Day 73

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  73 days now since we've been home. They have finally finished pouring the new foundation. They should be able to remove the forms on Monday. What's next? We don't know. I left this afternoon to get my hair cut in St. Charles. Shortly after getting there, the weather turned really stormy. An RV park just west of us had a few RVs turn over in the wind. Luckily, our park wasn't affected. After my hair appointment, I picked up Mike and we went to Tony's for dinner--totally oblivious to the carnage just a few miles up the road. Laurie called while we were there to see if we were okay. Now I know why. Thanks, Laurie! 

Finally, our new foundation!

Day 70

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  It's been 70 days since we've been home and they are just now working on fixing our foundation. Not really sure, since we didn't stop by to check. But we can only hope.

Wild flowers making an appearance.

Day 62

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  It's been 62 days now since we've been home. I got a call from the contractor on Tuesday, seven days ago, to tell us they now have the permit needed to start repairs. However, the cement contractor won't be able to start work on the foundation until Monday, May 11. We were told that the foundation would be completely fixed by the end of that week. I guess we'll see,, won't we? In the meantime, life goes on.

Pictures of historic Old Town St. Charles

Day 50

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  It's been 50 days since we've been home, and still no permit from the county. But, I got an e-mail from our neighbor, Irma, who said that they took our deck down. Or what was left of our deck. At least something is happening. Mike called our councilman's office. The county says our contractor didn't get them all the information. Our contractor says the county has had everything for a while. I think the county needs to get its act together. In the meantime, we're still in the "homeless shelter". A pretty day today, but really cold. And windy. Really windy.

What our family room used to look like...

What it looks like now.

Day 48

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  It's been 48 days since we've been home. Still no permit to fix our house. The contractor says they're going to dismantle the deck and what's left of the concrete foundation regardless of no permit. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime we're dealing with cold weather again. Fortunately, last Friday was a beautiful day and we took the bikes out on the Katy Trail. We went east this time, passing a few parks at first, including a really nice dog park. Then before long we were really out in the country, with fallow fields on our left and lush forest on our right. We could now smell the river--and the wonderful smell of honeysuckle...mmmm. After our ride we sat outside reading for a while. It was nice to have a warm day for a change, albeit short lived. Today the high was 58. The rest of the week will only be in the 60s. Can't last too much longer, right?

Getting ready to make margaritas for our Mexican dinner with Laurie and Tim.

Ready for our bike ride. Lovely, eh?

Day 41

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  It has been 41 days since we've been home, and still no word from the general contractor that they have the permits needed. Discouraging to say the least. To take our mind off things, we went back to the Chase Park Plaza to see the movie, "Woman in Gold", which was great. Didn't get a very good review, but we loved it. What do they know, anyway--whoever "they" are. Sunday we had lunch in Old Town St. Charles. Today we took care of the laundry and grocery shopping. Just playing the waiting game. A pretty nice day today. Low 70s. Oh, and the Cardinals home opener today--always a big deal here. They bring out the full 8-horse hitch of the clydesdales and the big beer wagon and drive them around the inside of the stadium. So special. The Cards are down by 1 right now. Not so special.

Are they magnificent or what?

Day 37

Sundermeier RV Park, St. Charles, MO:  Day 37 since we've been home. Still no permits. I went over to the house today and they still hadn't fixed our storm door that the people moving the stuff out of the family room broke. So, I called and read them the riot act. They supposedly sent someone out there today to fix it. We'll see. And here we sit in this fifth wheel with round after round of severe storms going through. Yesterday we went over to the casino and spent a few hours during the worst of it. At least the truck is in a covered garage in the event of hail. We're going to head over there tonight too--have some drinks, dinner, and gamble a little. I hate this time of year in STL. At least when we're home we have the basement to retreat to and the vehicles are ensconced safely in the garage. It is definitely not safe in this fifth wheel.

Hanging out at the casino.