Don’t get your hopes up… the three pictures are almost the same. I had a busy day and this was the best I could do.
My hubby takes care of my cousin’s property which is about 15 minutes from our house. Their children and grandchildren like to come to the property on holiday’s and my sisters and their hubby’s stay there when they come to visit us. My cousin is living in Florida now so all our communication is by phone or text. When my cousin’s husband died just about a year ago, she told us about a storage locker they had and eventually wanted us to get the things out of it and moved into their garage. Well, this morning my hubby said it was the day! We were going to move things out and to her property.
We went to the storage unit and opened it up. It had quite a few boxes and rubbermaid-like tubs filled with stuff. As we started to load things onto the truck bed, we noticed some of the boxes were wet… some were damp and some were dripping with water. We assume a rain storm came and the wind blew it under the door and got the boxes on the floor wet. One of the crates had their childhood toys in it and there was a crack in the bottom of the crate… the water soaked up inside the box and it was a disaster. We loaded the boxes onto the truck and decided to deal with them when we got to her garage. As we took the boxes off we checked each box and some were drenched with water on the inside and had started to mold. They were nasty and awful to deal with. Wet paper, wet packing, moldy fabrics, dolls, toys, etc. We did the best we could, using a fan to dry them off, throwing away the boxes that were soaking wet.
We had to go back for a second load and those boxes weren’t quite as bad, but still pretty awful. We swept out the locker and left. The boxes and tubs were stacked as neatly as we could and gathered up all our cleaning supplies and called it a day. It wasn’t just a mess cleaning up all the stuff, it was 92 degrees and the heat index was 102 degrees and the humidity made it feel like a sauna. We didn’t want to have to come back and do any more, so we just kept pushing ourselves to get it all stacked and the trash taken care of. We were miserable most of the day and couldn’t wait to get home and get a shower.
It was after 9:00 before I ever made it into my sewing room, so I don’t have a LOT to show you, but you can see I have made some progress.
I got the underarm seams sewn together and the skirt was added to the bodice. I love this color blue on Kirsten. She is definitely my blue girl! So here are a few pictures and I’ll see what I can get done on it tomorrow!
Her dress isn’t hemmed yet and there are no snaps sewn on the back either.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to that “other” piece of white lace… :o)
See you then,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, my, Jeanne, what a day you and George had with that storage unit!! I hate when things get wet like that and even sometimes moldy, and you end up having to pitch a lot of stuff. I’ve had water in my basement enough (2 or 3 times, maybe 4) to know what that’s like!!
Despite all that, you still did get something done on Kristen’s dress, so good for you on that. I agree, this is a beautiful shade of blue on her. My Kirsten is my pink-and-blue girl, as she likes pink equally well as blue!
My mother’s favorite color was blue, and she put me in it often when I was little. Finally I kind of rebelled, and for years I wouldn’t wear anything blue at all! Then I gradually added jeans and navy blue things, and now I do have some blue in my wardrobe. Purples are still my favorites, though, and also pink or red, so blue isn’t high on my list but at least it’s moved ahead of orange and brown! 😂
By the way, I sent you some pictures last night, so if you need something for a post, you are all set.
Charlotte, I left you a reply on yesterday’s blog. I forgot I was on the wrong day so you will have to go back to read it.
Thank you, Barbara. I went and read it.
One store that I know for sure offers swatches is Vogue Fabrics. They are a very reliable company, too, and I’ve bought from them for years, any time they come out here for expo. I’ve also ordered from them, as I recall.
Jeanne, water damage is the worst! We had that problem in our basement not long after we moved here, almost 52 years ago, so we had drain tiles and a sump pump put in, after I don’t know how many times we had water in the basement. Up until now, that worked very well, then we had a deluge of rain this past spring, and in one corner of the basement, we had a leak. Not fun when you have the basement fixed up and carpeting on the floor! Now we have a stain in the corner of the carpet, and nothing is working to get rid of it. But yes, navigating things stored in boxes, and then everything wet, isn’t fun! On top of that, you had the heat to contend with! You must have been miserable!
Kristen is looking really cute in her new dress, and with the addition of the lace on the skirt or a little apron, she will certainly look doubly sweet! Are you going to include the little pail in the auction too? It certainly does add to the outfit!
Good morning dear ones!
Jeanne, you and George had A DAY! The heat was horrible yesterday.
Storage lockers are kind of awful if you have breaches from weather.
