We’re back, as promised, to give you the low down on our Irene experience. The storm started to pick up early Saturday morning. According to The Weather Channel, the storm wasn’t even near us yet, but it already looked like this outside:

Yeah, not a good sign.

As the day went on, the wind got more and more violent. Pretty early in the day, the power went out, so the menu of the evening consisted of cold Spaghetti O’s. I’m not complaining about the cuisine, though. It made me feel like I was 6 again (in a fun way).

When it came time to trying to go to sleep, we didn’t want to sleep in our bedroom because there are three huge trees right outside our window. After hearing all the reports of fallen trees, sleeping in our bedroom was not an option. Pretty much every room in the house was in the “tree falling zone”, but we finally decided to set up camp in the kitchen. There used to be a wall dividing the kitchen and the family room. Since it was a load-bearing wall, when the previous owners took it down, they replaced the wall with steel beam. We figured putting that between us and the trees was a good move, so we moved the couch and loveseat in there to act as our “beds”. Here was the ultra-messy scene the next morning:

The next morning, we woke up the sound of chainsaws outside and immediately joined the rest of the neighborhood assessing the damage. The front and back yard had a good amount of debris lying around, including some huge limbs, but thankfully the house was unscathed.

We only had one tree go down on our property. One of our neighbor’s trees broke through his fence and landed in our driveway:

The pictures don’t really capture how big the tree was. It was pretty hefty:

Here’s a photo of our house my Aunt Dee Dee took with her cell phone during the storm, from my parent’s house across the street:

This damage paled in comparison to what some other families in the neighborhood experienced:

We decided to hop in the car and take a drive around town to check out our stomping grounds. Here are a few photos my aunt snapped with her cell phone:

While we were driving around, we saw a team of Dominion Power workers removing tress from the power lines. The thought of having our power back on made me extremely happy. So happy I wanted to yell “I LOVE YOU!!!” out the car window.

Thankfully, our power came back on Sunday night – which made us two happy campers! With all of the down lines we saw around the area, we were shocked (and incredibly excited) that it came back on so fast. Some of our friends’ power came back on for a few hours, but it ended up going out again and they’ve been without power ever since. As for here, so far, so good.

Fridays are normally the days when we prepare for the weekend projects. On our list this weekend: giving the patio furniture a facelift, experimenting with a possible wall art project, “building” an inspiration board for my office, and finish organizing the shed. If this were an ordinary Friday, I’d be gearing up and getting things ready to tackle those projects. But, that’s not what’s going on today. Instead, we’re getting ready for a very unwanted houseguest: Irene. Uhh!

We’re about 100 miles from the coast, putting us right on the line between “widespread damage” and “damage possible”. We’re currently under a Tropical Storm Warning, our local news said to expect 40-60 miles an hour winds in our area (wow!), and, here’s the clincher, lots of power outages. Therefore, my typical Friday T0-Do List has gone from picking up fabric at JoAnn’s to a few trips to Home Depot to finish putting together our “Emergency Box” (read more about that here).

A lot of the meteorologists are comparing this storm to Hurricane Isabel back in 2003. I remember there being a lot of  fallen trees, and my family was without power for at least 8 days. Simply put, it was awful. We’d rather be safe than sorry, so we’re trying to prepare for whatever is possible.

I spent the morning cleaning the house, doing every bit of laundry, organizing all of our supplies, filling the freezer with bags of water, putting batteries in the flashlights, and making sure we had enough Spaghetti O’s and peanut butter & jelly (Greg loves his PBJ!). And, for some reason, I also bought a lot of Ramen. It didn’t occur to me until after I got home that if the power goes out, we can’t cook the ramen. Duh, Ash! I also spent a good part of the day on the phone with my mom and Grandma on the phone assuring them we’ll be okay. ; )

After Greg got off from work, he filled the car with gas (which was kind of tricky because all of the area gas stations started to run out!), moved the patio furniture into the shed, cleaned out the gutters, and made sure he knew how to work the weather radio. He’s also been trying to teach Bentley to “go potty” on a disposable doggie mat in the utility room, rather than going outside. This shall be interesting… and a bit amusing.

