxes to be opened and I need my father-in-law to come for a week or two to finish up some final touches that were left undone when our contractor ran out of money- mostly plaster and paint touch ups. Replace the broken shower head in the basement. Hang new curtains & rod since the workers thought it would be a good idea to put ours out on the deck for the 6 week process. I have a list.

Final cost (close as I can estimate) is
contractor 27K
water restoration 10K
hotel 2K
new pipes, wiring 5K
damaged household items 2K
grand total of: approx 46K

Insurance covered most of it- I can highly recommend USAA