Last week our family was out one evening celebrating family birthdays. Our youngest, Anna, turned 22 and Jeff’s father, Jack, was turning 80. We were all invited to enjoy a birthday dinner of Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue, my absolute favorite, at Jeff’s folks’ house. Okay, so it was not about me, but it is Jack’s favorite too. We always have a great time getting together for family celebrations and Wednesday evening was no different. The whole Sturman clan are big Jayhawk fans, hence, Jack’s birthday cake, with Anna’s cupcake a sad purple, ha, ha, ha. (Anna attended K-State fully knowing there would not be a lot of team support for her Wildcats.)
The night was great until we came near our neighborhood and not only was it pitch black but there were utility trucks everywhere. A transformer in the area had blown. Here is Kansas we don’t just have rain, we gulley washers and that was the way it had been for about 3 days. My heart sunk as the sump pump in Stitches By Sturman’s studio had been running 24/7 since the rain began. All I could say was, oh crap, crap, crap. Armed with our phone flash light apps, we descended the stairs to the studio to find about 3 inches of water.
We immediately started frantically getting everything off the floor, unplugging equipment, and freaking out. Luckily, I have been at this for over 20 years and learned to never leave any customer projects on the floor. I knew we were not going to be able to do this on our own so I put out a FaceBook plea for large fans and dehumidifiers we could burrow. First thing the next morning, fans and dehumidifiers started showing up at our door. You gotta love being part of a community of folks who will answer your late night cry for help.
We originally thought that the carpet and pad could be saved, but after a couple of days the pad started to smell and we realized we would be better off just getting it out of there. So we pulled the pad. Now the focus changed to getting the cement floor completely dry before we proceed.
Boy doggies do those carpet fans blow. The carpet in the middle of my studio is completely lifted off the floor and the floor is almost dry. But as you can see from the pictures, I am not ready to work. Those empty cubbies are all stacked on my cutting table and I really cannot reorganize them until a professional says yes, the floor is dry, we can relay pad and re-stretch your carpet. Until then I am pretty much at a stand still.
So, what have I learned from all of this. My job is just window treatments and not life and death stuff. It could be a lot worse. My family might be right, I possibly could have a little too much trash to treasure items waiting for their moment of transformation in my creative mind.
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