It's been an incredibly busy six days. I feel like I've hosted my own episode of "Extreme Home Makeover". I can only imagine what those people go through! It all started a few weeks before Christmas when I emailed Cole's Case Manager to see if we could get approval for one more carpet cleaning this year. She emailed me back saying, "Yes, but have you ever thought about putting in hard wood?". Long story short, the state had some incremental funding in 2008 and if were about to get two bids, submit the paperwork and get the work started by 12.31.08, we could get $8/sq foot funded by Cole's waiver program. Luckily, one of our neighbors is a general contractor and he had just done this exact thing in our next door neighbor's house. We had him and another company bid the job. I submitted the paperwork (it's a lot of work and not as easy as it seems!). Keep in mind, it was the holidays. Needless to say, we only had to fund a small portion of the work ourselves and this turned out to be an opportunity we couldn't refuse.
The work started on 12.31.08 at about 7pm. Pat pulled out the carpet on the stairs and that would suffice until this week. The next step was to figure out where Cole would go for six days while we take apart his room, have the flooring installed, sanded and stained. Thank God our families are amazing and offered to help without hesitation. Everything just fell into place. Once Cole left on Thursday, Pat and I got busy preparing the house. We had to take Cole's entire room apart. I took it upon myself to make my best attempt at fixing the countless dings in his walls. I washed the baseboards and found even more chocolate milk stains (remember the previous blog entry?). We took apart basically our entire upstairs. It was a lot of work!
The rest of the work resumed on Friday. Our neighbor and his work partner worked on Friday night and for 14+ hours on both Saturday and Sunday. Brian was able to fix Cole's doorway. When my dad pushed on the door frame, the entire wall literally moved about 1". Tons of door slamming and studs that weren't screwed in were a bad combination. Brian even brought spray to hide the chocolate milk on the ceiling. He was so thorough and did such great work in our home.
On Monday morning, Connor and I headed to a hotel and Pat met us there after work. Tara, Elle and Ethan even joined us for some swimming. It was a fun two days. We missed Cole so much. It's so hard to be away from him, especially when you know he's so close by. We sent him pictures of the progress and told him he would come home to a new bedroom. There is no possible way he could have been in the house over the weekend. The house looked like a land mine had gone off. It was really loud and not a place for any of us, let alone Cole.
We finally got to come back into the house Wednesday at 1pm. My dad met me here to start the re-assembly. Pat had important work commitments and couldn't get the day off. It was so important to me to have Cole's room ready for him. I got a new bedspread and rug. We also got the padding installed on his walls. The dings were fixed; with the exception of the main wall that had several 5-7" holes that need professional repairs (that is what the padding is for). We put new handles on his dresser and put everything back in order. After that, my dad and I carried up couches, chairs, a computer desk and many other things. My dad is so handy. He can fix anything, I swear. Cole does so much damage to our house. My dad was able to make some mends to things and I felt like I was moving into a new home. It was GREAT! Thanks DAD!!!
Brendan came over to help move our really heavy Hickory table. Thanks B. It didn't take too long and pretty soon the house started looking like normal again. Just in time for Cole.
Cole got home and he was thrilled to see his new room. He was so excited and loved it. I was nervous that he might be upset about not having carpet. Cole loved his new wood floors. He said, "Carpet is gone. The garbage man took it". He was so happy to see us. He hugged Connor and asked him to play. They played on the computer, raced their 4-wheelers up and down the hallway and sang karaoke. It was a great night, for so many reasons.
I'm so thankful I asked for another carpet cleaning and I'm even more thankful to have the best Case Manager I could ask for. She has worked just as hard as I have to make this happen. WE have such a great team rooting and working for Cole.
Thank you to everyone who made this possible. We are so very thankful and could not have done this without you.
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