flooded studio

[murf]

Today I was to put the finishing touches on the studio, a sealed off show room of my woodworks shop, but waking this morning found the property pretty well flooded. My area in Washington State has been getting hammered with non stop earlier than normal rain. I knew things where to be bad, due to the river on the other side of the road coming close flood levels but that’s pretty much the norm. What has affected me is the run off from the hills and the lack of attention to the boom in urban growth. After demolishing my driveway to try to divert all this water, I went in to the shop only to find 6” of standing water. My fancy wood lathe with its totally submersed computer brain is amongst many things that will need to be replaced. Years of air dried wood and I mean a lot of it totally soaked (it being in a pole barn that presently has a river flowing though it), and burl blanks stacked waiting to be turned lay in water like gleaming river rock. On a good note, the oxy concentrator I just had delivered was up on a table, as was the kiln. My torch is to be here tomorrow, but boooo hooooo will have to wait, as I need to attend to the house and my woodworking shop.
Gives me a taste of reality, when I hear of disaster happening and only see it on the news. One day all is well, the next is hell. I’m sure there are those around here that have suffered far worse; some of us have been spared in the past. In the 90 flood I lost a barn, but didn’t have nearly this amount of water coving my property. Hopefully I’ll be back in business soon and giving the bead thing a go. Till then I’ll just keep reading the postings and take in more information.

[Janelle Zorko]

Sorry to hear it! I'm over above Spokane (where it's been raining like the dickens) but I just moved from Seattle about 2 months ago. I've been hearing about all the damage. I hope insurance will cover some of it?

Best wishes!

Janelle

[one-eared pig]

How horrible! Glad the majority of your place is ok.

[Orchid40]

I'm so sorry to hear about your flooded workshop. That sucks! The worst for us was that the kids got a day off of school because so many roads were cut off. Thankfully we are up on a hill.

Charlotte

[judi]

I am so sorry for you. Toooooo much rain!

[PaulaD]

Oh boy you have my sympathy! This has happened to me twice. Once was in the middle of a class when the water filled up the window well and came over it. I was horrified but there wasn't a lot I could do. The ground just had too much rain too fast. Sigh.
Paula

[Abacus Beads]

I'm wonder what is worse, to much rain or not enough?
Liz R

[Dasi]

I hope the insurance company takes care of you......

Sorry to hear of your disaster.

[murf]

Ever have one of those bi polar feeling months? Think I’ve run the gamete on mood swings, delight with the thoughts of making a place in my studio for glass, to dealing with flooding. My insurance doesn’t cover me for flooding, was hard enough to get insurance for the shop on theft and normal daily coverage. My losses are going to be minimal it seems or so I hope, still drying things out, and still pushing ahead with the studio. Been a wet muddy experience for sure, trying to deal with the D.O.T. on their needed to fix culverts and their maintenances of the road side ditches, but their hand are full, with a lot of things right now. My shop is fairly dry till I move something and find more puddles underneath things, running fans no stop, and the cement floor has a fine layer of sandy loam silk that I can’t seem to remove. Oh well. The whole experience has made me consider the thought of retirement in the field of fine woodworking, but I’ve been thinking that for sometime, one reason for the lamp work was to just free up my mind, get a little more creative at night and hopefully it bring a new attitude to my self employment. I really do love my job, just extremely hard work, from log to finish project, not the norm for most woodworkers. On a good note the studio is almost done, for my needs (bi polar here), and the propane should be hook up this afternoon, my exhaust hood will be here in two days and then I’m ready. So hopefully I will post pictures of the lamp work area, and you can all tell me how much you like the soil stain cement floors. A fall or winter doesn’t past that I dread living in the North West, but honestly if I could live anywhere, it be right here. No place like home.
Thanks all
Bayard

[fireflykat51]

Best Luck
I hope you enjoy the glass, but I really hope that your studio dries out well. Retirement from woodworking as a choice is great, but I would hate to have you stop because of a bad run of luck!
Hugs