Home Sweet(er smelling) Home

As hoped, I am now in a much better mood. Everything was sorted out with the leak and the carpet (well, hopefully. I guess we'll see when it rains again) and we can breathe the air in our apartment without feeling nauseated.

The plumber finally came on Wednesday and decided that it was because our rain gutter was plugged up with leaves and stuff so water just kept building up and dripping down our outside wall; which is growing a lovely trail of moss all the way down. Beneath that, the cement kind of dips and has a crack, so he thinks that is how the water got in. I sure hope he's right. And I hope someone comes to re-cement that soon.

Wednesday when I got home from work, this is what I saw:

The carpet had all been pulled out and underneath was this old tile. I thought it could have been kind of pretty just to leave the tile and fix it up a bit... am I crazy? :) It would be like those old houses where they pull up the carpet to find nice hardwood floors because that's what people used to put under carpet. They just have to refinish it and... voila! Beautiful antique hardwood floors!

Anyway, there was that white junk plastered all over the floor and the only place you can actually see the tile is where, I'm guessing, the water washed it off. You can see in the picture where most of the water damage would have been. The wall with the window is the back wall where the water came in from. Where I'm standing is in the kitchen door. The water traveled all the way across the room. 

Thursday, some guys came to put in new carpet. This is what I saw when I came home from work:

Hm... brown carpet eh? I sort of feel like we're living in the 70's now... Groovy.

But hey, at least we have carpet right? And it's dry. And it's not as thick or padded so if we leak again, the water won't have as much room to soak in and start growing things. 

So now we can start putting our house together again! Huzzah! I can't wait to have things back to normal. We can finally sleep in our own bed again! I haven't even gone grocery shopping since we've been home from our trip because I didn't want to cook food with mold spores all over it. 

Yuck... I need to stop thinking about it. Just remembering disgusts me...

Happy Saturday everyone!

*amber*

Homeless

Disclaimer: This post is really nothing but an angry rant. I am not an angry person. This is probably the most angry you will ever see me. Feel free to skip this post. I just needed to vent a bit.

* * *

Last week, we went up to Washington for a little vacation with Seth's family. It was so wonderful! We had lots and lots of fun and have lots of great pictures. I was planning on being totally blogtastic this week. But I have a feeling it's not going to happen. At least for a few more days...

We got home from our amazing trip Saturday night. By the time we got back to our house in Provo, it was around one in the morning. We were exhausted and couldn't wait to just fall into bed. I opened the door and walked in. This is what I heard: "SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH" with each step I took. I looked down and realized that our carpet was soaked at the same moment I felt water soaking through my shoes. Great.

When we first moved into our apartment, we noticed that the carpets in the living room felt slightly damp. It was so slight, that we weren't sure if we were imagining it. Maybe it was just cold? But we called our management company and told them to send someone out to look at it, just in case. 

Well, no one ever came. We called a few more times, with this and a few more problems, and still no one has come to our house. I started to get a little irritated but because the carpet wasn't getting any worse, I just tried to be patient and not worry about it too much. 

Now, I'm really upset. We were gone for over a week, so we don't know how long the carpet has been like this. We do know it was raining a lot, so it may have been from that. But it's so wet that in places, you can see the water drops resting on the top of the carpet. And it doesn't seem to be drying at all either.

So at 1:30 on Saturday night, I called our management company and left them a very heated message. I knew no one was there and that no one would be there until today because of Memorial Day. However, I was mad. I'm not the kind of person that gets mad very easily. Or is very assertive or likes to talk to people on the phone or likes confrontation. At all. But I think I snapped. Our whole house smells like mildew and it's really disgusting. We've been trying to keep all of the doors closed and even put up a curtain so the smell would stay mostly in the living room. Somehow, it still finds a way to seep through.

Sunday morning, I woke up sick. Probably from all the mildew and stuff in the air. We didn't even make it to church on Sunday because I was sick and we were trying to get everything out of the living room. We really hope all of our furniture isn't damaged beyond repair. After moving everything, we sort of re-packed our still packed bags and headed up to my parents' house so we could shower without getting moldey again, and so we could sleep in clean air. We spent last night there too because we didn't want to come back here, then came back to Provo this morning for work. I'm not sure where we'll stay tonight. I feel a little bit homeless, living half at my parents' house, half out of suitcases from our vacation.

Not only will we need new carpet, but we really need to figure out where the leak is coming from. I really hope someone can find it. I went into our management office today and demanded that she get someone to come out here TODAY. The plumber called Seth and said he could probably come this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Well, he never came today. All I can say is, he better come tomorrow.

Sorry for the rant. If you can't tell, I'm really not very happy about this. Ok. Now I better go try to unpack and do some laundry... which I haven't done yet because all of our living room furniture is crowded into our kitchen and bedroom. There is not much space left to move around. 

Ugh.

Anyway, I'll try to blog about happier things later in the week. Maybe by then I'll be in a better mood.

*amber*

Singin' in the Rain!

This morning, I woke up to the pitter patter of rain on outside our bedroom window. Immediately, I was in a perfect mood.

I've mentioned before that I love rain. Of course there are those days when it is supposed to be sunny and the rain just puts a damper (no pun intended) on everything. Today was NOT one of those days. I heard the rain outside and got out of bed, excited for a perfect rainy day. 

Yesterday, I was stuck in the house all day. I was sick and just felt gross all day. For some reason, a rainy day feels like just what I need today. Freshen things up and cozy up with a book while I finish recovering.

As I walked around the house, I discovered that Seth had almost completely finished unpacking and organizing our house after I went to bed. There were boxes everywhere last night, and when I woke up, POOF! They were gone. He's such an amazing man. 

I decided to make him something special for breakfast. French toast. He always seems to want that for breakfast. (Shortly after that, I realized there wasn't enough time and I needed to get him up if he was going to make it to work.) As I was walking around the kitchen, trying to get breakfast together, a song popped into my head. "Doodle doo doo doo di doodle doo doo di doodle doo.... I'm SINGIN' in the rain..."

Which always ends up turning into "I'm dancin' in the rain!" I'm a dancer. Not much of a singer. So I've changed the song to fit me.

* * *

Flashback:

This song now pops into my head a bit more than it used to. It all started last Summer. My roommate Briana asked me to be in the play Singin' in the Rain with her. It was such a fun experience! I'd never been in a musical before so I definitely learned a lot. I even learned how to sing properly... a little bit :)

I  loved performing again. I hadn't danced for over a year and I was craving the spotlight again. Strange because I'm so shy, but I do miss the stage. (I did get to dance quite a bit too because I was one of the dancer girls.)

I also loved trying to create my own character. We do this in dance too, but you express yourself much differently in dance. In theater, you have to act more like that person really would... which was interesting to figure out. Especially a person from a different era. 

And I love the 1920s :)

 All the dancer girls in our "Beautiful Girl" costumes

 Flappers with Don and Cosmo

We got to tap a little bit! YAY!

Fun backstage between Acts.

I had such a fun experience with this. But it did take a TON of my time. Which was a little hard because I was also trying to put together a wedding... and Seth hated that I was gone for rehearsals so much. Alas, that will probably be my first, and last, play. I'm not too crushed... not really sure it's quite my thing. But it was definitely a lot of fun to try. I'm glad I can say I've had that experience now. 

* * *

On that same note, ever since being in the play, I have gained a new appreciation for the music. I always loved the movie, especially Gene Kelly, but now I feel more of a personal connection with it.

Which is why I loved this SO much when my coworker showed it to me. Enjoy!

*amber*