Diary of a High River flood victim

[Knut]

I know my Grandparents are just going to gut the basement and leave it undeveloped. Their upstairs is all good and they do not use the basement anyways.

[pylon]

Great to hear you are OK Dion. We were all concerned for you.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Hesla

You are a neighbor to my Grandparents (821) and were likely taken out on the same front-end loader as they were.

I know who they are

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Hesla

I know my Grandparents are just going to gut the basement and leave it undeveloped. Their upstairs is all good and they do not use the basement anyways.

My neighbour to my right is doing the same and I hear a few others on the street are doing the same.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Dion, is the ceiling finished? You might want to consider pulling that drywall out too if it is.

Yes the ceiling was finished. The restorators said the celing drywall didn't have to be pulled.

[Phanuthier]

I like the last post about the pants. Haha. Thanks for the pics, you hear about the devastation and everything but the a person you know and a story makes it seem more real. Like the first post about the "here comes your water" ...

Definately this support doesn't happen in very many places in the world. Not just the support, but when they say they are going to do something, they carry through with it. And while some other places might get bored after a week, Calgary kept going through. Calgary is a world class city.

... can't believe you hauled a bed up stairs. That made me laugh haha.

What was your biggest material loss that cannot be replaced? (i.e. photo album? etc)

[Rathji]

So out of curiosity, when someone is saying they are leaving it undeveloped, what does that mean?

I assume it means no rooms or extensive furniture etc, but what about the exterior walls? No Insulation? Drywall?

Just kind of thinking to myself while doing these basements, it would be much easier to clean up if everyone had that cheap wood paneling and no insulation, but how much would you lose in heat?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

Looking at those pictures I think "what a daunting, even overwhelming task" it would be to start the clean up.

I'm sorry for the damage the flood did to your home and to the homes of thousands of others. I've been out of the country as this whole saga unfolded. Your story and pictures made the tragedy all the more personal.

Good luck to you.

There was 5 of us doing the gutting whch made the task a lot easier. You also had to look at in stages as opposed to the whole job itself. One day at a time is how I viewed the whole cleaning effort.

A sad story is a neighbour a few doors to the south. They bought a few months ago and had the insurance deny their claim.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So out of curiosity, when someone is saying they are leaving it undeveloped, what does that mean?

I assume it means no rooms or extensive furniture etc, but what about the exterior walls? No Insulation? Drywall?

Just kind of thinking to myself while doing these basements, it would be much easier to clean up if everyone had that cheap wood paneling and no insulation, but how much would you lose in heat?

It means no drywall or insulation.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Dion

It means no drywall or insulation.

That is a cold room in every sense of the word.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I like the last post about the pants. Haha. Thanks for the pics, you hear about the devastation and everything but the a person you know and a story makes it seem more real. Like the first post about the "here comes your water" ...

Definately this support doesn't happen in very many places in the world. Not just the support, but when they say they are going to do something, they carry through with it. And while some other places might get bored after a week, Calgary kept going through. Calgary is a world class city.

... can't believe you hauled a bed up stairs. That made me laugh haha.

What was your biggest material loss that cannot be replaced? (i.e. photo album? etc)

The bed was a pain in the arse to get up and I ended up knocking a picture off the wall in the process. It took a long time for me to find a bed that was comfortable to sleep on so I wasn't about to let it get lost in the flood

As for material loss, there wasn't much except for some photo albums that didn't get saved. I got quite a bit upstairs and put othe items up high from the flood waters. A lot of what I saved was put in blue containers in the garage.

[Jacks]

What a mess, glad you are okay. That bathroom picture looked particularly nasty.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

What are flood conscious renovations?

I don't know... Brick and tile?

[malcolmk14]

Glad to hear you are ok Dion, I tried to get in touch a couple of times but obviously couldn't reach you on the phone. When I heard here that you were safe I was very relieved.

Are the golf clubs OK?!

[bc-chris]

wow Dion!!

glad to hear you're ok

i hope all the reno's go smoothly

[Dion]

Early last fall a new hot water tank and new furnace was installed....

[Dion]

Last week was the start of the rebuild. Insulation came first....



Then the drywall in the spare bedroom and the main family room...

[Dion]

In the bathroom the tub was replaced with a 4 foot shower stall.....

[Dion]

The furnace room was partialy drywalled and insulation was done as well. The drywall side is being used to storge items that were stored in the garage.....

[Dion]

All the plug in and wiring that was connected to it was replaced.......