That is too bad, I hope most of the treasures were salvageable.
That was an exhausting adventure, but I am glad you got the things to your cousins garage.
This dress is beautiful! I love the lace down the sides and the buttons!!
Stay cool and fresh today.
Oh, Jeanne, how awful for you and George, and in the heat too! I am so glad you didn’t get heat stroke!
Funny thing about water when you think about it, a huge amount of our bodies is water, we would die without water to drink, swimming in water is so relaxing, washing in water….on and on, and yet it can tear down houses in a storm, and ruin boxes of stored things. We had big cardboard boxes in a closet under the stairs where our HVAC was. They were full of family photos. Some pan on the HVAC that had water in it kept braking and they kept sending help to fix it. Meanwhile, the water was going through the area where the boxes were and the workers never noticed, even though the water levels showed up on the cardboard. We ended up with wet rotten picture frames, moldy walls in my closet and stains on some of my clothes. The worst part was our pine floors buckled all along the wall. Half of the living room floor had to be sanded down to the bare floor and redone, as well as working on the walls and my closet with the mold. We had to get a new HVAC which is now under the house. After all this finally got done and with the help of a lawyer friend and an insurance friend who wrote a good letter to the company, they paid for all of it. This is just most of the story, but enough to tell. I think about the people who have lost so much in storms and I am thankful. We are subjected to hurricanes here so we just never know.
Sissy, I left you another comment yesterday. I wrote it forgetting it was not the right day so you’ll have to go back to read it. The first home we bought had the overflow for the A/C unit above our bedroom closet. One time the overflow clogged and I opened my closet door to find the ceiling had fallen down on our clothes. What a mess – soggy drywall and insulation. We turned the damages into the insurance company but they refused to pay what we told them it would take to do the repairs. They said they could find someone who would do it cheaper, which usually means a sloppy job so we took the minimum they offered and fixed it ourselves. The A/C on the house we live in now drips to the outside and since we are on piers it does not affect the foundation.
Jeanne, the outfit is going to be so lovely. I hope we will send more of it tomorrow. I have a picture in my head, but I know your work will be better.
Hoping y’all won’t have to work in the heat again.
Can’t believe that Jeanne, had any time at all after all of the work hours put in yesterday, to even sew. That is so sad about the childhood memories that are now ruined. Was anything spared from the dampness? I hope with photos of the damage that the storage company can be held accountable for their inadequate storage facility. That is awful.
The outfit for Kirsten looks great. Can’t wait to see it when completed.
Here, other person spent the morning repairing a fence section while I cleared another area of weeds before the sun hit. This is a very dry area that has some heavily rooted stickery tall weeds that do not like me. And it is hillside, so hard to get situated to get in there. I think this morning, we’re heading up to the other house to cut some oleander and fill the can there before pick up this afternoon. We’ll see.
So sorry about all the work in the heat. It was still93 with a heat index of 101 at 6pm last night. I would be so leery to have a storage unit where I couldn’t keep an eye on things for damage. We have never had one unless you count the basement and garage storage units. LOL 🙂
Kirsten looks so sweet and pretty. Blue is my favorite color. looking forward to what is next.
Jeanne you obviously can handle the heat better than I can since pushing myself in the Texas heat is not a doable deal at all. I’m so sorry you ended up dealing with such a mess and it’s too bad it wasn’t discovered sooner. I had a friend who moved from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom so she stored all the furniture and bed linens and things from the second bedroom in a storage unit. Her bedspread ensemble was brand new at the time. When she went to retrieve them when they were moving to a house, she found the unit had been infested with mice and all her beautiful bedding was destroyed. As for flooding, well I think that’s where some of my dolls went since we had several basement floodings in PA while I was growing up, twice involving hurricanes – Hazel and Diane.
I know Kirsten’s outfit is going to be beautiful and I’m being patient awaiting each step
Because of the humidity here we use storage shelves to keep things off the floor and use Rubbermaid containers when we can. Progress is moving on our storage room. I know they are going to finish it up sometime in July or early August which means I’m going to have to get involved with putting things back in during the heat since I know where I want things placed. Since it is a storage room it will not be climate controlled. It has windows but even opening them would have minimal effect. The boys are bemoaning the fact they are having to build it during the heat but organizing and getting the stuff back in will be no better. I’ve suggesting waiting to do that until October, but I got the evil eye on that idea.