If you’ve followed my professional development blog, Notes From The Toolshed, you read that in two short weeks, we had a hot-water heater valve blow, our house catch on fire - the result of a plumber installing a new pressure regulator, and then the storm and subsequent flood that left our home full of mud - destroying guitars, furniture, and other belongings.

Read my original timeline of events leading up to and during the storm.
All Press is Good Press….right-

When Sara, my eight year old took a look at the house, she grabbed mud from inside the front door and smeared the words, “mud house  beware” across the front wall.  The name stuck, literally and figuratively.  Here is a picture of me in front of “mud house”

Here is an aerial map (from Google maps) of “mud house” - marked up to give perspective to the images below.

I have some more pictures coming but had my digital movie camera yesterday for some lower-quality images.

Looking into the Arizona Room from the backyard.

The water in the backyard was higher than the windows - pouring water into the house.

The West cinder block wall.  Water filled the backyard until this wall collapsed - sending water across our side yard and through a 2nd cinder block wall.

Another picture of the fallen wall.

Looking West - standing on a fallen section of the West cinder block wall.  Cinder block strewn across the yard.  The water hit the 2nd cinder block wall, destroying it as well.
 

View from the Northwest end of the backyard, looking West at the fallen West cinder block wall.

View of the Arizona room and Chicken coup from the Northwest section of the backyard, across the swimming pool.
  

View from the Northwest end of the backyard, looking South towards the garage and air-conditioning compressor.  (see below)

Section of wall where, a week or so prior, a plumber had caused a fire in the wall.  You can see some of the wall the fire department axed away.  At the time, I thanked them for adding a doggy door to the garage.  As it turns out, water poured through this opening to our garage - where my two labs were.  They escaped using this door and were in our front yard when we got home.

Another image of the axed wall.  You can see mud covering the bottom foot or so of the air-conditioning compressor.
 

That’s it for now.  Now we have to start furnishing the house we are moving into.  But again, the family is healthy, I have my laptop = income, and I have my guitar.

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