Our Kitchen, The Airport Hangar

Walker and I have had a fun couple of weeks since I last blogged! We went to visit my family in NY for a few days of pure relaxation and food consumption. It was so nice to experience true autumn with gorgeous, vibrant leaves and a trip to the apple orchard. We were also able to celebrate my Aunt’s 60th birthday, have a little engagement celebration with my family and my best friend’s (Laura) family (i.e. my second family!), and celebrate Laura’s husband’s birthday, as well as their one year wedding anniversary! On top of all of that amazing partying, my mom and I went wedding dress shopping with Laura and her mom. We didn’t exactly find THE dress that day, but we found one so close that it led me to find what I think is THE dress! :)

Once we arrived home, I went to my first day of class for the new quarter (it’s here already!?). I can’t believe I have been in school for 10 months! I have one quarter to finish before the holidays, followed by my 10-week thesis class in the new year! Anyway, I went to one day of classes, repacked my suitcase, and spent the next few days in Orange County, attending Design Camp!!! I will have a full post about it later in the week, but spoiler alert: it was amazing, just like the last one!

So I was ready to finally enjoy a quiet Saturday night at home with Walker (and his cousin Kevan, who is staying with us), cooking baked ziti and drinking wine this weekend, when I heard shouting from next door. Since I was in the backyard and recognized my neighbor’s voice from two doors over, I shouted over the fence to make sure everything was okay. She yelled back that apartment between us was having some serious flooding and that she noticed it when it started pouring into her apartment. I went over immediately to see what I could do to help, only to find the neighbor’s apartment with several inches of water on the floor in every room! Since she wasn’t home (they couldn’t get a hold of her!), the landlord, his wife, the plumber, and our other neighbor began using the shop vac to get rid of the water. My job? Puppy-calmer. Her adorable but absolutely traumatized dog was just shaking and crying, confused by the water and by the strangers in his house. So I calmed him and brought him into their backyard, where I sat with him for an hour while we waited for the neighbor to get home. He was so scared by the commotion and seemed grateful to have a friend to pet him (and someone to hide behind when new people came into the house!). The first thing the neighbor did when she got home was go straight to her little pup and give me a huge hug. I can completely relate to her reaction… Bo would be my first concern in that situation too!

The next day, we had someone come by to check the moisture levels in all of the apartments. Since the other two apartments shared a bathroom wall, they got the majority of the flooding. Since we were on the opposite side, we didn’t see any water leaking through. However, it is a good thing they caught it when they did, as it was probably less than 30 minutes until it would have started pouring into our kitchen and living room! In fact, our walls are so wet inside (yikes!) that we have had to rearrange and seal off part of our kitchen (and move some stuff into the living room).

Inside the plastic are two industrial dryers and one industrial dehumidifier to try and dry out the walls from the outside (so they don’t have to tear open the wall… fingers crossed it will work). It is so loud in the kitchen that it sounds like airplanes taking off in there! And since we had to clear off all food product from the open shelving that was on that wall, we have crap stacked all over our kitchen. Every surface has a pile of stuff, so we have not stepped foot in there except to access the fridge since Sunday. The clutter is making me a little crazy.

As far as sleeping, the bedroom door does a reasonable job of lessening the noise, so we have not had a problem. But since Kevan was sleeping on the couch, the landlord has let us set up an air mattress for him in an empty unit across the way so he can get some sleep while we have the fans roaring. We are hoping the wall will be dry in the next day or two, but in the meantime, we have basically been living in the bedroom, where we can hear ourselves think. Trying to work in the bed is a little tough (I want to go back to sleep!), but Bo seems to LOVE the new routine quite a bit.As much as the whole situation sucks and how much I like to complain about it, I have to keep reminding myself that we got REALLY lucky (the other two tenants have had to move out temporarily) and that the whole thing could have been much worse for everyone. No one lost any important personal belongings, the building is still standing, and all pups are okay, so I think we have a lot to be thankful for.

Since house projects are pretty much off the table for the time being, I will be back later in the week with a Design Camp recap and perhaps more details on SETTING THE DATE FOR OUR WEDDING! Eeeeeeee! :)