So, we’re battening down hatchess here at the 7th House on the Left. We’ll be sure to give you guys an update after Irene passes through our area. Of course, the update might be brought to you by iPhone if the power goes out! You can also keep in touch with us on Twitter here!

Any of you getting hit by Irene? Don’t you wish she’d go home already?! Ugh…

Map from The Weather Channel. Gutter image from here. 

Greetings from the earthquake capital of the U.S. of A.! …Or at least that’s how the news has been making it sound over the last 24 hours. As everybody knows by now, the East coast experienced a rather unusual occurrence yesterday, an earthquake! As it turns out, the epicenter of the quake was only 40(ish) miles from our house. Aside from a few fallen picture frames, some furniture moving a few inches (including the couch and the guest bed), and a Mr. Potato Head walking his way off the shelf in my office, all is well here at the house. Ashley, Bentley and I are fine, too, if a bit shaken.

Okay, okay. Ashley here. Greg’s totally the “cool, calm, and collected” type. I for one, was totally freaked out. I was home at the time and as the rumbling progressed, my thought process went a little like this: That’s some deep thunder… that’s not thunder… an explosion?… tornado?!… but it’s bright and sunny… wow, it’s loud… OH MY GOODNESS, WE’RE HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE!?! Bentley started barking like crazy – the rumbling was making his paws come up off the floor! I yanked him up and went to the hallway to wait it out (I now know you’re supposed to go under a door frame!). The eeriest part was hearing things fall throughout the house. It only lasted about 30 seconds, but at the time it seemed longer. So, yeah, that was my earthquake experience here at the house. I’ll shut up and let Greg finish his post now! Sorry!

After this experience, we realized that we’re relatively unprepared for emergency situations. Therefore, I figured now would be a good time to post about emergency preparedness in the home. So, no, this isn’t a “pretty post” as Ash would call it. However, being prepared for the unexpected is something really important for every home (no matter where you are) and hopefully this will help everyone (including ourselves) get organized and be prepared if the unexpected happens.

Since we moved in the house, we’ve been collecting supplies for an “Emergency Box”:

Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve collected so far:

• 2 water filters
• Weather radio
• 4 masks (N59)
• Compact camping cooking kit
• 2 “wind up” flashlights
• 3 thermal blankets
• Battery Operated Lantern
• Lighter
• Manual Can Opener
• Tooth brushes & toothpaste
• Personal hygiene products
• Advil
• 2 T-shirts (his & hers)
• Deodorant (his & hers)
• Eco-Balls (for washing clothes)
• Shampoo
• 3 months worth of freeze-dried/”just add water” food for two (in a different container)

We’ve got a good start, but it’s nowhere near complete. Here’s what we need to add:

• Water (the CDC recommendation is 1 gallon per person for three weeks)
• Extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Multipurpose tool
• Scissors
• Copies of important documents (proof of address, birth certificates, insurance policies, etc)
• Cash
• Sanitation products
• Maps of the area
• Pet supplies (extra collar, leash, food, and collapsable bowl)
• Extra set of car keys & house keys
• Cell phone chargers
• Bleach
• Duct tape
• Blankets and/or sleeping bags

Sure, there is a lot more stuff you could add in there, and in this case, adding on is never a bad thing. Just make sure you cover all of the basics first (water, food, shelter, medical) and … Okay, let’s just start another list:

• Make sure everyone in your family knows where your box is.
• As you add things to the box, make sure you unwrap things like those ultra hard-to-open flashlights.
• Make sure your stash is movable (break it up into separate containers or bags if it gets too heavy).
• Clearly mark your “Emergency Box” so you don’t have to go searching for it if you need it quickly.
• If you’re a geek like me (or has a husband that is one) and think the zombie uprising is coming, you might want to include thick clothing (good to stop bites) and a minor arsenal. That was sarcasm. Fact: the CDC actually has a Zombie Apocalypse Prepardness page (check it out here).

Do you have an “Emergency Box” in your house? Have anything to add to the list? Share it with us in the comments section…

Earthquake map found here, check out the CDC Preparedness Kit Checklist for more preparedness information.