Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Under Water

My blog has been too quiet lately. I am sorry.

We had a lovely summer. My husband was home for with a nice long visit by our daughter and two grandchildren. Low tides and fair weather made for exciting days at the beach where we found abundant sea life to explore. It's hard to say who had the most fun, children or adults.

As mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and I are in the process of a long-distance move. We have been struggling to decide what to do with our home where we have been happy to live for 20 years. For the time being I remain behind overseeing repairs and updates. However, not all of the repairs have been voluntary.

When I went to bed on August 10th my washing machine was off and all was well. At 2:00 a.m. our cat Jenny woke me. Sometimes this happens but this time she was unusually persistent so I got up to take her downstairs to the laundry room. At the bottom stair I stepped off into water. Water!

Sometime after I went to bed my three-year-old Amana washing machine turned itself on and overflowed and overflowed and overflowed. Water was everywhere including in my studio and under my loom.

Toothbrush Rug by RepWeaver
36 x 48" Toothbrush rug on newly refinished wood floor
An emergency water removal crew arrived right away and I worked along with them through that night, through the day and into the next evening to remove the water and evacuate the first floor of our home. The crew ripped out carpeting, padding, linoleum and underlayment. Everything in my studio was moved and dumped in piles here and there. What a night that was!

It took 13 giant floor fans, two huge de-humidifiers and several mats taped down to the wood floors with a great big suction machine to dry things out. For four days temperatures inside the house hung around 100 degrees and the noise of all those machine was deafening.

Repairs took nine weeks to complete. Since my loom was in pieces during those weeks weaving was out of the question. Instead I worked on this toothbrush rug. Work on the rug and knitting helped me deal with the disruption of my life and home. While the wood floors were being sanded and Swedish finish was applied, the cats and I had to vacate. For those four days I was able to take this rug with me and work on it at my hotel. I do not know how I would have managed to weather the upset without my handwork. The flood was a lot for me to face alone. But it could have been far worse without the wakeup call from our sweet JennyCat.

Now things have pretty much settled down at home. My loom is back in action and I am nearing the end of a warp. I promise to show and tell you about the results soon.

My husband is enjoying his new job in a distant place. We are in constant contact and we travel to see one another when we can. Being apart is no fun but it won't be forever.

A logo I created for Jenny in my Graphic Design class
I am grateful for daily blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

P.S. I wrote about my adventures with the Amana washer in an earlier post here. The repairman and I agreed that it was not worth fixing the thing. In it's place we now have a brand new Speed Queen commercial washing machine. It rivals our trusty old Maytag and does a great job - highly recommended and built in America!