Longmont couple brings new life to flood-damaged home

By Whitney Bryen

Times-Call community reporter

Rebekah Steers rubs her protruding belly as she rocks back and forth, engulfed in the cushy blue recliner in her living room.

A gentle smile spreads across her face as Rebekah gazes into the kitchen where a wall once separated the two rooms one of many things destroyed during last year's flood.

Now, light fills the open living space and Steers' eyes as she surveys the new life in the Longmont home she shares with her husband, Graham. The home that was filled with mud and despair just one year ago.

Last fall, floodwaters seeped into the brick house in the Bohn Park neighborhood, pushing mud and debris into the couple's first home, which they finished remodeling about two months before the flood.

Rebekah Steers sits at her kitchen table, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, at their home in Longmont. The Steers are still in the process of remodeling their home after the flood of 2013 and are now expecting a baby. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

For several weeks following the flood, the Steers lived in a recreational vehicle parked on the street in front of their home, which was covered in mold and mildew and unsafe for Rebekah, who has Lyme disease.

The pair moved into an assisted living facility with a friend in Thornton after vandals broke the RV windows, making the space too cold for the dropping winter temperatures. For the next five months, Graham commuted to Longmont nearly everyday after work to clean, demolish and rebuild their home.

The bottom half of the house had to be stripped to the studs and rebuilt. New drywall, floors and sub-floors, ductwork and electrical wiring was put in.

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Longmont couple brings new life to flood-damaged home