The Nightmare is finally over...

Okay, so I've been meaning to report a few good things that we've experienced in the last week. As several of you know, for the last year and a half, we've been dealing with trying to fix our ceiling. I will post a few pictures below.... But for those of you who don't know the story, basically, a tornado rolled by our house back in August of 2006 (3 months after moving to MN), creating winds strong enough to rip up our 200 foot tall Cottonwood trees, and throw branches all over our yard - including into our roof. Tons of water got into the hole, and seeped into our walls, carpet (2-month-old carpet mind you), ceiling, etc. Insurance paid for it, but we had a $1000 deductible - so it didn't cover it all, once that was paid. The water caused the ceiling in our Master Bedroom to warp, so we basically had to rip it out and put a new one in again. We hired a guy, he fixed it in October. But, he didn't do a very good job at mudding and taping - the seams were so bad. It looked like a big old square about a foot out from the wall, all the way around the room. He is the most difficult man to get a hold of. I'd call him, and after three weeks, he'd call me back - after I'd completely harassed him, of course. He said he'd come fix it when we had the time. In January, the week before I had Spencer, he tried it again, and it was not much of an improvement. We continued the phone tag - and he said he'd do it again, but wanted to wait until he had more time available... A year later, he said, he had an idea to fix the prob. We just wanted our money back by this point. And I was so skeptical of his skills and ability. He came up with a "racetrack" idea to just cover it up. Instead of try to re-mud and everything. We had seen it done, and we liked it, but weren't sure it would work to cover up the seams completely. But, we thought it could look nice in our Master Bedroom. So - we gave it a shot and told ourselves that if it was ugly again, we'd just ask for the money back. While we were in Phoenix, we came home to the job done. And we think it looks great. It's finally done!!! Yipee!The culprit of our water damage

Just to show you how big the branch was that hit the house.

The Aftermath of our front yard from all the fallen branches. Obviously a forest! And no, it wasn't cheap paying for removal! We were told that our house was on the news because it was one of the few that actually had so much damage from the storm.It looks like so little water to warrant such a headache!

But Finally.... It looks like this...

The New Ceiling. They call it "racetrack ceiling" or stair-stepping. How luxurious! :)

And Hallelujah! We finally got our new phones. Technology has come leaps and bounds in just a few years. This phone has the coolest features, and it wasn't even expensive. I can't imagine what a Blackberry might have! We are lovin' it.