Hello Friends & Family!  Yesterday, we woke up to discover that our water pipe burst!  Thanks to all of you who helped me initially troubleshoot on Facebook because it helped me make the unfortunate discovery.

I contacted the city for an emergency shut off (they did it within an hour - thank you, City of Portland!) and a plumber. Between the repairs and the anticipated water bill, I'm looking at having to pay over $2300 dollars. Unfortunately, my homeowners' insurance does not cover this kind of damage.

Yikes.

I have some savings to help with the cost and access to a credit card to have the work start today, but this is a HUGE unexpected bill after 8 months of unemployment.

At the time of this writing, I hope to have a temporary water line to be installed and thank our lovely neighbors for giving us access to their plumbing during this time. (Thank you, Alex, Robin and Fraser!!). I am now reaching out to my community to see if anyone can help in a financial way to help offset this huge bill.  It would mean so much to me and Lila.

This is my proposal:  for each $100 received - whether that is 10 people donating $10 each or 1 person donating $100 - I will do 1 hour of volunteer work.  As some of you may know, I already do volunteer in my community in a number of ways, so this would be on top of those current pursuits. I would do additional hours at other organizations like a food bank, an animal shelter, etc.

Thank you, you lovelies, for reading this and supporting us in this time! We will never forget it.  

Much love,
Dennise & Lila