These next couple of weeks are going to be a challenging, major adjustment. These weeks will also be a reminder of how lucky I am to have my wonderful friends in Jersey. It's not everyday when you learn your home isn't available to you for two weeks. I'm lucky where there will be someone working on my place and I can check on it everyday, morning and night. In late August, my hot water heater broke, resulting in catastrophic damage to the 40 year old solid oak hardwood floors. I live in a one bedroom condo, with no loft nor basement. The insurance adjusters looked over my place and made the recommendation we do my entire floor over. The water made my floor split in the kitchen, and rise all the way to both my bedroom and living room requiring a complete overhaul. Since my hot water heater had likely been leaking from July to late August, I've likely been breathing in mold fun for the past few months. Fun times, right? No wonder why I've been sick so often the past few months. My eyes tend to water much more at home than work, this could be a reason why. This weekend Meg and I were packing as much as possible and bubble wrapping my favorite possessions. Then yesterday I received a call from my landlord, where the contractor was asking for me to remove every single thing I have on TV and night stands. I had to leave work, frantically dump everything into trash bags, and then help move night stands and lamps around --- basically I was a contractor assistant for 45 minutes and less than thrilled. I completely understand wanting me to move stuff on my TV and night stands, but to even have ME move the stands for them? Ah well. At least they seem to be very hard workers. I was frazzled and out of sorts at work all day after that ordeal.
Homeowner tip: you can get a hot water heater alarm to let you know when things go awry, for $20 these days. If you don't already own one, I highly recommend this. These inconveniences are not fun, and I'm lucky to be owning instead of renting in this situation. Even though it's a rental situation, I still treat my place like its my very own. I always encourage everyone to try and see silver linings, and see adversity as opportunity whenever possible. My life has blessed me with an amazing family and so many spectacular friends. The thought of being homeless for two weeks can be extremely humbling and at times frightening.
How lucky is Meg? She was more than happy to take this picture while shaking her head in disbelief --- probably because she can't even believe how lucky she is, right???
The outpouring of support from my friends has been so touching. Between my first and most frequent roomy, Awesome Girlfriend Megan, to Jasen, JG and TG, Brad, Sally and Douglioso, how lucky am I? They have all offered for me to stay at their place during this process. I'm going to be doing a rotational schedule of sorts, trying to stay on Campus in Vernon as often as possible to keep my leased Jeep Compass from going even further over my mileage. This week the jackpot winners getting custody of me are Meg, JG and TG, and Jasen. How lucky are Awesome Girlfriend Megan and all of my friends?
My plan as the worst house guest ever is to at least bring over a bottle of booze for all I'm putting everyone through. Living out of my Jeep Compass has been an interesting experience already! Night one I went to Meg's in Hackettstown, showing up with my suitcase and a bottle of wine. She got pizza, and we enjoyed Monday Night Football together (when her tv stream was functioning at times.) We had one minor hiccup, where I had Meg turn on her air conditioner because I was hot. She then vented that I turned her bedroom into The Frozen Tundra while we were watching the Packers at Lambeau Field. How lucky is Meg? I'll be keeping you posted here and on social media the latest, fun developments on my #SteveWorldTour - Homeless Edition. #WhatCanPossiblyGoWrong?