What a week! Snovid 2021 and our New House
Well, Valentine's Week 2021 is one for the books! Storytime....
After a day off for ice on Thursday, CC had a fun Friday with a little daycare party, while the kids at my school had a socially distant Valentine's party. On Saturday we ventured out with our friend/realtor Kayti to check out out a new construction neighborhood in Van Alstyne and decided to pull the trigger on building a brand-new house on an acre lot. We walked through a similar house in a nearby neighborhood (in the cold) and it fit the bill. We should end up moving over the summer. Updates, coming soon!
Then, the real adventure began - even colder weather moved in Sunday (by waking us up at 5am with icicles clanging on the roof vent), and instead of the typical "stay at home during Texas ice" the power grid struggled and things got dicey. Rolling blackouts started early Monday morning and woke up with brief power loss at 2am, 5am, and then from 7-11am - enough time for the pool to also be frozen over! Luckily Matt was able to figure out how to drain the equipment before that froze up too. We lost power again at noon and it never came back on.
We had mentally prepped for blackouts after that morning, but when nighttime hit, and we had heard from friends who had been without power since the early morning, we didn't feel safe staying in the house anymore. Not having a fireplace, combined with typical old house insulation was not a good mix for us, especially with a 2-year-old.
We packed quickly using headlamps Monday night, and I woke up CC around 7pm to get in the car. We made the drive to my parent's house in snow/ice, taking 2 hours instead of the usual 40 minutes. It was super stressful but we were glad to be somewhere with heat. Next, followed 3 more days of off/on power at our house while we were stuck inside in Carrollton, where we only lost power once. Way too much TV for CC, plus her first night sleeping away from home, made our trip the opposite of a vacation, but we were just glad to be somewhere warm. Matt ran back to the house Wednesday night to find the heat back on since mid-day and was able to start thawing some pipes, so we could all come back on Thursday. We went one more day with only one faucet working, but are back in business now - yay! We aren't sure exactly how cool the house got, but it was down to the high 40s when we left and the pool is still frozen today on Friday.
We are so relieved that it looks like our house is going to be OK. We probably have some outdoor plants that aren't going to make it, and could have some pool equipment damage, but compared to what we are hearing from others we feel pretty good. CC developed some bad sleeping habits by being crazy over-tired and not wanting to sleep in a new place, but we are slowly but surely getting her back on track. We are also feeling very good about our decision to move, the old house life was fun, but we are ready for some insulation, storage, and a fireplace for sure! We were also worried about Matt's mom during all of this, she had 2 days of no power during the day and had to warm up in her car. Luckily she had some at night to warm up but I know that was long and stressful for her, and us. Glad that all turned out OK.
Tonight I had a fun Zoom happy hour with friends for Cherie's birthday and tomorrow, I am getting my 2nd Covid vaccine. So two fun nice bookends to an awful experience. Stay strong Texas, hopefully, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
